Bass1

Scott, I usually fly at Wildhorse during the week also, mostly in the afternoons. Probably have seen you there. Where's Doogie??

rainedave

My Feedback: (1)

Finally, the covering has commenced. I'm always a bit apprehensive about using something for the first time, but this Worldtex stuff is amazing. After having helped my dad cover his latest plane with Monokote, I'll never use any other iron-on covering than Worldtex. I could rave on and on about how easy it is to work with. It went around the carved wing tips like I was brushing on dope. Try it if you haven't already. I picked up a can of Minwax clear satin Polycrylic spray to seal the weave as I've read that dirt and oil can get down in it.

Tomorrow I'll cover the fuselage, fin, and wing and stab center sections. Here are a few pics. Note the Gamma Ray Mutant Maine Coon guarding one of her many cardboard boxes.

GoldenAge

I fly in the morning and am probably leaving when you're getting there. If you see an old timer floating up there when you arrive, it will probably be me. Sometimes I stay a little later. I haven't seen Doogie in over ten years. Sure miss him as I used to fly with him and his son quite a bit. I wasn't as good as he was, but I also couldn't afford those nice pattern planes in those days.

The only fellow that I recognize from the old days that is still in the club is old Harvey!!

Take care,

Scott

GoldenAge

Man, that looks nice! I wonder if Worldtex is the same stuff as Solartex? If it is I know what you mean! I used it on my Quaker for the first time and I'll never use anything else!

Love the cat in the first pic[8D]

rainedave

My Feedback: (1)

Thanks again Scott. From everything I've read here at rcu Worldtex and Solartex are the same thing. I'm really sold on this product.

I got more done tonight. The basic color of the fuselage and fin and I've trimmed the stab. The wing will have the same blue pattern. I just have to that and add blue to the fuse as in the sideview I posted above. I bought some of that decal paper you run through an inkjet printer. I'm cleaning up a Falcon image and will try to make a decal for the fin. If I find the patience I might cut out the letters and numbers for the wing panels in the pic below, but that's an awful lot of work for something I might rekit on my first flight.

More pics:

rainedave

My Feedback: (1)

Well, I've finished the covering, more or less. I still need to shrink the fabric on the open framework and make sure all seams are sealed. Then I'll spray it with the Polycrylic, glue on the tail and canopy and hook up the linkages.

Thanks again to everyone for the positive feedback and interest. This was my first R/C build in over 12yrs and I guess I nurtured it more than I needed to. It's almost time to move on to the transmitter part of the hobby. I'm a bit nervous about that.

More pics:

8178

My Feedback: (17)

Very nice work rainedav! You’ll do great with the flying and the wings are going to look awesome with the light shinning through them at altitude. Take your time getting the radio and engine setup and working good before you fly, it will be worth the extra effort and time.

rainedave

My Feedback: (1)

Thanks 8178. After looking at the covering for a while, something was really bothering me about the blue on the fuselage. So, I continued the blue in the front up to the top edge where it meets the hatch line. This brought it straight back to the center of the wing leading edge. I then curved the blue down from the trailing edge back into the original stripe. Now the blue visually joins the wing and looks much better; more unified. When I get more batteries for my camera I'll post some pics.

Well, I desperately needed a radio, so I went to my local hobby shop today and they had the new 6EXA Supers on sale for $149.95. This model has some added features that the older 6EX didn't have. At $30 less than Tower it was a great buy. It has more features than I'll probably use over the course of my next three of four planes, and besides I really can't afford or justify a $250-300 system. If I ever outgrow it, Spread Spectrum will be in use by then anyway.

I had disassembled the .40 to clean out the gunk, so tomorrow I'll probably put it on the test stand and reset the low speed needle and test the fuel tank for problems. The last time I ran this engine I was planning to put it in a big class C FF plane. I had a venturi on it in place of the carb and ran it open exhaust with an APC 9x5. I can't remember what it tached, but it was way up there.

There are little things I'm trying not to forget to do like filing flats for the wheel collars, drillin a drain hole under the engine, extending the antena (apparently a common oversight), putting my name and address inside, and anything else I can think of. Without the battery pack it balances right on the front spar (25%) which is a always good thing.

rainedave

My Feedback: (1)

I finally got around to bench running the old SF .40 today. Wow. For an engine that hasn't been run in over 13 years I was impressed. It had been flooded with Marvel Mystery Oil and stored in a ziplock bag in its original box all these years so I did take it apart and scrub it with dishwasher detergent since it wouldn't turn over and the carb barrel wouldn't budge.

I wasn't sure what to expect, but after several flips with my finger over the carb to prime it I attached the ni-starter and gave it a good firm flip with my right index finger. Instant on. Like turning on an electric motor switch. I knew the idle mixture adjustment was going to be off since I had disassembled the carb to clean it. It was a bit lean and a 1/4 turn had it jumping from low idle to wide open pretty much instantly. No hesitation, coughing or sagging to speak of. I restarted it five times and all but once it fired up on the first flip. One time it took two flips. It's a pretty quiet engine (the muffler has a conical baffle) and vibration seems very low.

Looks like I have a nice engine for my Falcon.

buzzard bait

I picked up an old derelict Senior Falcon at a club meeting once for free. It had last flown on reeds. I fixed it up and mounted an O.S. 40 FP -- yep, the wimby plain bearing one. The plane was covered with badly painted old silk, and I just sprayed on a couple fresh coats of dope in the same color scheme. Installing a modern radio turned out to be the hardest part. It flew beautifully and had even did outside loops. It weighed less than 5 1/2 lbs. As long as you build reasonably light your engine should be plenty--it's certainly more power than I had! See my gallery for a photo (and the sad ending).

Beautiful work! Keep sending pics!

Jim

buzzard bait

One more thing--25% is VERY far forward for the CG on a Falcon. Have you checked that against the plans? It will fly, but it will be a sweeter plane if you don't put the CG so far forward. In fact, the Falcons and Skylarks have such large tail volumes you can go quite a lot further back--much more than most modern planes. You must have built nice and light for the CG to come out that way. Mine balanced perfectly with an 11 oz. OS 40 FP, but further back. Jim

rainedave

My Feedback: (1)

Thanks Jim. Yeah, I'm still debating what to do about the CG. The plans show it at 39-40% back. But I took out the incidence in the stab, setting it to zero and reduced the wing incidence to about 1 1/2+ degrees. So I'm losing a bit of the lift that the stab would generate if built per the plans. I looked at the instructions in the online manual for the new ARF that Goldberg has and it indicates a 25% CG. I do tend to build very light since FF is really where most of my experience lies, and many of those planes balance at 75 to 80% back with true lifting stabs. As it is, I can go from 25 to 40% just by moving the battery pack.

I think what I'll do is take it up for the first time at around 1/3 back and see how the elevator feels. I'd rather have it be a bit over-stable/sluggish since it will be my first flight in over 12 years. I think I'm a bit nervous!

buzzard bait

Raineday, I went back to my notes and found that I flew my Sr. Falcon at 37%--I thought it was perfect. I flew my Skylark (identical proportions) at 40% and it was fine, but it was neutrally stable in pitch at that point, and I would prefer a bit of positive stability, so I will move it up next season. But it was not difficult to fly that way.

Don't confuse incidence with CG. The effect of a given CG depends on the relationship between the wing area, stab area, length of the tail arm, and wing chord. Incidence is not a factor because you will trim it out with the elevator anyway.

I never change wing incidence on vintage RC designs. That's because positive wing incidence is really the same thing as down thrust. Think about a plane with obvious downthrust--the plane of the prop is at an acute angle to the wing, right? But how the fuselage is oriented makes no difference. If you set the fuse parallel to the wing, you will notice the downthrust. If you set the fuse perpendicular to the prop you won't, but you will notice the positive wing incidence. The plane in flight won't care (except that the fuse might cause a bit more drag one way than the other). I wish I knew how to do drawings electronically. Do you see what I mean?

Then how about the stab? Well, that's where elevator trim comes in. I'd rather not have to trim in a bunch of down, so I will sometimes make the stab a little more positive during construction, but it's not critical.

So here's what happens: because the wing is positive in relation to the thrust line of the engine, the stab will have to be positive also or the plane will swoop up. If the stab isn't built that way, believe me, you will quickly add downtrim until it effectively is. And now we come to the downthrust effect: the thrust line will hit the bottom of the stab and/or the elevator and bring the nose down. The more power you give it, the more propwash hits the bottom of the stab/elevator to help hold the nose down.

I hope this make some sense even though I can't draw it for you.

You did an inspirational job on the building--keep us posted!

Jim

rainedave

My Feedback: (1)

Thanks Jim. As a dyed-in-the-wool free flighter I'm always trimming planes to fly as flat as possible in the glide. Probably a habit I should not apply to R/C planes. With about 1 1/2 degrees of downthrust, 1 1/2 + in the wing and the stab at zero it will most likely climb at full power, but fly fairly level at 1/2 to 1/3 throttle which is what I'm aiming for. So, I will have some positive stab in relation to the thrust line. Of course, we'll have to see what actually happens in the air. I'll trim in flight to fly level at 1/2 throttle and check out the elevator.

rainedave

My Feedback: (1)

Dave Fritzke over in the 1/2A forum posted plans for the Jr. Falcon (cad by Gene Rock). Well, my dad couldn't be left out of the Falcon fever I started, so he glued one together and I covered it with the leftover Worldtex from my Sr.

Falcon Fever:

slim56

My Feedback: (4)

Very Nice Stuff, Raineday.

Thanks,

Anaconda
AMA661687

vintageflyer

My Feedback: (1)

I almost wish I never found this site.
I'm never going to be able to get to work after a full nights sleep.

Nice picturesguys!!!


DM

mhudson

read your posts on the build of the Senior Falcon. Do you know if the original kit from Goldberg included any build instructions in addition to the plans? If so would you have them or know where I might find a copy. I'm hoping to start a build soon and looking for any help other than building strictly from just the plans. Your photos and comments will be a great help. Interesting that you are in Greensboro, I'm in Burlington

8178

My Feedback: (17)

Rainedave is a great builder, but has not been on the forum for a very long time. With a little work you can build from the plans. You will need to loft the horizontal stabilizer ribs because only the root rib is on the plan. Good luck.

Mike

skylark-flier

Very nice build!!!! Just found this thread and wish I'd found it sooner. You're going to love the Falcon - she's a great plane. My own was built in 1974 and has been flying ever since.

I saw in an earlier post where you were worried about weight - don't be. My own is just over 8 lbs, flies on a OS.46LA and does just fine. BTW, should you ever get the itch, build another wing but only give it 1" dihedral (total) along with twin aileron servos. I did that originally and it turned the bird into a VERY FINE inverted flyer too. She'll do nearly anything I ask. Also, she's an extremely strong airframe - can take an awful beating and still fly decently.

First 2 pics are how she's looked for the past 35 years - messed up nose due to "not so good" landing a long time ago.
Restoration of the nose last winter.
And, back at the field, ready to go, along with a couple other restorations.

BobHH

My Feedback: (18)

PM me your e-mail address. I kitted the Sr Falcon when I had Early RC Models and have the assembly manual I used for those kits I can send you to help.

Bob Harris

gene6029

Bob, did you ever kit the Sr Skylark Platt built?. or was that Daves deal?...Gene

BobHH

My Feedback: (18)

Gene, never kitted it but I sent cut files over to Larry at laser lizard and he sells the short kit for it which also includes a canopy.

Bob

gene6029

OK, thanks.....Gene