H5487

Has anyone ever put a Carl Goldberg Falcon 56 on floats? If so, was it successful and which floats did you use?

JimCasey

My Feedback: (1)

F56 would be fine on floats. Just use a light set of floats somewhere in the 32" range. SuperFlying Models floats, if you want ARF floats, or the best choice would be foam-core floats from one of the vendors mentioned here frequently.

H5487

Jim,

I like the scale (although admittedly not fine scale) lines of Goldberg's .40 Cub floats and the ones Great Planes makes for their .20 and .40 Cubs. The Falcon 56 is estimated to weigh between 4 and 4-1/2 pounds and if I build it as a twin (oh, did I forget to mention that little possibility?) it'll probably round out around 5-1/2 to 6 pounds. Using Great Planes two floats as examples, one is designed for planes under 6 pounds and the other is designed for planes over 6 pounds. With a plane real close to 6 pounds, would it be better to go with the smaller or bigger set? I think the two lengths are 27" and 35" respectively.

I don't want to spend a lot of money to put "premium" floats on an experiment. Are Goldberg or Great Planes floats acceptable?

JimCasey

My Feedback: (1)

I don't think you checked into the foam-core floats I referenced. There's nothing premium-priced about them but they do give premium performance.

Goldberg and great planes floats are built-up from ply. They look nice and they do have good water manners. Compared to the foam-core floats or the SFM floats they are wider, heavier, probably more expensive, more prone to leak, and when they leak they will rot.

http://www.geocities.com/planefunfloats/
$55 for a pair of 34" floats for your Falcon56 ain't bad, 'specially when Ralph has done all the hard part. I would glass them and paint them, but you could get by with just covering them if you don't mind stripping off the covering and repairing balsawood occasionally.

These are theGreat Planes ARF FiberGlass floats...Too long for the F56 (40" works for a .60-size plane) , and over 3 pounds. $80. $45 for the float KIT, before glue. Weight not listed. Heavy.

Goldberg superfloats kit: also too big (36") and $50 before glue. Weight not listed on the tower hobbies web site

Super Flying Models Floats: $55. Bolt-on and go. Includes rudder-but the rudder needs to be trimmed(it sticks down too far IMHO).

toyking23

My Feedback: (4)

My Falcon 56 is my favorite float plane. I have a Sig SE on floats and an Ace seamaster. I prefer to fly the Falcon .56 over the other 2. I have small floats and a TT .42 engine on it and it is a blast. You will not regret putting this plane on floats. Mine has experienced so many crashes due to pilot error, but I just patch it back together and keep on flying. It locks into inverted flight and will hold a line better then the SE. In other words, please do it, and enjoy it.

H5487

Toy King,

Jim gave me a lot of good information that will help me float my 56. What can you add? What brand and length did you use on your 56 and how did you mount them?

Thanks Guys!!!

toyking23

My Feedback: (4)

Floats are 32" flat bottom. I just used individual front landing gear nose blocks to fasten the original rear landing gear and soldered a piece across the front landing gear and mounted in the same way to the floats. Then used aluminum rods flattened at the end and attached to the blocks. Then put on a water rudder. The set up was put on without a lot of measuring and treaking and worked great the first time. My SE I had to continually rework the incidence to allow it to take off. The Falcon 2 degrees or 4 degrees doesn't matter, it lifts off and flies.

David Smith

My Feedback: (1)

Hi, my avatar shows my CG Falcon on floats. I used a set of Obag GRP floats. It flew well. I still have the floats, but not the model.

David Smith, Kouvola, Finland

H5487

Thanks, Guys, for your great advice. I have a set of Ralph Smith's floats (per Jim Casey's advice above) on order. What size Saito 4-stroke would you suggest for a Falcon 56 on floats?

JimCasey

My Feedback: (1)

When I had a Falcon 56, I wore out a K&B .40 on it. That had about the same power as a current .25. F56s fly on the wing-they are not intended to be 3D aerobats. I wouldn't use more than a .40 Saito. I couldn't even get mine to land if the idle was fast on the K&B.

H5487

Thanks Jim, you couldn't have answered my question any better. I bought a Saito .40 for my Falcon kit last year when I was planning to put it on wheels but I wasn't sure if it would have enough power now that I've decided to float it.

JimCasey

My Feedback: (1)

MY falcon 56 was a Mk1 rev zero kit. Given to me after spending a lot of years unopened in an attic. the first flight was with the original wing-built like a UKIE with the ribs threaded onto a spar. This was when I discovered flutter.
I rebuilt the wing with top and bottom spruce spars, sheeted ahead of the spar, shear webs, and ailerons. It STILL fluttered, but I fixed that with heavier/stiffer aileron linkage....before I learned about dual aileron servos. That was a REALLY clean airfoil. I remember knocking off the (taildragger) landing gear on a bad landing, the plane bounced back into the air and I flew it around until it ran out of gas. Without the gear,it was so clean I thought it was gonna glide forever....The original F56 was single channel RC for .09 up. A .40 on single channel would have been uncontrollable.

H5487

Jim,

This will be my third Falcon 56. My first one was in high school in 1970. Back then there were no buddy boxes so I kept Devcon epoxy in business for awhile. It got away from me on a really windy day in 1971 and crashed waaaaaay downwind. That led to Falcon 56 number two which flew a couple of times until I discovered girls, motorcycles, girls, cars, girls, etc. Both Falcons were the Mark II version and powered by the same O.S. .30. (Never could destroy that old O.S. although I gave it many opportunities!) Got reinterested in R/C just last year and intended to put my old Falcon back in the air until everyone convinced me that 35 year old glue joints aren't what they used to be. So I bought a NEW Falcon III kit. (Mainly for nostalgic reasons.) It has a stronger wing and the whole kit is supposed to be easier to build. My old Mk II boxes (yep, I've still got them) says that they would accommodate .15-.19-.35 engines, rudder only or full house. However, the new Falcon III takes a .35-.45 (2 stroke) and 4-channel radio. (No mention of 3 channels or less.)

Meanwhile, while the old Sr Falcon would take up to a .60 engine, the current ARF version recommends only a .40-.46 (2 stroke) engine. I guess the medium Falcon got faster while the big Falcon got slower. At this rate, if the Jr. Falcon were still available, the latest version would probably take twin Quadras!

Falcon #1 was a trike, #2 was a taildragger, so it just makes sense that #3 will be on floats. Of course, living on the Yukon River for two and a half years and watching all of those beautiful floated Cessnas and Super Cubs might have someething to do with it too.