Sbach 342-50e 1530mm (ARF)

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Customer Rated

Feb 16, 2016

Managed to get hold of one in the UK store and l must say for the money very good quality construction
Only gripe was the c*****p tail wheel but put a hangar 9 one one so want be worrying about every takeoff
used all metal digital savox servos all round and a 50 55 400 kv motor so an going to run on 5 /6 cell lipo
Does not come with any instructions so ok if you have built a few artf but may struggle if not
Elevator has two servos one each side but if you wanted to you could install a torque control and use one
As motor and battery are quite heavy l opted for one servo each side
Be sure you run a screw through the captive nuts on canopy before you fit it as very tight thread and may unscrew the captive nut with no way of getting into the fuselage
Not a 3d machine like sebart but I think much better looking with sectioned tail and fin
For the price of a parkflyer try the sebach instead

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Customer Rated

Sep 04, 2014

Bought this to replace a crashed model. Now model can without any decals and no joy from HK in replacing them. Will cost me about $100 for a set of decals from another supplier. Now comes with CA hinges instead of stronger plastic pin hinges.

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Customer Rated

Dec 17, 2013

The finish and quality of this plane is exceptional particularly for the price/size.

As mentioned by others the CoG is around the wing spar, and it isnt particularly sensitive to the CoG. I had to add a fair bit of additional weight (self adhesive lead) around the motor mount and the battery all the way forward to get the CoG on the wing spar.

I put in a Turnigy G60 motor and a 75amp ESC, a 16x8 carbon fibre prop and aluminium spinner and flew it on a 4000mAh 5s battery- it flies absolutely beautifully. I didn't have to trim it at all and it was a sweet smooth flying machine. It had a ton of power, and great speed and tons of vertical.



Highly recommend if you are thinking about this plane.

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Customer Rated

Sep 27, 2013

The EU warehouse did lousy packing job - the motor and esc I bought together with the kit were not fastened inside the box. As result the canopy was full of cracks at the back side. Luckily repairable and not very visible in the end. My motor is Turnigy SK3 5045 500kV runnig with 6S 5000mAh (15C) and 100Amp YEP ESC. Propeller is 15x10, pulls about 1000W with half empty battery. With the COG at the wing tube no trimming was needed. Overall quality is not bad but some experience is needed to put things together as there is no manual supplied.
What I changed:
- the wheels. Supplied tiny wheels do not correspond with 3.6kg airplane. I bought 90mm lightweight foam wheels in local shop.
- elevator servos; needs two servos for elevator positioned at the back. Due to expected COG issue I moved the servos in front of the wing tube and used M2 bowdens. Now the COG is on spot with 690g battery moved right behind motor.
- some of the small hardware (plastic forks for steel etc.)
What I do like:
- it flies well, very stable and smooth
- reasonable landing speed
- looks robust (except for landing gear connection with fuselage)
What I do not like:
- the wings do not fit well with fuselage - large clearance which is luckily not so visible thanks to black color.
- it is rather heavy, 3.6kg in my case is far too much for 3D, even when the control surfaces could do 3D. I think my plane is still l

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Customer Rated

Sep 24, 2013

I am starting the build on this model and I have to say that I am quite impressed. Packaging was nice and the model arrived in good shape. The design, laser cutting, and assembly is excellent. Covering is nicely done and the fiberglas cowl is nearly a perfect fit. So far assembly is straight forward and even without an instruction manual, I am having no trouble. Nice features include stabilizer alignment holes (you need to carefully remove the covering on the center part of the stab to see these) and alignment pins on wing & canopy and mounting tangs on canopy and cowl that are nicely aligned. I too agree that much of the hardware is poor, some of the provided screws have varying diameters and jam up as they are being inserted. Clevises and horns are too flimsy for a model of this size...providing easy adjust links (barrel with screw hold down)for elevator and aileron pushrods is foolish, tail wheel hardware is unuseable...etc.

Hardware - 1 star
Wood quality- 4 star
Wood Fit - 5 star
Ease of assembly - 5 star (even without manual)

Buy the kit and splurge on 20$ of 'real' hardware.

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Customer Rated

Jul 20, 2013

Let me append my review. The model had a tendency to pitch down ( toward the sky) as the aircraft was rolled upright at the top of a 1/2 Cuban 8. It also would climb slightly when rolled inverted, hands off. I moved the CG forward to 1/2 cm aft of the aft end of the torque tube and it seems to be perfect.

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Customer Rated

Jun 29, 2013

First, the model is beautiful. I finished it with an E flite 90 motor with and 80 amp Castle ESC and 2x 4 cell Eon 4350 mah batteries. The hardware is poor. The clevises are not designed to fit in the control horns, and the push pull hardware is completely unusable. I recommend, as many others have, that you replace the hardware with Dubro hardware. It would also be nice if there was some form of and instruction manual provided. The covering job was so good on this airplane that it was very difficult to locate the servo mount points. An experienced modeler should have little difficulty assembling this model, but a little customer friendly help would be nice.

My model had only one, fairly significant flaw. The horizontal stab was twisted slightly. I compensated with the, very large, elevator and it seems to be working. The aircraft performs superbly and tracks beautifully. It is an impressive, comparatively low cost high performance model.

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Customer Rated

Dec 20, 2012

Purchased sabach 342 50e must say very good value for little money problems with c/g but 4 test flights put this right on my model c/g on wing tube batt up front in box slide in lock just as good as my sebart

motor 4 max pppo 5055

esc hobbyking delux 100amp

turngy 6s 5000

A

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Customer Rated

Oct 10, 2012

After a first quick inspection, all seems of a good quality,

apart from the transition of the wings in the fuselage, which are a bit oversized and some molding stains in the canopy.

I want to keep the tail as light as possible, so elevator will be operated with 1 servo, installed next to the rudder servo in the center of fuselage, and moving a carbon tube.

Will be going for a 4S setup.

After installing the horizontal tail feather, discovered a washout of 3 on the right side. When trying to redress it with the covering iron, discovered a big crack in the sheeting, which was "reglued". Have stripped it completely and decided to build a new one after all.

No manual and no indication of a CG at all.

Motor installation box needs some reinforcement as well.

Keep you informed on the progress.

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Customer Rated

May 24, 2012

Ordered 1 May, received 15 May, Alberta Canada.First exam, looks excellent,beautiful tight covering, standard size servo openings,my rear mount 50 55 fits perfect, built in right thrust fire wall and cowel.Hardware looks acceptable but be using 2-56 ball links.Still to finish and flying will be proof of the pudding but impressed so far.