Building My FALCO – A Lightweight Setup

Author: Eric Collard

Intro

Following Pierre’s advice, I went for a Falco that I plan to use mainly for mountain flying and backpacking trips.

Since I never intended to motorize it, my goal was to keep the setup as versatile and lightweight as possible. That’s why, again on Pierre’s recommendation, I decided to install the tail servos further forward in the fuselage. This reduces the amount of ballast required and keeps the final weight down.

The end result is a Falco STRONG version, weighing in at 809g with a 2S 600mAh pack.

I’m sharing this build log for two reasons:

1. To show an alternative setup compared to Pierre’s.
2. To highlight the steps where I hesitated, in case it helps someone else down the road.

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First IDS Installation

This was actually my first IDS (Integrated Drive System) build, so I admit there were moments of hesitation.

If you’re considering it, I highly recommend the IDS servorahmen kits. I went with the version for KST HS08. For the Falco, you’ll need to select the Micro option, which gives you the right arm lengths. You’ll also be using the smallest arms in the micro kit.

I started by cutting the horn slots in the flap and aileron covers, aligned with the openings already made in the wing spar. Because I kept the openings rather small, the horns had to be glued in place with their arms already mounted—there wasn’t enough room afterward to insert the stainless pin. Everything was glued with silica-thickened epoxy, making sure the arms were perfectly perpendicular to the hinge lines.

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Servo Frames

Next came the servo frames. The servos were wrapped in cling film, fitted with the horns (for flaps and ailerons, I used the second-smallest horn in the kit), and aligned with a temporary pin (1mm piano wire, slightly thinner than the final pin, which makes assembly/disassembly easier during adjustments). These too were glued with thickened epoxy, ensuring everything was centered and aligned.

Once cured, I milled away the excess epoxy and trimmed the frame reinforcement under the control horn side to allow for greater travel.

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Fuselage Installation

For the fuselage servos, I followed Pierre’s suggestion and moved them into the cockpit. This required making a new fiberglass mounting plate, since the bay was slightly too narrow. I did, however, reuse the fiberglass rails, which make it very convenient to slide the plate out and access the cockpit floor.

The pushrods had to be rebuilt a little longer, and I extended the guide tubes with two small carbon tubes glued to the fuselage sides.

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Receiver and Ballast

The receiver sits in the nose, glued to a small fiberglass plate, with space in front reserved for nose ballast.
For the ballast, I made a quick mold in damp sand by pressing in the fuselage (wrapped in cling film), removing it carefully, and then pouring in 100g of molten lead. In the end, I kept about 75g to achieve the correct CG, with the battery sitting on top of the receiver.

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Final Thoughts

And that’s it—the little beast finished, sitting next to Pierre’s ASW17… definitely not the same scale 🙂