Originally Posted by
Kim Couturier
Wow, long thread! I have a question. I have a chance to pick up a red falcon 120. It does not appear to be carbon fiber reinforced. I have no skills that would allow me to do “ mods” to the kit for turbine use. I have read several threads that say you can, in fact, fly these without the mods if you keep the power to a 60 size turbine, and don’t fly at full throttle for extended time, or when turning the jet at speed. What do you guys think? I’ve had a couple before, and they were a nice , small jet I could haul in my Durango and not have to pull my trailer....good off my local grass field...my other jets are bigger, and composite. I would appreciate any feed back...
Hello Kim,
I am on my 6th Falcon 1.20 and I love them. All have been the gen 1 or 2 (no carbon fibre) and I have found that at the minimum you will have to reinforce/re-glue the u/c mounts. I have photos of the process somewhere in this forum. My first Falcon had no mods done, was fitted with a Kingtech K80 and electric retracts. The second landing (not hard) resulted in the left hand main coming out of the wing, bearers and all. Inspection of the other side showed that the flour and water glue they used was about to let go as well. After fixing that problem and replacing the 22mm wing joining tube (original too short) it went on to have 70+ flights before I sold it to buy another.
Since number 2 and beyond I do the following with each new Falcon before flying.
1. Do the u/c bearer mod. (at the same time I change the angle of the bearers to allow fitting of trailing arm u/c legs,, note trailing ARM not trailing link,,, )
2. Measure the exact length of wing joiner tube required and replace the original.
3. Remove/reshape rear fuse formers to accept after market conformal fuel tank (2.6l)
4. If the wings are open bay structure I remove the covering and fully sheet them. (It is my personal choice to do so.)
5. Throw away all nylon wing/boom bolts and replace with steel.
6. I also fit the flaps upside down and surface hinge them to give added deflection.
You don't need to do most of these if you don't want but I suggest you re-glue the u/c bearers as a minimum.
Regards
Col