The Falcon Sportster Flies!

[Skip Chernoff]

Attached are some pics of my Falcon Sportster. Engine is a 1941 Bunch Tiger Aero. The engine runs great! I flew it yesterday. Due to the free flight tank on the rear of the engine I could only get 4 laps out of her,but it was a blast seeing something so old in the air and it flew well ,nice level laps

I'm using this plane to learn about the Sparkies and then build something for OTS with an Anderson Spitfire. I was pleasantly surprised by how well and easily the engine started and ran. I used the Coleman stove fuel with the Walmart Super Tech "Dino" based 2 stroke oil (suggested by my pals in the OTS threads)

The plane was missing all of the tissue covering so I just Monokoted any open areas with some scrap Dove Grey. The rudder was broken off so I found a rudder from an old crashed Palmer T Bird and trimmed it to fit. I left it kind of large to counter act that big propeller up front.

I gotta tell you it was very satisfying stepping out of my normal go to the field, trimming and practice stunt routine. Cheers,Skip

[john e. holliday]

Glad you had success. Yes it is fun to try something new and out of the box.

[Skip Chernoff]

Thanks,Looking forward to building other ignition powered models.  Today I was thinking about building my Umland "Sterling Spitfire" with an Anderson Spitfire. Now that would be something! Not for competition just for sheer coolness!

[Jim Kraft]

You are making me smile Skip. What prop did you end up flying it with? I have a Box Car Chief with a Super Cyclone that I flew for a while with a 12X6 wood prop, and it flew pretty well all of the old time pattern on 60' lines. I went to a 12X8 and it flew better with more line tension but not to much faster. A 12X7 may work well also.

The Anderson Spitfires and Orwicks will turn 10,000 rpm no problem. I usually run them with 13X6 wood props.

[Skip Chernoff]

I actually didn't have the time to get the 11x6 or 7 suggested by Bob Z so I just flew it with a 12x4 that was on there.  Hey, I only did 4 laps, but all of us at the field had big smiles on our faces.
A friend of mine this afternoon gave me a half finished ship called the Chieftain. It looks like a big Chief on steroids,big thick wing,lots of room for the electrical gear I'll need to carry. I'm told it's not an OTS ship....but a good one to get my feet wet using the Anderson Spitfire.
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While I have your attention.... My battery pack is made up of (3) 1.2 volt Nimh 2000 mah batteries. What is the rating I will need for the coil and condenser to be used with the Spitfire?

One other thing ,this Chieftain uses an inverted mounted engine (originally drilled for Saito 72) Any problems with running the Spitfire inverted?   Thanks,Skip

[Jim Kraft]

Skip, Three AA NIMH or NiCads will work fine. I have never run one inverted, so I can not tell you, but I do know many of the old Time Stunt and free flights showed them inverted. It may be easier to invert the plane so the engine is upright to start, but maybe not either. 

Bob Zambelli has a couple of planes with inverted ignition engines, and should be able to tell you.