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Discussion
Sand Bird micro sized sea plane
Hello all Sand Bird fans,
I thought I would post my experiences with the Sand Bird, and maybe revive the threads as this little plane is a blast to fly. I love to fly the small stuff and picked this plane primarily as a challenge on getting it to fly well off water. My setup is four channel spectrum 6100, 4.4 cirrus servos, 10mm brushless outrunner and a tp480 2 cell lipo. I have had great success with this setup and power is not an issue. Initially my problem lifting off the water was water hitting the prop and killing the power. This little bird sits low in the water and tends to dive when throttled up. My solution was to add some hobby foam and increase flotation and the chines width to keep the water from contacting the prop and draining the RPM. This worked out perfect, now it sits much higher out of the water and takes off like a dream. It is necessary to use full up elevator on take off. One issue I've had which I'm sure is typical with balsa float planes is water intrusion and warping. I have since re-covered my bird and completely sealed every possible edge and corner and I still have to deal with water getting in. Oh well, this is a great flying little sea plane and at quarter throttle it flies surprisingly slow. Here are some pics for now and I'll try and post some video in the very near future. |
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Pete, My sand bird weighs in at just over 6 oz. The foam is a thin sheet of what's called cool foam very cheep and great for added flotation. Here is a link where I got mine.
http://www.michaels.com/art/online/d...ductNum=gc0849 |
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Here is some video of my 3-channel Sandbird from one of our club float flys. Enjoy the comments before and then during the flight.
Mike McD https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...1#post11564886 |
Latest blog entry: LEDs on my T-28
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Im considering getting one sence there are tons ponds and water bodies around my area that are perfect for some float planes, but the surrounding areas are not big enough to fly my Northstar or my trainer on floats, so in addition to my slow tsick and Polaris, I want a real little flying boat.
I've read where it will not fly on a brushed motor, even on 3s lipo, so what are the brushless alternatives? |
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Here is the recommended brushless motor for the Sandbird:
http://www.hobbycity.com/hobbycity/s...idProduct=5229 McD |
Latest blog entry: LEDs on my T-28
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Just to be sure they stayed "straight", I used a small straight pin and pinned then at the root. They have stayed in place for over 50 flights.
McD |
Latest blog entry: LEDs on my T-28
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Sumer build
I'm looking for some summer fun. I kinda think this plane is a little fast. The fastest I've flown is my E-flight Mini Pulse XT with half throttle. AND i've never built a ARF before. BUT I can take all summer to do this and make a billion trips to the hobby store. It seems like a fun little plane but I'm wondering if it's a little to much for me...
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The Sandbird is not a hard plane to fly, but it is a very small plane and therefore a little more of a challenge to get the radio installion right. You will need some very small servos and a light battery pack. I'd recommmend the 3-channel setup because the extra 2 servos for the ailerons will add a lot of weight.
Give it a try. If you like small planes, you'll love the Sandbird. McD |
Latest blog entry: LEDs on my T-28
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The thing that worries me most is that if I crash it, I don't think the sell parts like the wing assembly or any of that, do they? Does spectrum make receivers small enough for this plane?
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Last edited by BeauMartin; Jun 09, 2009 at 08:48 AM.
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I don't think there are any parts available for the Sandbird. I fly mine with a Spektrum 6100 receiver and I have plenty of room.
McD |
Latest blog entry: LEDs on my T-28
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nice little plane, 2 quick questions:
1) can you remove the wing for transportation easily? 2) It looks like the water has to be like glass for this guy, how does it handle non-glass-like water? (I am looking at this for a lake, I have a tiger moth 400 on gws floats that can handle it well). Thanks Rick |
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