Does anybody have any pics of this plane? I have been searching the forums with no luck so far and I am thinking about ordering the plans from Goldberg for it. I am not sure if this is the right place for the post, but I have seen it mentioned a number of times here, so I though I'd give it a shot...


Thanks,
Mark

Sr. Falcon

Heres mine! The complete kit is available from Early RC Models www.earlyrcmodels.com. This was the first prototype I built over 3 yeats ago. Still flies great!

Bob Harris

Thanks for the info, guys.

Bob, do you have any specs on the Sr.? Span, area, engine size, etc.?


Thanks,
Mark

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I built the original kit in 1969. It was my first "multi" after flying single channel on Testor's "Skyhawk" RTF models. Before that I flew control line for a decade or so.

The original kit employed carved and slotted balsa leading edges. These are not the easiest to build from scratch with any regularity. I don't remember seeing plans for a scratch built Sr. Falcon. That doesn't mean that they do not exist.

Recently, I bought the new ARF kit. Boy does that bring back the memories. The old fashioned aileron bellcranks are gone (hooray!) and each wing panel utilizes its own separate servo.

Unfortunately, but not bad, the new design retains the old fashioned engine break-away plate for engine mounting. Being a narrow model, while this can be an inconvenience for power freaks, my original Sr. Falcon was adequately powered with an OS .58 R/C engine of the era. It fit in perfectly without the use of the break-away plate. A good .40 is plenty of power for just flying around. However, I would favor running a modern .50-.53 schneurle ported two-stroke, or a .65-.82 four-stroke. Believe me, this would not be overpowered in the least. It would take a strong 1.40 to hover this old air barge. <G>

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Is that an Enya on the nose, Bob?

Here's mine covered with Worldtex (Solartex iron-on fabric), OS SF-40:

Here's some pics of mine. I abused mine bad and it finally showed me. But it was sooooooo much fun while it lasted. Only thing I would do is eliminate or lessen the dihedral.

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I'm thinking of removing most of the dihedral from my ARF and also doubling the chord of the ailerons, just for kicks. Coupled flaperons/elevator and reflexing the flaperons upward might be fun. I have an OS FL-70 that is looking for a home. I might try it in this one. Although, a Saito .82 is also a possibility.

Did yours suffer a structural failure? Just curious.

I do not recognize your engine from your photo. Earlier I thought it might be an Enya. With better pics, I haven't a clue.

[link]http://www.daveshulman.com/[/link] the video's under Events, at the bottom.

This was the kind of "flying" I was doing with it (the other videos). The wing spar failed and I don't hold Goldberg responsible for any of it. I abused the airplane, and it was the first of 3 ( other 2 were/are "$69 trainer"), the latest one with a 9 ply spar. It was a great air explosion as the wing folded, removed the tail and lawn darted in. The Futaba radio gear and OS-46 have been through the ringer.

I bought a wing kit for the Sr. Falcon a few months ago from Ron at Sheldon's hobbies. He was cleaning out the old stuff on Ebay. The rest is easy to scratch build.

A very long time ago, Goldberg was thinking about making a Sr. Skylark. Even had a prototype at one of the trade shows. To bad it was never put into production.

The Falcon seems to have been inspired by the Flattop Stormer by Doug Spreng to whom we owe so much.

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In the early Eighties a good friend of mine, who owned a hobbyshop, offered me a brand new (then) OS FS-120 if I covered his Nosen Gere Sport bipe with Worldtex for him. Seeing the handwriting on the wall in FAI pattern, I agreed. The wife and I began covering that behemoth on Friday night and did not finish covering until early Sunday evening. This model had two huge 8' span wings and a fuselage so large that you could hide a small tool box in the radio compartment with room to spare. At one time I had a lamp and my head in there, checking out the terrain for the coming radio installation.

We had four Sealector irons going at once and were going through single edged razor blades like you wouldn't believe. The model did look good when we were through. My wife is an accomplished model builder too, so that really helped.

I never want to iron on another piece of Worldtex again. I can still recall the smell of that much iron-on covering wafting through the house. The covering is very nice, but once the glue gets on your iron's shoe, you have to cool the iron down and then clean it with Xylol.

I was going to be the test pilot. Unfortunately, my friend passed on before we had a chance to fly the Gere Sport. I miss my friend to this day. I don't miss Worldtex or Super Coverite. Too heavy and too much work for this old man these days. But it sure is durable - you have to give it that.

Well, the specs on my Sr Falcon are:

Wingspan: 69-1.2 inches
Flying weight 7 lbs
Engine: OS .40 FSR
5 standard Futaba servos (1 per aileron)
500 mA Pack

Also the redesign has a spruce and balsa laminated spar for extra strength. The leading and trailing edge stock is shaped identical to the original as I had a special shaping tool made to produce these. A canopy is also supplied in the kit.

Mine has much less dihedral and has around 100+ flights to date with 40+ different pilots!! It will perform the VRCS Class III pattern maneuvers with ease. Covered in Ultracoat and trimmed with Rustoleum paint.

As for the Sr Skylark.. Yep, Carl did design and build one but it was never offered and YES Early RC will have them available in the near future. I have 2 prototype lasercut kits on the shelf in the shop awaiting assembly and pictures for the assembly manuals. 1 is for another OS 40 FSR the other is the twin engine version for 2 OS .25 FSRs. I just finished up on the Trainermaster kit for Early RC and now am ready to start building the Sr Skylarks!!

Here is what part of the Sr Skylark plans look like. What do you think?


Bob Harris

I had many a fun filled afternoon with my Falcon 56 with a ST .23 that really screamed with it's open faced muffler. I learned alot of aerobatics on that airplane. It's funny that we have progressed light years in equipment and airplanes and I seem not to have as much fun as I did with that Falcon 56. The kits today are far superior to the kits back then plus we had to silk and dope them. Never did fly a Senior Falcon but I did build some for other folks and there were some that had wing brace issues. If the builder was not heavy handed on the epoxy for that joint then failure could result.

somiss1, I had read about the weak wing joint on the Sr. Falcon. It was probably overkill, but I added basswood caps top and bottom to both spars and added a huge ply diherdal brace and two thick balsa ones, too.

The Sr Skylark looks good Bob, though I would have preferred the engines to be side mounted for better fuel flow. That's aways been my major complaint about Goldberg designs.

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Lots of folks flew the Sr. Falcon with a .60 size engine. It wasn't designed for more than a plain bearing .45. Fortunately for me, building this particular model was my first experience using the then new epoxy glue. I bought my epoxy at the hardware store in town. It was gray, of all colors.

I flew my Senior Falcon a couple of times in stock condition, then I cut two wing panels off of each wing and replaced the stock ailerons with large aileron stock. When I took it back to the field, no one would test fly it because of the mods. So I did. No problem. Looking back on it, it flew a lot like the original RCM Trainer 60. It was nice and aerobatic, but it would slow down nicely for easy landings.

My wife built a Falcon 56 after building and flying a Skylark 56 with ailerons and an OS Max .35S R/C for a couple of years. Her Falcon 56 was equipped with a Fox .25 R/C (plain bearing) and a then new World Engines Blue Max 6 channel rig ($200 new). We never could get it to ROG because of the thick grass at the field. She chose to fly it 3-channel (REM) and had a ball with it.

The G20/23 Tigre was a high priced engine in those days, IIRC, when compared to the plain bearing Fox. The little Fox screamed its brains out, in typical Fox fashion and never gave a hint of a problem. I "think" she used a 9x4 MAS on that engine, but not positive.

Yep, Highplains I think I will side mount the engines also. It will just require not installing the beam mounts and adding a regular plastic motor mount like from Dave Brown. Looks a lot cleaner and the muffler can dump down under everything.

Bob Harris

Artisan, I used a 9/4 on the St. 23 also. I flew mine with ailerons and just had a ball. The St. 23 was tight fit, so I imagine the OS .35 was even tighter. I did see a lot of .35 powered Falcons fly well. I built mine light and learned that a light airplane always flies better. Tose old ST carbs were a joy to run for me- so easy to set up. You just couldn't get them to run right with a closed muffler with that sub- induction porting, though. But they would last forever. Who can forget the sound of a ST Bluehead when you throttled back and it made that " ring a ding,ding" noise?
Frank

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Yep, I remember that distinctive mumbling, ring-ding-ding that the old Bluehead G60 made. I still have mine. My old Fox Eagle .60 (baffle piston) used to make a similar sound.

The old ST carbs were sweet and easy to adjust. In the later Seventies, I bought a G23 that came with a bolt-on muffler. It idled and transitioned fine, but I do remember issues with sub piston induction here and there.

I still have a couple of G20/15 R/C engines that I have been holding on to, but my G20/23 went bye-byes in the early Eighties on a deal that I couldn't resist.

I built a Falcon 56 for a friend once. One of the leading edge pieces that came with the kit was so hard and tough that you could have used it for a night-stick. I called Goldberg and they sent me a new one, on the condition that I returned the old one. I've often wondered what they thought when they got it back. <G>

I've forgotten how to upload photos, but I still have a Sr. Falcon photo in my Gallery, so just click at the bottom and you'll see it.

I restored a decrepit old Sr. Falcon left for junk at the club. There was so little room in the nose I put my little OS 40FP in it. To my surprise, it would do outside loops with it. The weight ready to fly was under 5 1/2 lbs. Very sweet, easy flying plane, but it got caught by a side gust coming in for a landing and that turned out to be the end. Very minor crash, but the whole front end blew apart. It was oil soaked and I hadn't been able to see how bad it was. Sad loss.

Besides the leading edge, the other scratch building problem is the canopy. Goldberg changed it on the new ARF (what were they thinking--don't they know the commercial value of nostalgia?), and none of the Sig canopies looks right. It's a very distinctive feature, and without it the whole plane looks wrong. The one on my old plane was pretty disfigured so I didn't keep it.

Jim

I began flying R/C in the late 60's when I was in Junior high school. My first kit was a Falcon 56 with an Enya .29 in front. I modified the Falcon and put ailerons on it. I crashed it on a tennis court about the tenth flight or so. The next winter I build another Falcon 56 but this time put a K&B .40 in it. It was a screamer ! I did everything in the book with that plane and finally folded the wing. What a fabulous plane !
S Gibson
Houston, TX

Jim, I think a lot of people overpowered their Falcons and Sr. Falcons! As you found out, modest power flew the Sr. Falcon quite well! Carl designed those airplanes to fly on the wing and they did quite nicely! That's why they are classics along with Hal deBolt's designs.
I've got a Midwest deBolt T-Craft sitting in the box out in the shop that would fly pattern manuevers with a K&B .40 and still fly pretty good on an Enya .19.
Artisan, I would love to own a ST PDP Bluehead again. My Southern R/C Tigertail would be a perfect home for it.

Here's mine with an Enya 50CX. It has also flown with a OS 40SF and currently flies with a OS 46 SF ring. I only wish I had a clue how much flight time I have on this plane! As much as I have flown it, I still love it. Built from an Early RC Models kit. Covered in Sig Aerokote.

Brian

Hey Buzz Bait,

If you like hand me downs, ask Rich (owner of the field) if he still has that Midwest Sky Squire that I left when I moved in 1977. That is the plane that I learned to fly on, with an OS.58 and a World Engines radio. (I still have a new ring for the OS somewhere).

That plane was a gift to me from Doc Markowitz. It must be over 40 years old now. I wouldn't mind having it back! Silk and dope and OIL etc.

AW