RC Groups - Waterplanes

Discussion Polaris+Aerocat=Aqua Cat

Tony A. — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:17:45 GMT

Here is a little video of my new ModelAero Aqua Cat.

First flight off water with ModelAero Aqua Cat (7 min 19 sec)

Discussion Please help first attempt at scratchbuilt boat failed

GreenAce92 — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:11:41 GMT

Ok so basically I built a large flat bottomed single pontoon, wings were rubber banded on directly ontop of the flat part and then I mounted the motor as a pusher and it is really far up front too. But I mounted it with a downwards angle if you look at the motor's imaginary axis, which would decrease from right to left.

Anyhow the plane flies great and I even landed it on the water a few times. But I can't rog I have enoigh power, but I think its how my motor is mounted. Because when I go full throttle, the. Nose rather than lifting up and getting on step gets pushed dowwards thus the hulll goes deeper in the water.

ll try and upload pics. My home internet is down and I'm using my phone.

Just a note too the tail is really long thus its like a lver gets really heavy etc, so I had to strap the battery really far up front and strap the engine where it is, I plan on taking the motor and mounting it as a pulller, how should I set that up? Pinting upwards?

The point of mounting the motor how it was originally with the angle was to get the plane to fly with a pos angle of attack when the motors axis is parallel to the ground.

Cool New Quaker on floats

mewert — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:03:44 GMT

Here are a couple shots of my newest Quaker. I don't have any inflight shots yet. Might be next year now for floats cause it's cold. If we get some good snow on the runway, I'll have it on ski's.;)

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Discussion easystar on floats help please

sglnichols — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:18:59 GMT

Hello guys,
I've just recently brought some multiplex minimag floats for my easystar and am having a few problems. I've noticed that the float supporting struts are too lightweight and tend to collapse so I'm going to use aluminium ones instead....anyway....my question is....
Once I've got her into the water, does anyone have any idea on what the dimentions should roughly be from the surface of the water to the trailing edge of the elevtor and the distance between nose and water too? Yestersay I was experimenting on a pool and it was too tail heavy (I am guessing the tailplane would submerge on take-off)...but I could'nt really add more weight to the nose as the COG would of been way out....do I move the floats back towards the tail plane or just make the height of the stuts longer(ie increasing the overall distance between water and fuselage)?
Hope I've made sense!
Simon
Any help greatly appriciated.

Discussion Ken Willard Seamaster II .25 size???

eng30 — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:57:19 GMT

Hi to all, has anyone built from RCM plans the " Seamaster II " .25 size by Ken Willard? Got the plans from RCM Plans , and a lazer cut kit from, Top Notch products...."VERY NICE KIT" www.topnotchkits.com phone# 615-866-4327 Just would like to talk with someone that has bluid one and flown it from water. I plan on putting a O.S. .32sx on it. Lazer cutting is the only way to go!!!
Thanks, Eng 30

Discussion Super Duper hovering Cub float plane

CactusJackSlade — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:22:29 GMT

I happened to be at a "float in"... er, a fly in for float planes at Lake Havasu City, AZ this weekend. I was across the way when somebody's float plane Cub on steroids started doing some cool 3-D stuff... hovering and tail dragging in the water...

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Gallery Nakajima A6M2-N Rufe (zero floatplane)

prunner — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 03:25:53 GMT

Here's my 48"ws scratch built Rufe. Build log is in scratch built foamies. Ready to maiden asap.

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Build Log Heinkel He 59

fly-bert — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:32:32 GMT

Hello water friends,
if you are interested, here is link to my He 59. The momentary conditions are that land testings are final and I will go perhaps still this year on the water. The plane ist not finished yet,
after doing secure waterstart i will finish it in a "See-Notrettunsflieger" design,
like 1940 by the German Luftwaffe.
http://www.rc-wasserflieger.at/forum...eadid=244&sid=

Regards from Austria
Herbert

Discussion Rudder needed to takeoff?

GreenAce92 — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:26:13 GMT

This is probably a rhetorical question but.... I ran into a little problem here, designed a multipurpose ship but I forgot that I needed a rudder! It just so happened that I only had 2 servos to use and a nice power-plant and I wanted a plane which could 1) slope soar 2) be acrobatic and 3) land on snow and water and take off. Found a great place on the beech to fly, need to clear the dead birds though :(. But yeah.

The design is original basically its a single float with wings but just a flat hulled rectangular hull. Very basic. With a single overhead mounted engine and rubber banded on wings. Should be a very robust all foam design.

So as long as I point it away from land I should be able to gun it and take off right?... What If I mixed the rudder and elevator together(would kinda suck nice turns but no barrel rolls(well axis rolls))

I'm going to try for a relatively thin airfoil that way my ailerons don't have to be too big and can make the bird do some nice maneuvers. Will really need to strap the motor down and other outer extremity parts.

Anyhow what do you guys think? Will she get on step fine? The attached image is just a scanned sketch, this will be made out of blue FFF material. Nothing fancy but I hope its rugged and will work.

The main goal was for simplicity and multipurpose as well as most fun too.

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Help! calmato trainer conversion

flybry — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:17:14 GMT

:Dhi all i have a calmato trainer i want to convert to floats has anyone done this already? and or have any pics any help would be much appreciated

Discussion 3M Paint Protection Film for Flying Off Snow?

tuppertn — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 12:06:12 GMT

I have a League Model (Green Models, MaxfordUSA...whatever) Neptune that's been sitting around in its box for over a year wating to be electrified. I'm finally getting around to the conversion because I was thinking of flying it off the snow this winter. I'm a little concerned though about all those teeny ice crystals and the occasional twig tearing up the covering on the bottom of the plane.

I had a car once that was equipped with 3M Paint Protection Film. It's super tough stuff, transparent, and still reasonably light. It would cost about $15-20 for enough of the 8mil thickness product to cover the bottom of the plane. It's supposed to be removeable, but I would assume that means from a car's finish, not so much from covering material.

Anyway, anybody tried it or something similar? Would you even bother?

kendall

Help! Seamaster 40 C of G?

Cougar429 — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 05:07:24 GMT

As posted, I'm just finishing the renovation of my Seamaster 40 that sat beside my desk for 20+ years.

Stripped off the old covering and paint and replaced it with UltraCote, so figure I knocked off 2-3 pounds. The plane had a nasty habit of snapping into a high speed stall, so this should go a long way to curing that. Now have a scale, and without the Fox 50 mounted it weighs out at 5 1/2 pounds. Will have a final read within a day or two.

My problem is that with several moves all over the country plans for this are history and I wanted to confirm the balance point. The thickest part of the planform is also at the spar, but found with it balanced there, (engine and prop installed temporarily) not much weight on the nosewheel.

Would like some input before heading off for the first flight.

Help! Water rudder setup

Unlimited Vert — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 03:03:12 GMT

Hello,

I'm in the process of scratch building a fairly large float plane with a 65" wingspan. Nothing fancy at all as far as looks go, and well, it could easily be called "the ugly duckling" even after I finish the build lol.

My question is, regarding a steerable water rudder, how would I go about making this work? (see horrible diagram below).

And, should I tie it into the conventional rudder servo? Or should it run off it's own servo?

Thanks

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Discussion Super Beast Seaplane

kingsflyer — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 01:24:47 GMT

Is anyone familier with the Super Beast Seaplane? I bought one at a local swap meet and I'm looking for some more information about the design before I attempt to fly this one. It is a single float design with a fixed horizontal Tee stab and uses elevon mixing for pitch control. I believe it was a kit plane. I can post pictures if there is any interest.
McD

Discussion what is your favorite sea plane

multienjim — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 23:29:26 GMT

If you have A passion for sea planes like I do post your favorite plane pictures and comments here. Mine is the hughes h-4 hercules aka spruce goose this is my latest project happy landings Jim.

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Discussion salt water float plane

Crow Boy — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 03:56:33 GMT

I live on the coast and very near where I live is a large tidal area which is of course salt water. In the future I would love to build and fly a Catalina but am worried that the salt water will kill the electrics. Is it ok given the usual constraints of keeping the plane as water tight as possible - the same as for fresh water.

The other concern is that the motors will be electric. Salt water spray would be the problem here.

This is not going to happen in the near future but something that I definitely would like to do.

thanks

Discussion Plane Fun Floats

Seaplane — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:15:59 GMT

Plane Fun Floats has moved to planefunfloats.com
Seaplane

Gallery Semi-Annual CVRC Fall Fun Float Fly; a visitor's perspective.

sonny1 — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:42:49 GMT

Well, I always wanted a waterplane so when I heard that CVRC, (Central Valley Radio Control: http://www.cvrcsoaring.com/), in Visalia, Ca was having their semi-annual Fall Fun Float Fly this past weekend, I saw my chance and took it. As a former CVRC member, (and club vice-president late 70's-early 80's), I couldn't think of a better place to get started in this aspect of our sport than to go "back home" so to speak. Those guys taught me how to fly RC in the 70's, so where better to do my maiden ROW than CVRC. This is the home of the now famous "Fall Soaring Festival", one of the most prestigious sailplane contests in the nation, and this would be my first visit to their new flying complex; WOW! When I was in CVRC, our flying site was a dirt field between industrial plants about 2 acres in size; their current site is huge, and an RC pilots dream come true. There are permanent winch emplacements, (doubles as a landing strip for aero-tow), beautiful grass landing area, covered pit area, large storage buildings, pond and more! The pond is drained and used for parking at the Fall Soaring Festival. The pond is a uniform depth of about 2' deep, (making retrieving "dunkers" easy; just wade on in!), and is plenty long enough for takeoffs and landings. Coming from where we fly at elementary schools on weekends only, I was in heavenly wide open flat spaces in all directions able to fly any glider, gas power, electric power, or float plane I wanted all in one location. Their facilities are superb, and a credit to the CVRC members' dedication to our sport; well done guys!
Not having time to build a dedicated seaplane, I decided to put floats on my OT EP Playboy, and Mark of Seaplane Supply, (http://www.seaplanesupply.com/index.htm), hooked me up with a pair of his foam "Old Timer" floats. I read the articles posted on his site and mounted them on my Playboy the night before I left for Visalia, (one of those "Oh my God!! I gotta get this done for a contest tomorrow" all-nighters actually!). I arrived bleary-eyed Sat early afternoon to find a laid back affair with 30 or so pilots flying various waterplanes, gas & EP both. The pond is situated so that you can back your car right up to the edge of the pond, stake out your own "pit" & just fly & hang out all day. Frequency control was on the honor system using the CVRC frequency board, and everything ran smooth as silk. My frequency was available, so I set up my Playboy and got very welcome advice, help and encouragement from my fellow pilots, and got in my maiden ROW with no problems; the landing was successful, but tedious due to the ground effect produced by the Playboy's under-cambered airfoil and took a loooong approach to slow it down enough to get her down. I had a total of 6 successful ROW's and landings and was having great flights of up to 20 minutes+ with thermals; plus I actually think the flat-bottom floats increased the planes' natural "floatiness"! On Sunday, my first ROW attempt ended with a float mount failure, (my 3:00 am engineering I'm sure!), and a "dunking", so I called it a weekend and packed 'er up and flew my Jessica EP ARF brushless conversion 2M sailplane a few flights & then just hung out with old, (and new), friends the rest of the day. BTW: I put the wheels back on today and flew the Playboy a couple of hours, (had a blast!), so it's brief "bath" didn't seem to do any harm at all!
My thanks and appreciation go out to CD Chris Pratt, Mike Wilson, and all the CVRC members who contributed to this event; I will be back in the spring, (March 27th 28th & 29th 2009; CVRC Spring Fun Float Fly)! Hey guys how about a few fun "competitions" maybe a "prettiest plane", "best crash" , "longest flight", "water limbo" or something to make it more fun and interactive for the pilots. Just a thought; might be fun...

BTW: I don't know the names of the planes in the pics posted below, (other than my own), so please don't ask....I just dunno!

Syd Carr (sonny1)

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