Fellow RC'ers! Hope all have made it through unusually cold winter and into Spring finally! I wanted to make my first post this Spring in relation to a new 3D plane that I have been flying for a few weeks now - The Dynam Sbach 342. The Sbach 342 is one of the best looking planes you will find around and definitely has very good 3D tendencies. I have been flying my 342 now for a few weeks and I wanted to post and give you guys a good overview as well as my thoughts on the plane in general and some things that you might want to know about if you decide to go with the Dynam Sbach.
All in all, this plane has a lot of great features for a very reasonable price. I picked my PNP version up for around $130 on the net and you can most likely find the PNP version for this price easily if not cheaper if you catch it right. Let's take a look at a few of the key specs of the plane itself:
Specs:
Wingspan: 50 inches/1250mm
Length: 48.6 inches/ 1235mm
Flying Weight: 51.2 oz without battery
Motor: BM3720A-KV650 Brushless Outrunner installed
ESC: 50 amp
Prop: Comes with a 13 x 6 prop
Recommended battery - 4S 14.8V 2600 30C
Flight times - Between 4 and 10 minutes
One area where this plane excels is in power. You won't have any difficulty hovering, harriering, or doing other 3D maneuvers with this plane as it has tons of power. The 650KV motor combo in stock trim does an excellent job. One recommendation I would give if you want even more 3D performance is to change the 13 x 6 prop out for a 14 x 10. The motor/ESC combo definitely handles it and the bigger higher pitched prop will help with the 3D maneuvers. I went with a simple APC 14 x 10 for my setup and it works well.
Throws on this plane stock are pretty good and will do most 3D stuff you throw at it and the plane does have good tendencies in the air. I did play around with my battery placement a little for good CG. I moved my battery back slightly from the stock recommendation as I found it to be just a tad nose heavy.
Also, to mention, I did have problems with my rudder and elevator servos. This for me was one of the weak points of the plane. These are the heavier 15 gram servos I believe that come with the Sbach in the rear of the plane and then 9 gram servos for ailerons. The bigger stock Dynam servos stripped on me in very little flight time. I replaced these with sturdier aftermarket servos.
Another thing definitely that I want to mention to you guys. The canopy magnet IS NOT strong enough to keep the canopy on during high G maneuvers with this plane. I had a major crash early on when my canopy flew off, battery came out and the plane death spiraled into the ground with no hope of controlling with power gone. I now have a couple of strong Velcro straps on both ends of the canopy to hold it in place which seems to be working well.
I will let you guys know more as I have the Sbach in the sky even more - tweaks, pros, cons, anything that you need to watch out for.
