Can you identify this vintage nitro plane?

[L Edge]

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.

Thanks anyway. My 11 lb heli with a reworked engine prefers higher octane and I hate to ruin the engine. Guess it will sit there until I really get the urge to fly it.

 

[Piotrsko]

Traditional FAI fuel for contests used to be 80% alcohol and 20% castor oil and the contest provided your fuel to preclude cheating. The motor will run on that but you wont get that 15,000 + rpm power. After perhaps 6 months I have had (back in the day) COX red can fuel reduce itself to either zero nitro or so full of water thst the engine runs wouldn't even get the plane to fly. Running .049's a quart would last me all month of weekend fun controlline. OTOH, using 30% castor oil you can go up to 40% nitro as long as you run rich enough to not melt anything. Did that but needed to change glowpluge after every flight.

 

[RC-Old Timer]

That model is indeed a "Sr. Falcon". One of the all-time great fliers. It really flies great on floats too. I've built nearly all of the Goldberg R/C kits. I'm an old-timer modeler that became addicted to the hobby when I was 13, I'm now 78 and still very active in the hobby. The R/C hobby has changed dramatically in the last 10 years, transitioning and catering to the "all foam PNP" type hobbyist. Instant gratification, assemble, go fly! The scratch and kit building has become a thing of the past and more or less a novelty to most R/C flyers. The change is largely due to the demise of the kit industry and lack of local hobby shops. Industry mainstays (Suppliers) have died off due to lack of demand for the products and high cost of production. Product resources for builders now are the local swap meets. When planes crash, they are scavenged for parts and hardware. Nothing is wasted. To avoid the high cost of fuel, currently $36 a gallon for 10% in my area, you can often find it at swap meets at a fair price $5-$10, because the modeler is converting his stable of aircraft to electric. The other resource might be a current modeler is getting out of the hobby for some reason. I still scratch build, acquire kits as I find them and build FT foam board planes for fun. My main passion is 1/4 scale gassers of WW1 and WWII and thermal hunting gliders. I still fly my nitro planes too as long as the fuel lasts. At some point those too will succumb to electric power. The point of my ramblings here is that all of us have special interests and find enjoyment in this hobby. The internet has made it easy to find specific resources to keep the hobby alive. Keep active and enjoy the ride.

 

[Piotrsko]

Larger cities usually have a commercial fuel supplier that can make you an alcohol and nitro fuel, but you have to scrounge the lube portion. The availability is needed by the 1/4 mile race track bunch which unsuprising use the same fuel, but sometimes much more nitro. The other issue is you have to buy perhaps 10 gallon which for me was a lifetime supply

 

[Bricks]

The lube problem is the easiest as any good 2 stroke oil will do.