Can you identify this vintage nitro plane?

[Foamforce]

A very nice man at our local field gifted me this plane. I’ve never flown a nitro before, so I’m excited to give it a shot. It just needed a couple servos, a receiver, and BEC. I took the head off the engine because I thought it looked like it had a lot of carbon, but it turned out to only be a thin layer. I flushed the motor with fuel, put a new gasket on the crankcase, used gasket maker to seal the head and exhaust, put a new o-ring under the carb, and tested the glow plug. I have an experienced friend who will try to start it with me soon. This is exciting. 🙂

Anyways, can anybody identify what plane this is? I looked through a lot of pictures and couldn’t find one just like it. It has a 68” wingspan, has a .45 nitro engine, and is four channel. It balances at about a third way back on the wing, but I’d like an official COG point, so I was hoping I could identify the plane and look up information.

Also, the wing screws on, but it also has the dowels for attaching the wing with rubber bands. Should I use both? Or just rubber bands at first to limit damage, while flying conservatively?

Thanks!

 

[Piotrsko]

Side view would help loads, but my guess is either a Goldberg Falcon or some version of the bridi. The built up horiz stab and rudder fairing points to Goldberg as mostly everyone else was flat plate. Get a chunk of silicone tube that fits over the muffler outlet because that one you have is going to try and fill up the fuelselage with castor oil through the wing root

 

[Bricks]

Keep an eye on the head using gasket maker for a head gasket usually does not work out well, just a mention in case you have running issues.

 

[Foamforce]

Side view would help loads, but my guess is either a Goldberg Falcon or some version of the bridi. The built up horiz stab and rudder fairing points to Goldberg as mostly everyone else was flat plate. Get a chunk of silicone tube that fits over the muffler outlet because that one you have is going to try and fill up the fuelselage with castor oil through the wing root

I think you got it! It looks just like a Goldberg Senior Falcon. The nose looks a little different, but I think it was just modified slightly for the engine to fit. The rudder and bottom of the fuselage look exactly the same.

Here are a few more photos of mine…

 

[Foamforce]

Keep an eye on the head using gasket maker for a head gasket usually does not work out well, just a mention in case you have running issues.

Thanks for the heads up! It came with old gasket maker, so I’m assuming that worked for the previous owner. If it doesn’t though, I’ll start with that.

Funny story about that… when I got it, I took out the glow plug to check for carbon. Then I decided to take off the head. It’s just six screws, how hard could it be? 24 hours of WD-40 wasn’t enough and I stripped two of the screws. I managed to get them off by cutting a slot in them and applying heat from a heat gun. Then I headed down to the hardware store to get new screws. I was completely baffled when none of the screws fit, neither imperial nor metric. It turns out they were Japanese Industrial Standard threaded, so I had to order new screws from eBay! It’s an Enya engine by the way.

Well, you would think I would have learned by this point not to take things apart needlessly, but there I was again. 😂

 

[Foamforce]

It flllleeeewwwww! This is my first time ever starting our flying a nitro, so this is very exciting for me.

It actually started in the very first spin. I couldn’t believe it. This old motor is in great shape! The only hiccup I had was the front landing gear not tightened, so it went sideways during my first taxi. Fixed that up and tried again. I think I tipped it while taxiing three times, so I just went out and set it in place. After that it took off beautifully. No drama at all. It flies and lands easier than any other plane I own. Great manners! And none of the parts came off mid flight!

 

[Bricks]

The balsa models fly so well in this configuration to bad the cost for many is just not realistic for them.

 

[bisco]

gorgeous!

 

[Foamforce]

Get a chunk of silicone tube that fits over the muffler outlet because that one you have is going to try and fill up the fuelselage with castor oil through the wing root

PS, yes, it slobbered oil all over the wing root and elevator. 😂 None got inside as far as I can tell. But yeah, I need to find some silicone tubing. How far do you normally go with that? I assume that you can’t run it all the way to the back of the plane because it would alter the back pressure too much? How about down to the bottom of the plane? What is normally done with it?

Thanks!

 

[Piotrsko]

Couple of inches at most. The actual point is to sloppily install the tube crooked so it points away from anything at like a 20-30 degree angle. You've discovered a big reason electrics got so.popular.

 

[Bricks]

PS, yes, it slobbered oil all over the wing root and elevator. 😂 None got inside as far as I can tell. But yeah, I need to find some silicone tubing. How far do you normally go with that? I assume that you can’t run it all the way to the back of the plane because it would alter the back pressure too much? How about down to the bottom of the plane? What is normally done with it?

Thanks!

Luv that smell of Nitro fuels burning, Windex with ammonia and paper towels make quick work, and makes time to inspect the aircraft after flying for the day. That is one of the advantages of gasser`s over Nitro most of my planes use gasser`s and cost is nill compared to Nitro or even battery powered for bigger aircraft..

 

[L Edge]

Foamforce:

Enjoy the nitro for that is going to be extinct. Keep it as a relic and then some day in the future bring it to the club and demo(fly) the old stuff.

I wanted to purchase 4 gals of 30% nitro to fly my old 60 Excell heli and they wanted $166 plus shipping cost(can't ship 1 gal by itself) and 1 plug( $14). So, who can afford that, need to use gasoline engine with balsa. Nitro is dead.

 

[tomlogan1]

Foamforce:

Enjoy the nitro for that is going to be extinct. Keep it as a relic and then some day in the future bring it to the club and demo(fly) the old stuff.

I wanted to purchase 4 gals of 30% nitro to fly my old 60 Excell heli and they wanted $166 plus shipping cost(can't ship 1 gal by itself) and 1 plug( $14). So, who can afford that, need to use gasoline engine with balsa. Nitro is dead.

I'm all electric because that's how I got started but a bunch of the guys in our club are "nitro" guys but they mix their own fuel for a lot less than nitro. Last time I was at the local hobby shop, nitro was about $35 per gallon. If you want their recipe, I'll get it for you.

 

[Bricks]

Best place to buy Nitro is at swap meets, my nephew and I picked up 13 gallons of 5% from one guy for $15 a gallon. Anything we have in Nitro runs fine on 5%.

 

[Foamforce]

Best place to buy Nitro is at swap meets, my nephew and I picked up 13 gallons of 5% from one guy for $15 a gallon. Anything we have in Nitro runs fine on 5%.

Good to know! A friend gave me about a third gallon. That will last awhile, but then I’ll be out looking again. The prices online are eye watering! Time to hit up some swap meets.

 

[Piotrsko]

Storing large quantities nitro is iffy unless you have really nice seals in the can, or it is factory sealed still.... Stuff reacts to like, EVERYTHING so you could have kinda nitro fuel but more like FAI fuel. That's the other reason why I gave up gassers and went gliders or electric. YMMV.

 

[Bricks]

Storing large quantities nitro is iffy unless you have really nice seals in the can, or it is factory sealed still.... Stuff reacts to like, EVERYTHING so you could have kinda nitro fuel but more like FAI fuel. That's the other reason why I gave up gassers and went gliders or electric. YMMV.

Totally true make darn sure Nitro fuel is sealed tight.

 

[Foamforce]

Totally true make darn sure Nitro fuel is sealed tight.

So what happens when the fuel gets old? I’m working off a third gallon that was apparently kind of old, but it seems to work just fine. Will it have more power when it’s new?

 

[L Edge]

Definitely. When my son and I raced pylon, we used 65% nitro mix, and from year to year, you always got new bottles for racing, for previous year's(open or sealed) lost a % of nitro which showed in rpm drops. Those were used for test runs only.

For you, if the fuel degrades too bad, it will show up it trying to start it or it runs erratic.

 

[Foamforce]

Definitely. When my son and I raced pylon, we used 65% nitro mix, and from year to year, you always got new bottles for racing, for previous year's(open or sealed) lost a % of nitro which showed in rpm drops. Those were used for test runs only.

For you, if the fuel degrades too bad, it will show up it trying to start it or it runs erratic.

Good to know! It ran nice with what I had, but maybe it has even more potential.