Originally Posted by tourist_603

I have just finished some floats for the Champ. All up weight is 1.94 oz, including 180 mah battery. With land landing gear, the weight per Horizon Hobby is 1.3 oz. So, there is just over half an ounce increase in weight due to switching to floats. How heavy a Champ has been flown with the stock motor and prop? Any thoughts on how well 1.94 oz is likely to fly on the stock motor and prop?

First flight test over land coming up.

There's an RCGroups poster named edge_pilot who has made floats for the Champ, and sells them. I bought a pair, they're well made and look nice, and are very light.

See his thread at http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1514024 for more info.

My Champ floats fine on them, but I found out the hard way that you actually have to treat it like a seaplane when taxiing. I managed to beach the plane (with no intention of doing so) on a small island in the small pond I tried to fly from, and wound up wading out to the island to rescue it.

Not the fault of the floats at all, it was the fault of a clumsy and unprepared pilot who shall remain nameless.

Some day I'll get my head out and try hand-launching it over land, as you did. My guess is, it will fly fine, especially on Champ IIIa with its brushless 7.5g motor, Spektrum AR6400LBL microbrick and two 160mAh 1s Champ batteries.

Hint: When taxiing, keep the motor running ABOVE idle speed if you want to steer. When mind was idling, I had no directional control at all. But when I throttled up, I did. Seaplane pilots probably know that from the beginning, but some of us have difficulty learning unless whacked in the face with a 2x4 (or unless we have to wade around in a really cold pond with kids laughing at us).

Originally Posted by Little-Acorn

There's an RCGroups poster named edge_pilot who has made floats for the Champ, and sells them. I bought a pair, they're well made and look nice, and are very light.

See his thread at http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1514024 for more info.

My Champ floats fine on them, but I found out the hard way that you actually have to treat it like a seaplane when taxiing. I managed to beach the plane (with no intention of doing so) on a small island in the small pond I tried to fly from, and wound up wading out to the island to rescue it.

Not the fault of the floats at all, it was the fault of a clumsy and unprepared pilot who shall remain nameless.

Some day I'll get my head out and try hand-launching it over land, as you did. My guess is, it will fly fine, especially on Champ IIIa with its brushless 7.5g motor, Spektrum AR6400LBL microbrick and two 160mAh 1s Champ batteries.

Hint: When taxiing, keep the motor running ABOVE idle speed if you want to steer. When mind was idling, I had no directional control at all. But when I throttled up, I did. Seaplane pilots probably know that from the beginning, but some of us have difficulty learning unless whacked in the face with a 2x4 (or unless we have to wade around in a really cold pond with kids laughing at us).

I too have the edge pilot floats on my champ. p-51 motor but stock prop.

Only able to fly one day before things froze up here, but my experience pretty much mirrored yours, little acorn. I actually used to fly float planes so have some experience along the lines. But still ended up not having very good directional control at taxi speed.

Next spring I plan to experiment with a water rudder. Likely fastened to the air rudder, and set so that it only is in the water while the plane is sitting tail low, and comes clear when on step. Often full size float planes have not only water rudders for taxi control (you pull them up when taking off or landing) but additional vertical fin area to offset the floats being up front, causing lack of directional stability when airborne.

Lots of fun

SO i just picked up one of these champs at a swap meet.

Only problem is that the prop shaft is pointing left & downward which i know is wrong.
Needs to be down and right.
But cant find any precise number of degrees posted anywhere in this thread. So i stole some peoples pics from this thread and put in lines for angles.

Do these angles look correct to you guys?

ALSO - i notice with rod in elevator control arm outermost hole, the left side of elevator moves MUCH more than the right side - is this normal? Seems like it would cause roll - any mod needed to fix this?

Originally Posted by texbird

SO i just picked up one of these champs at a swap meet.

Only problem is that the prop shaft is pointing left & downward which i know is wrong.
Needs to be down and right.
But cant find any precise number of degrees posted anywhere in this thread. So i stole some peoples pics from this thread and put in lines for angles.

Do these angles look correct to you guys?

Going by the ol' 'calibrated eyeball' - it looks pretty close.

Joel

Originally Posted by texbird

SO i just picked up one of these champs at a swap meet.

Only problem is that the prop shaft is pointing left & downward which i know is wrong.
Needs to be down and right.
But cant find any precise number of degrees posted anywhere in this thread. So i stole some peoples pics from this thread and put in lines for angles.

Do these angles look correct to you guys?

The photos show very similar to what my Champ has.

Left and right are as the pilot views them, not from the front of the airplane

vkideo of champ via Iphone HD1080P render

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb-6XZbgj-U

Originally Posted by fishycomics

vkideo of champ via Iphone HD1080P render

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb-6XZbgj-U

A break in the day, a nice little park, and a great way to wind down for the day! Doesn't get any better than that.

Aeronca

TexBird,

The Champ elevator gets narrower where it intersects with the rudder. With the outer "shell" this foam has, there can be a crease or crack that's not visible to the casual glance. Look closely, and move the elevator. This may be the source of the imbalance, with the control horn side moving the furthest.

A dab of foam safe ca, or strategically placed packing tape can stiffen things up.

Enjoy the Champ, we all love it. Questions? Ask away.

Hope this helps.

Originally Posted by aeronca

A break in the day, a nice little park, and a great way to wind down for the day! Doesn't get any better than that.

Aeronca

yep, as nopw its all about the Champ, cub is put to rest as Rx has gone out due to short, not warrantied.

Originally Posted by fishycomics

yep, as nopw its all about the Champ, cub is put to rest as Rx has gone out due to short, not warrantied.

I think I should have a spare stock one from my SC brushless conversion you can have for replacement. What channel is your transmitter? I'll go hunting for it to find out the channel, and if we're a match I'll send it to you for the cost of posting another one of your fantastic videos. Hmmm... might even still have the original transmitter...

Aeronca

Originally Posted by aeronca

I think I should have a spare stock one from my SC brushless conversion you can have for replacement. What channel is your transmitter? I'll go hunting for it to find out the channel, and if we're a match I'll send it to you for the cost of posting another one of your fantastic videos. Hmmm... might even still have the original transmitter...

Aeronca

Too Kind my friend, it's quite alright I made my decision, and placed a order.

Just te thought that counts, that pays for it all. tanks anyways it is a 2.4 brushed not fm or mhz.

I will most likely trade off the DX4E, which is a wrong move, as Tx's sre the one's that last. over the plane.

Originally Posted by fishycomics

Too Kind my friend, it's quite alright I made my decision, and placed a order.

Just te thought that counts, that pays for it all. tanks anyways it is a 2.4 brushed not fm or mhz.

I will most likely trade off the DX4E, which is a wrong move, as Tx's sre the one's that last. over the plane.

Oh SHOOT! I knew but forgot you had 2.4gHz.

Aeronca

Originally Posted by aeronca

Oh SHOOT! I knew but forgot you had 2.4gHz.

Aeronca

never a problem, ha ha ha all good. it's amazing of the footage, but shame that thebest clip crases going htrough te Leen to, it hurt. Lol

Yeah I have the champ and a few others and love the champ.. and if anyone is in need of some lights for it LtColSpit has them and you will get them unlike some other companys got mine in two days

Hey everybody! Check this out!!! Made it myself!
http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to-ma...plane-0131331/