Before making Big ICON-A5, I made 2nd small one, too.
This time I made almost standards. And I colored it vanilla.
Some person knows small one has easy to porpoise. I’m modifying bottom (but not satisfied enough yet). I’m making every effort to improve it. The hardness of transition from taxi to planning is within an allowance by controlling technique.
And there isn’t enough area near my house; ponds, lakes and rivers to fly big one and gas planes.
About Big one, I’m considering how to improve, as everyone has been talking about weakness of nose gear, less stiffness of tail portion and not right position of main gears for taking off easily, leave the less volume of side sponson as it is. I’ve been thinking, planning ･･･ yet.
A shooting of filming shows some floats attached on it to stabilize the real one. Even the real one has less stability than have wing tip float, I love this(ICON-A5) so smart!

Shige

Originally Posted by The_Mongrel

Yep I have read that!
I will be waiting to see how it goes. Film it if you can mate.
Cheers
Mongrel

I've been getting a bit of flight time in with other birds, havent had regular flying in like forever, weather gods and works demands have not been kind.

I've lost my uplink cable to my vid cam, but if all else fails, i'll get my gf to record on her mobile so at least there'll be something.

aiming for weekend after next

Originally Posted by shigetyann

About Big one, I’m considering how to improve, as everyone has been talking about weakness of nose gear, less stiffness of tail portion and not right position of main gears for taking off easily, leave the less volume of side sponson as it is. I’ve been thinking, planning ･･･ yet.
A shooting of filming shows some floats attached on it to stabilize the real one. Even the real one has less stability than have wing tip float, I love this so smart!

Shige

personally i'll not be looking at wing floats, when they touch the water with a little speed, they really do slew the plane around... at least that's my experience
If i persue take off on water, and find it difficult, i'll be looking at adding to the sponsons, and i dont think it would take much of a sponson addition to make it more acceptable
but i think it will be more so to fly off water with zero wind, and just to learn a little technique... if one can teach an old dog new tricks

Nice! Most of the time I will fly off grass, but the option to water land is great!

I have the Murrumbidgee river not far from me, and at the moment it is chock full!

i think all rivers in Oz are chockars at the moment lol

i'm keen to do a fly over some local islands up here, but i've been thinking it'd be awesome to fpv takeoff/ land on Somerset & Wivenhoe Dams, some gorgeous scenery here-abouts

heheh! Well that is what I want to do. I want to do some FPV, but there is also this bridge across the river and I have made it my mission to fly under it.

Here is a pic of it. Although the water level is much higher now!!

or you could cheat and just idle/ float under...

Nah!! But I am worried about lockouts etc when flying behind all that metal.

what rc Tx do you use? 433mhz 500mw should be ok, not sure of vid transmission tho... i use 900mhz for low altitude vid to better deal with obstacles

This'll be my first plane on FrSky telemetry for LOS, but if i go fpv it'll be Scherrer/ EzOSD + 900mhz
saving my Dragon gear + 2.4mhz vid for my altitude cularis, no obstructions for the 2.4 to contend with

thinking perhaps the vid tx mounted high up on the tail (hoping for no flips lol) and rc Rx fwd most in the cockpit

I could use LRS and 900. I have access to the gear.

imoh 900 is best for low altitude with potential obstacles, 2.4 best for long range altitude flights...
i have both, 900 500mw & 2.4 1000mw, i'm no authority on the subject, but short range (but beyond los) flights i've done, even with the power difference i noticed more dropouts with 2.4 low altitude w/ obstacles
i've not flown any notible distance, not interested in breaking records at the risk of losing my hard earned equipment lol, but if i understand & remember correctly Thomas Scherrer achieved his 52km flight testing his uhf many moons ago using 2.4 500mw with a humungous yagi
i have 8 & 14db patch and a variety of omni's & Ez tracker i'm yet to assemble, much of my fpv endevours are my 2011 resolution heh heh
i'm not planning on any great range or altitude with this Icon, but should be a real good all round flyer, with the obvious advantage of belly landings on either grass or water, or wheels on, i dare to say, nothing less than smooth pavement to save the nose gear

Originally Posted by shigetyann

...and not right position of main gears for taking off easily....

I'm not sure what you meant here, but if you are refering to my post, set up with the 180 deg retract servo the retracts work fine
if you use the 77BB standard servo horn, it is approx 3mm too short to full retract the rear main wheels, so all you need to do is extend the length of the servo horn for the rear mains and all's good. Someone may come up with a better idea, but this should work fine
but as per my previous posted pic, i kinda prefer to have the rear mains hanging a little bit for a little protection for the sponsons... but unsure if this will affect water performance. the undercarriage locks well in the down position, front retracts perfectly, only i have the rears not fully retract

i hope that hasnt confused anyone...

There has also been some discussion that 2.4 ghz doesn't like water very much. So 900mhz is probably a better choice. I have flown FPV with 2.4 off water a number of times, and never felt I was getting very good range. Of course there are so many variables, that it's hard to tie something down to just one cause.

valid point, thx mate

Hi! AussieHoppy

I’ve just come home from work.

> i think all rivers in Oz are chockars at the moment lol #214
It’s so sorry. Also in ponds? If so, where do you do RC seaplanes?

> I'm not sure what you meant here…. #220
I’m thinking also how to clear taking off issue from land.
I know your idea #126 is great truly. I’ve almost read this thread.
I have to mention my Japanese friend’s big ICON about taking off from land.
In taxing on rough field, his club’s, its nose-gear broke at some speed before taking off.
More attempts, after attached nose-gear by glue, it never took off because of its nose never bumped up.
This means the main gear’s position is too backward from CG.
I’ll move a center of main-gear forward as most such size’s model planes are. I suppose a position of main-gears is to from 15 to 20 mm backward from CG. My friend had already finished a modification, but not tries yet, because of keeping up gusty days.

About an affection on water performance. I suppose retracted main gear and tires won’t affect so much in planing on water.
My technique for taking off from water is only throttle high fast and is shorten a time from tax to planning. This was discussed in this thread before. It’s simple and best, also I agree with.

I’m waiting you’ll post your ICON-A5’s FPVs in some gorgeous scenery.
I once visited north-east coast, Cairns and nearby. Really beautiful everywhere! It must be awesome every place in Oz.

Thank you for your propositions. And thank you all.
Best regards

Shige

PS. If you have time, please visit my blog in RC Groups.

Originally Posted by The_Mongrel

Nah!! But I am worried about lockouts etc when flying behind all that metal.

Nah.....easy 2 do....just stand under the bridge so you have good visual of your plane both ways and dont fly high

Ian

Yep. I am thinking on standing on the side of the bridge I will come out from. That way if there is a lockout, I might have a slim chance of regaining control as it comes towards me.

I am thinking on changing my plans on the A5. I am thinking I might go for a nice light Easy Star. No OSD or any crap like that. Just the HD camera and the TX gear

Then it would be a nice floater, so if I do get lockouts, it could travel a fair bit without nosing in.