Michael Heer
Mar 04, 2004, 09:00 AM
!Introduction
| spec2
| @905800
|> <b>Wingspan:</b> |< 53 inches
|> <b>Wing Area:</b> |< 530 square inches
|> <b>Weight:</b> |< 5 1/8 lb
|> <b>Wing Loading:</b> |< 22 ounces per square foot
|> <b>Radio:</b> |< JR 8103, 3 standard servos
|> <b>Engine:</b> |< Magnum XLS .46
|> <b>Available From:</b> |< <a href="http://hobbypeople.net">Hobby People</a>
You can honestly say that the Aero-Phibian is two planes in one. In one set-up it has tricycle landing gear with a steerable nose wheel. In the second set-up it is a float plane with a steerable rudder on the left float. In both of these set-ups it is a good flying, easy to control, aerobatic plane. Best of all, it quickly and easily converts from a land based plane to a seaplane. This conversion is done literally in a matter of minutes. All of this comes as an easy to assemble ARF with a high quality decorative covering already on the plane. To make it even better, it is sold for a reasonable price including both the wheels and the floats all in one package. The gas motor is extra but that's to be expected. The recommended motor is the Magnum XLS .46 so that is what we used. As you will see in the videos this motor has more then enough power to fly this plane. You can fly it full out for high speed or at partial throttle for a more relaxed style of flying.
There are several things that are different about this review. The first is that the plane is dual purpose as already mentioned. It will be flown from land and sea (well actually from a reservoir) the same day and I will discuss the actual conversion time from runway flyer to seaplane. Secondly, you are getting two authors for the price of one. I will be physically writing the article and assisting Jeff Hunter with the assembly. Jeff will be assembling and initially flying the plane. We will both be sharing our thoughts while reviewing this plane and its performance. So instead of just one person's opinion you will be getting a blending of two opinions and possibly more.
!Kit Contents
@905801:Inventorying the parts.
@905802:The parts come neatly wrapped in bags. Here the foam is removed from one float for clarity.
@905803:Unpacking the motor.
When you take the cover off the box you discover that all of the components are bagged and separated to protect the breakable items from the metal hardware. This packaging is well done and in normal shipping all the parts remained where they were supposed to be. On the inside left hand top of the box were the two wings halves in protective plastic bags. They are precovered and the ailerons are ready to have you install the hinges and join the two halves. There is even a preformed space for a standard size servo to control the ailerons. The stabilizers, rudder and elevator are just under the wings in their own protective bags. They are both ready to be connected with hinges and have control horns mounted. The control horns and hinges come supplied as part of the hardware. This hardware and all the other small parts you will need to finish this plane come in bags in the right top portion of the box.. The hardware includes the three landing gear wheels, the steerable front strut and the two wheel main strut. It also includes the two wheel skirts for the main landing gear and the hardware to mount them. Two additional landing struts are supplied along with all the hardware for mounting the twin floats and the steerable water rudder that goes on the left float. The hardware includes a motor mount and even the prop and a nice plastic red spinner. There is a molded white plastic cover that goes over the wing center section to continue the lines of the fuselage above the wing. There are also two clear plastic molded pieces that match-up with the fiberglass canopy/cowl and I didn't initially know what they were for and they were not mentioned in the parts list or the instructions. Fortunately, Jeff knew how the clear plastic parts should be used and we will discuss them more later.
Removing the top cardboard shelf from the box we find the finished fuselage nicely covered and bagged and packed beside two very large floats that are nicely wrapped in foam packing. There is a nicely finished fiberglass canopy/motor cowl that is a one piece unit. When these items are lifted out of the box the control rods and wooden dowls are found wrapped and secured to the bottom of the box. A nicely detailed step by step instruction booklet is also flat on the bottom of the box. There is a picture with each step to help in the assembly process. It is a very complete kit and all of the components are of a good quality.
The assembler will need to supply the glue for the final assembly of this plane and that includes cynoacrylic and five-minute epoxy glue. You will also need material to protect your float steering servo from getting water inside of it. On this project Jeff used RC 56 canopy sealer to seal the servo and the fuselage around the servo. Schimono bike derailer grease was packed around the servo output arm to keep water out there. You will need to supply your own motor as mentioned and the radio flight system. The radio flight system requires five servos. One each for rudder/front wheel steering, elevator, throttle, ailerons and one for steering the rudder on the left float. One Y servo connector is recommended for the radio system but Jeff did not use one.
The Magnum XLS .46 is the motor they recommend for this plane and it is the motor we used. It comes neatly packed in a small box and includes everything you need for the motor. The motor parts come bagged and are shown in a picture above. Jeff opted to make one small change in the motor and that was to use a remote needle valve. The advantage to that is it keeps your hand a little further away from the spinning propeller when you are making adjustments. This was not required by any means but Jeff already had the part and since it is his preferred set-up we went with this change.
!Construction
@905804:Joining the wings quickly and easily with epoxy.
@905805:Tail feathers hinged and glued.
The plane is mostly built when you get it, but there is some assembly required to get the plane ready to fly. You need to insert and glue the hinges into the control surfaces and the appropriate wing halves and stabilizers. You need to secure the two wing halves together to make one complete wing and you need to glue the stabilizers to the fuselage. You have to mount the motor mount that comes in the kit. Then you need to mount the motor you selected to the motor mount. (A set of drill bits and some screwdrivers are necessary for mounting the motor.) To assemble and install the landing gear and floats is very simple as they bolt together per the instructions. Adding the water rudder to the left float is also easy.
@905806:The lower servo is elevator; upper is both rudder and nosewheel (not yet connected); the forward servo is throttle.
@905807:Sealing the float servo.
@905808:Designed single servo installation; space is available to use flaperon capability on computer radios.
You have to install the radio gear and connect the servos to the control surfaces. Control rods and plastic tubes are included to connect the servos to the control surfaces, etc. The aileron control servo mounts in the hole provided in the center of the wing. (Note our discussion of possibly using two servos here in the center of the wing as discussed in the flight review section below.) The rudder, elevator and throttle servos mount in the spaces provide in the fuselage and the float steering servo mounts in a hole in the bottom of the fuselage. I wish servo installation were always so easy. Most of these steps are well explained by the instructions. The instructions show pictures of each step and if the picture for the step your working on isn't from the best angle (We found that to be true several times.) look at the other pictures in the instructions and you can usually find one that shows you what you want to see. That being said, there are a few steps where a little explanation might be helpful or where we deviated from the plan.
In trial fitting the included tube and wire to connect the rudder servo to the rudder, Jeff found it to be a bit binding. He therefore selected to go with a Nyrod he had around his shop for this control link instead of using the included hardware. This was simply a matter of preference on his part. In connecting the throttle control link to the throttle control servo, Jeff had to drill a new hole through the firewall to get the proper alignment. Interestingly this new hole was right where the instruction manual shows (emphasis added) the hole to be for the control linkage. The servo to control the float rudder is shown in the manual picture to be mounted front to back but the actual hole for the servo in the wood is cut for mounting it side to side. This was not a problem but a difference we noticed and felt we should point out. The instructions discuss using two wheel collars in securing the front wheel to the landing gear. The instruction manual picture only shows an outer wheel collar in the picture. We only found one wheel collar available in the parts for securing the front wheel and that is all we used on that step but it works fine and was all that was needed. (Hope we save you some time looking with that note.)
@905809:Left- and right-hand clear cowling templates let you make perfect cutouts for your motor in the fiberglass cowl.
@905810:Thanks to the plastic templates, the fiberglass cuts look out great!
Included in the kit are two clear plastic molded parts that match the right and left halves of the one piece fiberglass canopy. There was no mention of these parts in the instructions. I had no idea what they were for but Jeff felt they were to be used as guides for removing portions to have a proper fit around the motor and muffler. With the motor mounted Jeff held these parts over the motor on the side for which they were intended. Being able to easily see though these clear plastic parts Jeff started cutting out pieces of plastic so that the motor would properly fit through the hole he made. He started cutting smaller then he needed and expanded the holes until he got the proper fit. When satisfied with the fit he traced the cut lines from the clear plastic onto the fiberglass cowling by placing the clear parts over the fiberglass part. By working through the clear plastic it was much easier to see where trimming was necessary and determine the proper place and shape for removing pieces. It was then easy to remove the portions that needed to be cut out from the fiberglass canopy/cowl. This worked very well and helped make the final plane look very nice. Hopefully, they will add an additional instruction sheet with information on that so that other people (like me) will know what the clear plastic parts are for, or am I the only one? (That was a rhetorical question no responses please.)
@905811:Floats ready for rudder/pull-pull assemblies.
All and all the assembly was very easy with only the few items even needing to be mentioned above. The iron on covering was done very nicely and came nice and tight and firmly secured to the wood. Even the hinge slots were precut. Getting picky we would recommend a third wheel skirt for the front steerable wheel to match the two wheel skirts provided for the main gear. The instructions didn't discuss installing the wheel skirts but the pictures showed them on and it is a very easy method. You glue a piece of wood (provide in the kit) to the skirt to stiffen it and mount it to the landing gear with a single screw. The plane assembly was easily done as was the basic assembly of the floats. After the floats are assembled and attached to the plane a pull/pull control method is attached to the water rudder. To connect or disconnect this control system you simply attach or remove the servo arm from the float steering servo installed in the bottom of the fuselage. With the assemble finished it is almost time to go out and maiden this plane. The first few flights will be from land and then we will try out the floats.
@905812:Switching from wheels to floats takes less than 5 minutes if you decide to simply leave the wheels on the plane.
In trial fitting the floats Jeff discovered that the floats will fit over the wheels if the wheel skirts are not used. The float supports are tall enough that you can fly the plane off the water with the wheels still on and the wheels don't touch the water. For this review this lazy...I mean efficient...way to go from land to water will be used. <i>(It also explains why the float pictures look a little strange.)</i> To completely transition from wheels to floats removal of the two main wheels requires only removing two bolts. The steerable front wheel is a little more work as the spinner, prop and cowling have to be removed to give full access to the steerable front wheel. Leaving the wheels on as we did in this review, the floats are added with four bolts securing them to the fuselage and one screw to mount the servo arm to the water rudder servo that is mounted on the bottom of the fuselage. The whole process for the efficient flier takes about five minutes. In the cold foggy weather of our test day that quick transition was appreciated. For my use I think I would normally remove the main landing gear as that only takes one minute (two bolts.) But would normally leave the front wheel on as that removal is a little more complicated (but not much). If going to a float fly I would remove all three wheels for improved appearance.
In mounting the Magnum only one minor deviation was made to the motor. As mentioned above a remote needle valve was installed to replace the standard one that comes with the motor. This will allow the pilot to keep his hand a little further away from the prop when doing the initial adjusting. The instructions with the motor say that very little break-in running is necessary and that this can be done mounted to the plane and need not be done on a workbench. Following these instruction Jeff "broke-in" the motor with the minimal running time of about 10 minutes, mentioned in the instructions that came with the motor.
@905813:Note that the plastic cover didn't align perfectly.
One slight problem was that the plastic covering over the center wing joiner area did not line up perfectly. When the screw holes were in the proper place the front was slightly off line. This did not affect flying and was not noticeable unless you were up close and directly looking for it. No one but Jeff or I seemed to have spotted it at the field until Jeff pointed it out.
!Flying
@905814:Ready to fly!
@905815:Happy and proud pilot, Jeff Hunter, with his plane on our foggy flight testing day.
Our day for test flying the Aero-Phibian was far from ideal for picture taking purposes but was fine for actual flying. Considering how thick the fog had been the two days preceding our flying we were happy to be able to safely drive to the field much less fly. Jeff arrived at the field before me and had filled the tank with 10% nitro fuel. The motor fired up on the second attempt and the first take off and flight were done with only partial throttle. the steering worked great on the ground and all the controls worked well in the air. Some clicks of trim adjustment were necessary on the controls for level flight. Those adjustments can be heard being made during the first flight on the video below. Jeff made a quick first flight and landing to allow me to take photos and a video of the plane in flight. With those basics covered he took the plane up and put it through its paces. Unfortunately, because of the foggy conditions I had trouble keeping my video camera focused on the plane and lost a few of the maneuvers. Jeff made a couple more touch and goes and turned the plane over to our mutual friend Dick Andersen. Dick is a good pilot but he prefers a more relaxed style of flying then Jeff or I. He goes with simple loops and nice banked and S turns. He enjoyed his time on the transmitter and found the plane to be smoothly responsive to his control inputs. A third person, another friend of Jeff's named Merle, finished off the land-based flying with a couple of high speed runs and a hopping type of high speed landing. He also enjoyed the handling of the plane at the higher speeds he likes to fly at. He commented that for the price (Under $150.00 for the plane with wheels and floats): "It's a da** good deal."
+905829:Video Aero-Phibian off land.
All three pilots found the Aero-Phibian to be a very stable plane in the air and a bit more of a floater then they expected with reduced throttle. The plane displayed no bad habits, was responsive to their command inputs and had a large reserve of power to draw from when desired. The plane is designed to have one servo mounted in the wing to control the ailerons and that is how we tested the plane. After finishing the flying from the runway there was some discussion about possibly using two servos in the wing so that some flaps (technically flaperons) could be programmed into the ailerons for landing at small fields. We had no trouble with take offs and landings as you can see in the videos.
@905816:A flyby during the first flight.
@905817:The plane handled beautifully right from the start.
@905818:The fog hides the plane's pretty covering.
Since there were work benches at the flying field with the runway we put the floats on the plane there. Using the lazy...I mean efficient man's method we left the wheels on and just bolted on the floats on over them. this is easy to do as they use separate mounts that are preinstalled in the fuselage. The final step was attaching the servo control arm with the pull-pull system to the bottom servo to control the water rudder. Jeff had waterproofed and sealed the inside of the servo case before installing the servo in place and had sealed the bottom of the fuselage to keep out water with the products mentioned above. This was all done in the assembly process but was easy to see and was pointed out to our spectators when we had the plane upside down while installing the floats. The floats can be installed over the wheels in less then five minutes. With the floats installed we got in our cars and drove about 10 miles over to the local reservoir and tried out the Aero-Phibian on the water.
@905819:Dick Andersen watches Jeff taxi back after the first flight.
I want to report that the rudder on the left float works great! Jeff has wired the rudder servo to an auxiliary channel on his transmitter and the rudder of the plane remains nice and straight while Jeff steers the boat around the water with the water rudder on the back of the left float. It would work just as well using the recommended Y harness per the instructions so that the air rudder and water rudder worked off the same control but Jeff simply used some of the versatility his Jr 8103 transmitter gives him. After Jeff had steered the Aero-Phibian around the water for awhile he was ready to take off. You can see the first take off from the water in the video below. It was nice! Take off from the water required more throttle than from land but there was still a lot of reserve power using the Magnum XLS .46. Jeff noticed that with the floats, the plane seemed to descend about twice as fast as it had under reduced throttle with only the wheels on the plane. This can probably be explained by the extra weight and drag caused by the floats. This was in no way a problem and was to be expected. The plane has enough weight and power that the floats did not cause any problem with a pendulum effect that is sometimes experienced with very light planes flying with floats. I even include some aerobatics that were done with and without floats on the plane. These can be seen in the third video.
+905830:Aero-Phibian takes off with floats.
@905820:As you can see in the video, the float rudder is very effective!
@905821:Take off was nice and smooth.
@905822:Landings are just as sweet! Remember, the descent is about twice as fast with floats as without.
@905823:When it isn't so cold, we'll try removing the wheels before adding floats.
@905824:It handles well on land, sea and air!
@905825:The author's favorite picture.
+905831:Aerobatics -- with and without floats.
!Conclusion
The quality of the kit and parts is really outstanding! Being picky we suggest they include a third wheel skirt for the front steerable wheel and some instructions for the wheel skirts and the clear molded pieces for the cowling cuts.Otherwise the kit is very complete. The only problem was the alignment of the molded covering that goes over the center section of the wing being slightly off line. Everything else about the kit looks and works very well. the covering was done very well and there was no need to touch up the covering or reshrink anywhere on the test plane. the plane is very pretty both on the ground and in the air. Unfortunately the lighting conditions with the fog did not show the plane off to its best advantage. It was easy to assemble and the few minor omissions in the instructions are discussed in this review. Jeff had to drill the one extra hole for the control linkage for the throttle and it was right where a hole was shown in the instruction manual. All in all a good looking plane that is fun and easy to fly. Can be flown smoothly and easily by Dick, a bit wild by Jeff and all out by Merle.
@905826:A close flyby with floats and wheels.
@905827:A float plane just doesn't look as dignified inverted.
The real proof is in the flying and it was here that the plane and the motor really shined. It did everything we asked of it. One of the nice things about reviewing for RC Groups is that you don't have to just take my word for it or only look at still pictures. You can see the videos of the plane in flight and decide for yourself. I hope you have enjoyed this review and the videos and that they helped you decide if the Aero-Phibian is for you. While this plane is Jeff's next time he gets to hold the camera and I get to fly.
@905828:The manufacturer's photo of the bird with just floats.
| spec2
| @905800
|> <b>Wingspan:</b> |< 53 inches
|> <b>Wing Area:</b> |< 530 square inches
|> <b>Weight:</b> |< 5 1/8 lb
|> <b>Wing Loading:</b> |< 22 ounces per square foot
|> <b>Radio:</b> |< JR 8103, 3 standard servos
|> <b>Engine:</b> |< Magnum XLS .46
|> <b>Available From:</b> |< <a href="http://hobbypeople.net">Hobby People</a>
You can honestly say that the Aero-Phibian is two planes in one. In one set-up it has tricycle landing gear with a steerable nose wheel. In the second set-up it is a float plane with a steerable rudder on the left float. In both of these set-ups it is a good flying, easy to control, aerobatic plane. Best of all, it quickly and easily converts from a land based plane to a seaplane. This conversion is done literally in a matter of minutes. All of this comes as an easy to assemble ARF with a high quality decorative covering already on the plane. To make it even better, it is sold for a reasonable price including both the wheels and the floats all in one package. The gas motor is extra but that's to be expected. The recommended motor is the Magnum XLS .46 so that is what we used. As you will see in the videos this motor has more then enough power to fly this plane. You can fly it full out for high speed or at partial throttle for a more relaxed style of flying.
There are several things that are different about this review. The first is that the plane is dual purpose as already mentioned. It will be flown from land and sea (well actually from a reservoir) the same day and I will discuss the actual conversion time from runway flyer to seaplane. Secondly, you are getting two authors for the price of one. I will be physically writing the article and assisting Jeff Hunter with the assembly. Jeff will be assembling and initially flying the plane. We will both be sharing our thoughts while reviewing this plane and its performance. So instead of just one person's opinion you will be getting a blending of two opinions and possibly more.
!Kit Contents
@905801:Inventorying the parts.
@905802:The parts come neatly wrapped in bags. Here the foam is removed from one float for clarity.
@905803:Unpacking the motor.
When you take the cover off the box you discover that all of the components are bagged and separated to protect the breakable items from the metal hardware. This packaging is well done and in normal shipping all the parts remained where they were supposed to be. On the inside left hand top of the box were the two wings halves in protective plastic bags. They are precovered and the ailerons are ready to have you install the hinges and join the two halves. There is even a preformed space for a standard size servo to control the ailerons. The stabilizers, rudder and elevator are just under the wings in their own protective bags. They are both ready to be connected with hinges and have control horns mounted. The control horns and hinges come supplied as part of the hardware. This hardware and all the other small parts you will need to finish this plane come in bags in the right top portion of the box.. The hardware includes the three landing gear wheels, the steerable front strut and the two wheel main strut. It also includes the two wheel skirts for the main landing gear and the hardware to mount them. Two additional landing struts are supplied along with all the hardware for mounting the twin floats and the steerable water rudder that goes on the left float. The hardware includes a motor mount and even the prop and a nice plastic red spinner. There is a molded white plastic cover that goes over the wing center section to continue the lines of the fuselage above the wing. There are also two clear plastic molded pieces that match-up with the fiberglass canopy/cowl and I didn't initially know what they were for and they were not mentioned in the parts list or the instructions. Fortunately, Jeff knew how the clear plastic parts should be used and we will discuss them more later.
Removing the top cardboard shelf from the box we find the finished fuselage nicely covered and bagged and packed beside two very large floats that are nicely wrapped in foam packing. There is a nicely finished fiberglass canopy/motor cowl that is a one piece unit. When these items are lifted out of the box the control rods and wooden dowls are found wrapped and secured to the bottom of the box. A nicely detailed step by step instruction booklet is also flat on the bottom of the box. There is a picture with each step to help in the assembly process. It is a very complete kit and all of the components are of a good quality.
The assembler will need to supply the glue for the final assembly of this plane and that includes cynoacrylic and five-minute epoxy glue. You will also need material to protect your float steering servo from getting water inside of it. On this project Jeff used RC 56 canopy sealer to seal the servo and the fuselage around the servo. Schimono bike derailer grease was packed around the servo output arm to keep water out there. You will need to supply your own motor as mentioned and the radio flight system. The radio flight system requires five servos. One each for rudder/front wheel steering, elevator, throttle, ailerons and one for steering the rudder on the left float. One Y servo connector is recommended for the radio system but Jeff did not use one.
The Magnum XLS .46 is the motor they recommend for this plane and it is the motor we used. It comes neatly packed in a small box and includes everything you need for the motor. The motor parts come bagged and are shown in a picture above. Jeff opted to make one small change in the motor and that was to use a remote needle valve. The advantage to that is it keeps your hand a little further away from the spinning propeller when you are making adjustments. This was not required by any means but Jeff already had the part and since it is his preferred set-up we went with this change.
!Construction
@905804:Joining the wings quickly and easily with epoxy.
@905805:Tail feathers hinged and glued.
The plane is mostly built when you get it, but there is some assembly required to get the plane ready to fly. You need to insert and glue the hinges into the control surfaces and the appropriate wing halves and stabilizers. You need to secure the two wing halves together to make one complete wing and you need to glue the stabilizers to the fuselage. You have to mount the motor mount that comes in the kit. Then you need to mount the motor you selected to the motor mount. (A set of drill bits and some screwdrivers are necessary for mounting the motor.) To assemble and install the landing gear and floats is very simple as they bolt together per the instructions. Adding the water rudder to the left float is also easy.
@905806:The lower servo is elevator; upper is both rudder and nosewheel (not yet connected); the forward servo is throttle.
@905807:Sealing the float servo.
@905808:Designed single servo installation; space is available to use flaperon capability on computer radios.
You have to install the radio gear and connect the servos to the control surfaces. Control rods and plastic tubes are included to connect the servos to the control surfaces, etc. The aileron control servo mounts in the hole provided in the center of the wing. (Note our discussion of possibly using two servos here in the center of the wing as discussed in the flight review section below.) The rudder, elevator and throttle servos mount in the spaces provide in the fuselage and the float steering servo mounts in a hole in the bottom of the fuselage. I wish servo installation were always so easy. Most of these steps are well explained by the instructions. The instructions show pictures of each step and if the picture for the step your working on isn't from the best angle (We found that to be true several times.) look at the other pictures in the instructions and you can usually find one that shows you what you want to see. That being said, there are a few steps where a little explanation might be helpful or where we deviated from the plan.
In trial fitting the included tube and wire to connect the rudder servo to the rudder, Jeff found it to be a bit binding. He therefore selected to go with a Nyrod he had around his shop for this control link instead of using the included hardware. This was simply a matter of preference on his part. In connecting the throttle control link to the throttle control servo, Jeff had to drill a new hole through the firewall to get the proper alignment. Interestingly this new hole was right where the instruction manual shows (emphasis added) the hole to be for the control linkage. The servo to control the float rudder is shown in the manual picture to be mounted front to back but the actual hole for the servo in the wood is cut for mounting it side to side. This was not a problem but a difference we noticed and felt we should point out. The instructions discuss using two wheel collars in securing the front wheel to the landing gear. The instruction manual picture only shows an outer wheel collar in the picture. We only found one wheel collar available in the parts for securing the front wheel and that is all we used on that step but it works fine and was all that was needed. (Hope we save you some time looking with that note.)
@905809:Left- and right-hand clear cowling templates let you make perfect cutouts for your motor in the fiberglass cowl.
@905810:Thanks to the plastic templates, the fiberglass cuts look out great!
Included in the kit are two clear plastic molded parts that match the right and left halves of the one piece fiberglass canopy. There was no mention of these parts in the instructions. I had no idea what they were for but Jeff felt they were to be used as guides for removing portions to have a proper fit around the motor and muffler. With the motor mounted Jeff held these parts over the motor on the side for which they were intended. Being able to easily see though these clear plastic parts Jeff started cutting out pieces of plastic so that the motor would properly fit through the hole he made. He started cutting smaller then he needed and expanded the holes until he got the proper fit. When satisfied with the fit he traced the cut lines from the clear plastic onto the fiberglass cowling by placing the clear parts over the fiberglass part. By working through the clear plastic it was much easier to see where trimming was necessary and determine the proper place and shape for removing pieces. It was then easy to remove the portions that needed to be cut out from the fiberglass canopy/cowl. This worked very well and helped make the final plane look very nice. Hopefully, they will add an additional instruction sheet with information on that so that other people (like me) will know what the clear plastic parts are for, or am I the only one? (That was a rhetorical question no responses please.)
@905811:Floats ready for rudder/pull-pull assemblies.
All and all the assembly was very easy with only the few items even needing to be mentioned above. The iron on covering was done very nicely and came nice and tight and firmly secured to the wood. Even the hinge slots were precut. Getting picky we would recommend a third wheel skirt for the front steerable wheel to match the two wheel skirts provided for the main gear. The instructions didn't discuss installing the wheel skirts but the pictures showed them on and it is a very easy method. You glue a piece of wood (provide in the kit) to the skirt to stiffen it and mount it to the landing gear with a single screw. The plane assembly was easily done as was the basic assembly of the floats. After the floats are assembled and attached to the plane a pull/pull control method is attached to the water rudder. To connect or disconnect this control system you simply attach or remove the servo arm from the float steering servo installed in the bottom of the fuselage. With the assemble finished it is almost time to go out and maiden this plane. The first few flights will be from land and then we will try out the floats.
@905812:Switching from wheels to floats takes less than 5 minutes if you decide to simply leave the wheels on the plane.
In trial fitting the floats Jeff discovered that the floats will fit over the wheels if the wheel skirts are not used. The float supports are tall enough that you can fly the plane off the water with the wheels still on and the wheels don't touch the water. For this review this lazy...I mean efficient...way to go from land to water will be used. <i>(It also explains why the float pictures look a little strange.)</i> To completely transition from wheels to floats removal of the two main wheels requires only removing two bolts. The steerable front wheel is a little more work as the spinner, prop and cowling have to be removed to give full access to the steerable front wheel. Leaving the wheels on as we did in this review, the floats are added with four bolts securing them to the fuselage and one screw to mount the servo arm to the water rudder servo that is mounted on the bottom of the fuselage. The whole process for the efficient flier takes about five minutes. In the cold foggy weather of our test day that quick transition was appreciated. For my use I think I would normally remove the main landing gear as that only takes one minute (two bolts.) But would normally leave the front wheel on as that removal is a little more complicated (but not much). If going to a float fly I would remove all three wheels for improved appearance.
In mounting the Magnum only one minor deviation was made to the motor. As mentioned above a remote needle valve was installed to replace the standard one that comes with the motor. This will allow the pilot to keep his hand a little further away from the prop when doing the initial adjusting. The instructions with the motor say that very little break-in running is necessary and that this can be done mounted to the plane and need not be done on a workbench. Following these instruction Jeff "broke-in" the motor with the minimal running time of about 10 minutes, mentioned in the instructions that came with the motor.
@905813:Note that the plastic cover didn't align perfectly.
One slight problem was that the plastic covering over the center wing joiner area did not line up perfectly. When the screw holes were in the proper place the front was slightly off line. This did not affect flying and was not noticeable unless you were up close and directly looking for it. No one but Jeff or I seemed to have spotted it at the field until Jeff pointed it out.
!Flying
@905814:Ready to fly!
@905815:Happy and proud pilot, Jeff Hunter, with his plane on our foggy flight testing day.
Our day for test flying the Aero-Phibian was far from ideal for picture taking purposes but was fine for actual flying. Considering how thick the fog had been the two days preceding our flying we were happy to be able to safely drive to the field much less fly. Jeff arrived at the field before me and had filled the tank with 10% nitro fuel. The motor fired up on the second attempt and the first take off and flight were done with only partial throttle. the steering worked great on the ground and all the controls worked well in the air. Some clicks of trim adjustment were necessary on the controls for level flight. Those adjustments can be heard being made during the first flight on the video below. Jeff made a quick first flight and landing to allow me to take photos and a video of the plane in flight. With those basics covered he took the plane up and put it through its paces. Unfortunately, because of the foggy conditions I had trouble keeping my video camera focused on the plane and lost a few of the maneuvers. Jeff made a couple more touch and goes and turned the plane over to our mutual friend Dick Andersen. Dick is a good pilot but he prefers a more relaxed style of flying then Jeff or I. He goes with simple loops and nice banked and S turns. He enjoyed his time on the transmitter and found the plane to be smoothly responsive to his control inputs. A third person, another friend of Jeff's named Merle, finished off the land-based flying with a couple of high speed runs and a hopping type of high speed landing. He also enjoyed the handling of the plane at the higher speeds he likes to fly at. He commented that for the price (Under $150.00 for the plane with wheels and floats): "It's a da** good deal."
+905829:Video Aero-Phibian off land.
All three pilots found the Aero-Phibian to be a very stable plane in the air and a bit more of a floater then they expected with reduced throttle. The plane displayed no bad habits, was responsive to their command inputs and had a large reserve of power to draw from when desired. The plane is designed to have one servo mounted in the wing to control the ailerons and that is how we tested the plane. After finishing the flying from the runway there was some discussion about possibly using two servos in the wing so that some flaps (technically flaperons) could be programmed into the ailerons for landing at small fields. We had no trouble with take offs and landings as you can see in the videos.
@905816:A flyby during the first flight.
@905817:The plane handled beautifully right from the start.
@905818:The fog hides the plane's pretty covering.
Since there were work benches at the flying field with the runway we put the floats on the plane there. Using the lazy...I mean efficient man's method we left the wheels on and just bolted on the floats on over them. this is easy to do as they use separate mounts that are preinstalled in the fuselage. The final step was attaching the servo control arm with the pull-pull system to the bottom servo to control the water rudder. Jeff had waterproofed and sealed the inside of the servo case before installing the servo in place and had sealed the bottom of the fuselage to keep out water with the products mentioned above. This was all done in the assembly process but was easy to see and was pointed out to our spectators when we had the plane upside down while installing the floats. The floats can be installed over the wheels in less then five minutes. With the floats installed we got in our cars and drove about 10 miles over to the local reservoir and tried out the Aero-Phibian on the water.
@905819:Dick Andersen watches Jeff taxi back after the first flight.
I want to report that the rudder on the left float works great! Jeff has wired the rudder servo to an auxiliary channel on his transmitter and the rudder of the plane remains nice and straight while Jeff steers the boat around the water with the water rudder on the back of the left float. It would work just as well using the recommended Y harness per the instructions so that the air rudder and water rudder worked off the same control but Jeff simply used some of the versatility his Jr 8103 transmitter gives him. After Jeff had steered the Aero-Phibian around the water for awhile he was ready to take off. You can see the first take off from the water in the video below. It was nice! Take off from the water required more throttle than from land but there was still a lot of reserve power using the Magnum XLS .46. Jeff noticed that with the floats, the plane seemed to descend about twice as fast as it had under reduced throttle with only the wheels on the plane. This can probably be explained by the extra weight and drag caused by the floats. This was in no way a problem and was to be expected. The plane has enough weight and power that the floats did not cause any problem with a pendulum effect that is sometimes experienced with very light planes flying with floats. I even include some aerobatics that were done with and without floats on the plane. These can be seen in the third video.
+905830:Aero-Phibian takes off with floats.
@905820:As you can see in the video, the float rudder is very effective!
@905821:Take off was nice and smooth.
@905822:Landings are just as sweet! Remember, the descent is about twice as fast with floats as without.
@905823:When it isn't so cold, we'll try removing the wheels before adding floats.
@905824:It handles well on land, sea and air!
@905825:The author's favorite picture.
+905831:Aerobatics -- with and without floats.
!Conclusion
The quality of the kit and parts is really outstanding! Being picky we suggest they include a third wheel skirt for the front steerable wheel and some instructions for the wheel skirts and the clear molded pieces for the cowling cuts.Otherwise the kit is very complete. The only problem was the alignment of the molded covering that goes over the center section of the wing being slightly off line. Everything else about the kit looks and works very well. the covering was done very well and there was no need to touch up the covering or reshrink anywhere on the test plane. the plane is very pretty both on the ground and in the air. Unfortunately the lighting conditions with the fog did not show the plane off to its best advantage. It was easy to assemble and the few minor omissions in the instructions are discussed in this review. Jeff had to drill the one extra hole for the control linkage for the throttle and it was right where a hole was shown in the instruction manual. All in all a good looking plane that is fun and easy to fly. Can be flown smoothly and easily by Dick, a bit wild by Jeff and all out by Merle.
@905826:A close flyby with floats and wheels.
@905827:A float plane just doesn't look as dignified inverted.
The real proof is in the flying and it was here that the plane and the motor really shined. It did everything we asked of it. One of the nice things about reviewing for RC Groups is that you don't have to just take my word for it or only look at still pictures. You can see the videos of the plane in flight and decide for yourself. I hope you have enjoyed this review and the videos and that they helped you decide if the Aero-Phibian is for you. While this plane is Jeff's next time he gets to hold the camera and I get to fly.
@905828:The manufacturer's photo of the bird with just floats.