John C

I've got an opportunity to do some ROW flying with my R/C Spacewalker, Norvel .074 powered. I'm looking for kit or plans for floats to fit this plane. At one time Herr may have made some floats, but I don't see them in their on-line catalogue. A search here on 'floats' didn't give any good leads.

Any help would be appreciated

John C

Bipe Flyer

Here's a link to the Herr floats.

http://www.iflyherr.com/cgi-bin/dpsm...Kits_2ehtml_01

John C

So they do exist! But the cost seems high...$49! The HOB Chia-Pass boat hull plane is only $46.99 somewhere that I've seen.

Anybody have some plans I can scratch build some floats from?

Thanks,

John C

BuzzBomber

My Feedback: (4)

Hi Jon--how's this: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...ht=foam+floats

av8rsodt

My Feedback: (23)

Wow, $49 for a set of 1/2A floats! I never realized the Herr floats were so much.

My flying buddy drew up a set of 1/2A float plans if you would like a copy. I mainly used them for .049 TD powered planes and they worked great. They are built up from balsa then covered in monokote. Spreader bars are easy make, and then all you have to do is bend up some piano wire to mount to fuse. No rudders on them as they were not needed since throttle and rudder could steer the plane while on water.

I imagine your .074 HOB Spacewalker may need a little larger floats. Send me some specs on your plane and I will draw some larger ones on CAD for you.

What is your fuse length?
Airplane weight?
Wingspan?

Water flying is a blast... seeing your plane speed across the water, a little tap of up elevator and then you are on step, a little more elevator and you are airborne!

Can't wait to see your plane on floats,
Brian

John C

Brian,

You're ON

Spacewalker has a wingspan of 47", chord of 7 1/4" for about 340 in. ^ 2.

Fuselage lebngth is 29". Weight is about 24 ozs.

Last time I ROWed was with a .40 Swizzle Stick, back about 1982 in Ohio Floats, a bit beat up are in the garage. They were used, uncessfully, on a Sig Clipped Wing Cub...that was a cold swim [:@] about 1986 in Indiana.

I don't have a CAD program, but can use Acrobat files if you can translate to that format, or any in the Microsoft suite - Excel, Word, etc.

Thanks!

John C

NEW222

Hi there John. I came across this article on building simple 1/2a floats. This may be of interest to you and others.[img][/img]

av8rsodt

My Feedback: (23)

John, thank for the specs. I will get started on it in AutoCAD, looks like the floats will not be too much larger given your Spacewalker dimensions.

Over the years I have created a file of all the float articles (I have the one noted above as well). I will double check the calculations on those as a sanity check.

This may give me the chance to use Bipeflyer's Tile Print program. I keep hearing it being highly regarded on the 1/2A Forum.

Now on to the drawing boards...

1/2A Forever!
Brian

vauxhall

Hi Brian, I found an article on F/F float design in this old Aeromodeller Magazine, on a very good British website, email me if you want details for your file............John

av8rsodt

My Feedback: (23)

John (Vauxhall) - Thanks for sending the magazine article, good stuff in there.

Wish there was a master listing of all the magazines of the past and what construction articles, how-to's, etc. were in them. Being born in '71 I missed a good 40-50 years of good reading.

John C-
Got a good start in converting those float plans on paper into the computer. They will be flat bottom as well as the top. I redrawing them a little so as to add a balsa nose block on them that can be sanded to a desired shape. I personally like the rounded look versus sharp nose. They turned out being about 22" long.

I am also thinking of doing another version with a "round" float top versus a flat top - these will look more like EDO floats of full scale heritage.

When completed I will post the instructions on how to set them up: spreader bar distance, recommended prop clearance, float incidence (in reference to wing), etc.

There are also some other hints I came across that are worthwhile relating to how to balance your plane with floats and how to steer without water rudders on the floats.

Fun, Fun, Fun...

Brian

av8rsodt

My Feedback: (23)

John,

I have the float plans just about finished - just need to add the text and some instructions.

They should be fairly straightforward to build. I am leaving the connection of the floats to the landing gear open for the builder. There are any number of ways... wheel collars, landing gear straps, etc. My friend used some brass tubing attached to the floats with fiberglass.

Here is a screen shot of what I have to date on AutoCAD...

Brian

P.S. John - Do you have a FedEx-Kinko's nearby? In the past I have emailed the .dxf file to them (they typically have this email address on business cards they pass out) so anyone can send electronic files for them to print. I have used this in the past very successfully, just pick it up after work!

P.S.S. You will need to send me the completed picture of your Spacewalker on floats... can't wait to see the finsihed product.

John C

So far, so good. No Kinko's around here, but if you send the .dxf file, I can copy it over to another computer with a .dxf viewer I downloaded some years ago.

Next question: Where should the float step be relative to the CG of the airplane ? I'm guessing the alignment of the top of the floats shoud result in a 2 degree posiitve incidence of the wing to the floats.

Thanks again,

John C

rainedave

My Feedback: (1)

Can you imagine those five guys in the boat all trying to start their engines at the same time? And did the one without a shirt do something to cause the two behind him to cringe and rear back?

John C

The boat is to get the planes when they bite the water or otherwise lose power . Smart fliers start their engines on shore .

Checking the seaplane site, it loos like my incidence is about right, and float step should be on/slightly behind the GC, although it dosen't appear to be extremely critical...some trial and error required

John C

av8rsodt

My Feedback: (23)

John -

Here are some pointers I found when reading trough my collection of articles...

1. "The step of the float should be located right on the balance point, or not more than a 1/2" aft of the balance point. ["Float Flying by Chuck Cunningham]...see attached float side view diagram below.

2. Hopefully the balance point (CG) of plane will be the same after attaching the floats, but more often than not the plane + floats will be tail heavy. Bring the balance back to its original location (plane prior to installing floats) by adding weight to the floats, not the plane. This will give you a balanced plane in either configuration, i.e. when floats are attached or not.

3. The July '87 MAN diagram (grey picture) gives an excellent view and dimensions on float setup. I would imagine your Spacewalker would have good clearance already given the exisiting landing gear. You will need to bend some more piano wire to have a second support leg from fuse to floats, this support will also set your incidence from wing to floats.

4. Last diagram I attached is a picture of one way to attach landing gear / support leg to floats - a simple landing gear strap. On the floats I built I used the spreader bar to keep the fix the spacing between floats versus using a wheel collar. It worked fairly well, I just had to remove one float from the spreader bars to remove the floats from the landing gear.

Brian

John C

Brian,

Thanks for the summary above. It's consistent with recomendations I've found. This should be interesting as the plane is powered by a Norvel .074 and flies well with it as a land plane. I may need to up my nitro to 35% to get of water !

John C

av8rsodt

My Feedback: (23)

John,

I think you will be surprised. My bet is it will fly just fine with current nitro % and plane setup.

The biggest surprise for me was that the floats acted like little wings generating their own lift - felt kind of weird. I enjoyed watching my Rearwin Speedster on floats when I did loops - much smaller and tighter.

Tons of fun... especially touch and goes off the water

Brian

av8rsodt

My Feedback: (23)

John C,

Finished the plans today (sent you an email).

Let me know how the plans worked out and be sure to post some pics in this thread.

1/2A Forever!
Brian

John C

I've responded to Brian & he's going to send me a .dxf file for me to play with .

I've got to put it on a different computer and see if my .dxf viewer works

JOhn C