I come from an airplane background so go easy on me So anyway I thought I'd have some fun & scratch build myself an airboat from crashed plane parts. I did some research, looked at lots of airboat designs then sat down at the computer & designed myself a boat...
Here's a collection of parts I found laying around the work shop...
- no name 3536 800 kv motor (it used to haul around a 55" Piper Cub)
- 45a car ESC with reverse (might be nice to be able to backup)
- el-cheapo servo (19g / 2.5kg / .14sec)
- el-cheapo 6 channel receiver (way too many channels I know)
- lipo battery (I have lots of sizes)
- gyro (single axis)
Reverse? This boat may see some service as a rescue boat for downed seaplanes so I want to be able to reverse to make that job easier. For the most part this boat will be used to screw around with when I'm not flying though.
Gyro? Not sure she'll need this but I've been itching to use this
gyro in a project. I know airboats can be pretty squirly so I may mess around with a little gyro stabilization fun.
Anyway lets get to the build
I printed up a set of templates from my design...
As she's only a baby airboat, I'm using 5mm DollarTree foam-board for the majority of this build. Contact cemented the templates to the foam-board...
A laser cutter would have been nice but I don't mind doing things old school. An hour or so of hand-cutting & we have a set of parts...
In addition to the foam-board, I am using some lite-ply to beef up where the motor pylon will mount...
Adding the foam-board parts...
More progress...
Starting to look a tad boat-like...
Got the bulk of the bottom sheeted...
I'm using a plastic Chinese takeout container for my radio box. It weighs almost nothing, is water proof (tested to make sure) & it has a lid that's easy to pop on/off...
Well that's all I have time for today. I'll post more soon...
