Mini JAS-39 Gripen EDF Kampfjet EPO (PNF)

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Customer Rated

Jan 09, 2015

I maidened mine yesterday and it exceeded all my expectations. It's quite fast with the stock motor and I don't see the need for any upgrade except if you really want to go extreme. Read the manual that you receive with the kit carefully and do everything exactly as they say and your bird will fly well. I really love this plane. I wouldn't recommend it for beginners though so make sure you can handle a RC plane before you try to fly this one.
Well done.

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Customer Rated

Apr 13, 2014

This little JAS-39 Gripen is a very nice plane. This was my first EDF ever and i was a bitt nervous to fly it the first time. I read about to set around 8mm positive elevator and i did and when i launched it it took off strait as an arrow. It was very kind to fly with no strange behavior. Landing it was a breeze :)
I can really recommend this plane!!!

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Customer Rated

Mar 10, 2014

Cracking little model! I was a bit dubious having read some reviews but it seems some people just don't read instructions. Mine went together very easily & it looks great. I had a bit of trouble getting the CG far enough back & added a small piece of lead to the tail. The wings have a slight twist which make setting up the reflex a bit hit & miss so I aimed to have a touch too much rather than too little.
I fly from a small grass patch which is reasonably short but surrounded by longer grass, I was unsure if the missiles would survive a landing. Quite windy today but it went away from a hand launch with no problems, a few clicks of aileron trim (that twist!) & a couple of clicks of down. I used 2 Turnigy 800 packs ( about 3 min flights only) & 2 Zippy Compact 1000 packs (just under 4 mins each). I will open up a cooling hole under the nose where there is a moulding for a noseleg as the batteries were getting a bit warm.
Loved it, flies well, a tad more power would be nice for the loops etc but it's ok. Rolls very well, inverted no problem. Quick enough but not really fast. The missiles survived 4 landings with no problems. About to order a few more packs!

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Customer Rated

Sep 14, 2013

Be prepared to put some time into building this plane, it's certainly not plug and fly. Getting a good CoG is not easy, if you stick all the gear in the nose it's going to be extremely nose heavy. I use 1300mah 3S batteries and they have to be mounted all the way back into the air intake channel and only RX (and in my case 3-axis-gyro) are in the nose. Wings came slightly warped but are fixable with some hot water or hair drier. ESC wasn't mounted anywhere, had to glue it in place. I had to create an access-panel for the air duct in order to mount ESC and create a battery-mount. Follow the instructions when it comes to reflex/upp-elevator, once you've trimmed it out you might be able to work with less than the suggested reflex. The included missiles are way too big. It's hard to hand-launch even with a helper doing it since there's nothing to hold on to. Found that supporting it with one hand and pushing the tail pipe with the other hand works well enough. First launch nosed into the ground and broke off the nose, all flights since have been damage free even though some have been nervously close to disasters after various stalls during various experiments. It flies really well with the 1300mah 3S setup I use, not a speed demon and won't do unlimited vertical, but will do several loops in succession. If you're not careful with your elevator input, you can put it into high-speed

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Customer Rated

Nov 20, 2012

I assembled the Gripen and was pretty meticulous about the CG because it is so tiny. I used a JR ar6000 rx and the recommended battery. I had a friend who is good at hand launching it throw it for the first flight. It immediately dove hard right and down hitting the ground and snapping in half at the battery compartment junction to the fuse. total air time was less than 2 seconds. It seemed to be grossly underpowered. I repaired it and rebalanced it and noticed the left wing was bowed and warped in a kind of undercamber shape. I did not try to fix this but it explains the immediate dive to the right. The next series of flights I used a small dynaflite hi start with about 250 feet of elastic and string. The Gripen flew but required huge amounts of up trim and right aileron again because of the wing warp. Once trimmed it flew well but require more or less constant pressure on the elevator or it would fly at a medium angle towards the ground. On landing it is amazing how much "reflex up is already in there and how different the ailerons are to keep it straight.
I hi started it for another 5 flights and enjoyed the heck out of it. In low winds its stable although like most deltas it tucks the wing a bit on turning. Still its a blast to fly reasonably fast and very easy to land in. I wonder how well it would fly with a straight wing and no control surface drag to slow it down o

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Customer Rated

Nov 16, 2012

Skyangel isn't doing too badly with their models. This Gripen model has some nice scale features that you don't expect to see in an EPO foam model. The power system is sufficient to fly the plane and even get some speed out of it. But the handling of the plane is poor, the way the C/G is specified in the book is almost useless, and there is little room in the front of the plane to move the battery and electronics around for tuning purposes. I suppose this plane is worth $68US, but certainly no more than that. The control surfaces are too small, the EPO has to be heat formed to get the shape of the wings right, and too many other details are off to justify more money for this plane. I give this plane a "meh."

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Customer Rated

Jul 26, 2012

Yes, I should have read these reviews before maidening. I did not have the 8mm up elevator and she nosed into the ground. 3rd time was better. edf is underpowered for windy days and best to fly in calm morning. im off to fix bent nose.

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Customer Rated

May 24, 2012

This plane is fun to fly, and once you dial in the 6-8 mm up elevon trim you just make a good straight throw and this baby is singing !! It has power to loop, roll, fly inverted, and turns sharp with 30pcnt expo rates on the elevator. Night and day above the mini Mirage 2000. JAS 39 Gripen is the one to get if you are considering either plane.

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Customer Rated

May 16, 2012

Nice little plane. But also the same delta-problem: you need much offset on up elevator to get neutral flying position - follow the instruction and add 6mm up elevator or you will crash the plane at first flight. Deltas are bad if you like to fly narrow turns - on high angles you will loose speed immediatly - with the poor power of stock setup the plane will stall and fall off the sky ... the same will happen if you try a steep launch - launch it horizontally!
Tried it with three different setups: Wemo-Micro/HET 240-15-6000 25A,
HK EDF50 ADH300L-5800 29A, HK 50mm Alloy 4800 16A.
Wemo has plenty of thrust but screams like something demaged. HK 50Alloy 4800 just for simple jet-like wide turns an closed-by passes - no
loops or advanced aerobatics. Best is the cheap HK EDF50 combo. offers 1:1 ratio in flight (static 355:405). adding rudder to mine, will offer some addinational manuvers but is not a must. with the additional weight of rudderservo and EDF50 combo i can use a 3s 1300 in place and get given CG-position. Not a rocket - so the WEMO/HET highspeed setup dont make sense. also the delta cant take advantege of the topspeed potential of the 5800kv setup - but this is 8-blade based and has plenty of thrust shoot the plane vertically.

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Customer Rated

Feb 02, 2012

Schnes Modell.War innerhalb 25min Startklar aber wie so oft bei diesen Kleinen war der EDF wieder saumig gewuchtet. Im Teillastbereich vibriert das Teil furchtbar.
Werde jetzt aber das Tei mal so fliegen.Bei Vollgas lassen die Vibrationen nach und das passt dann schon