Posts: 2711
Joined: 12/12/2001 From: Yuma,
AZ, USA Status: offline
First, I had never flown a float plane until today. Secondly, the float flights today were only the second and a bunch more on this plane. Flying the Ready off water with the Saito .72 was a complete blast. Some of the most fun the three of us ever had flying. The Ready on Floats is an awesome plane, only way to put it. Up in the air: loops, barrel rolls, inverted flight, stall turns, you name it. On the water it was sooooo pretty doing touch and goes, landing and taking off are a dream and so easy. This plane will fly along just off the water at a really slow speed with no tendency to stall. She was just beautiful. Falcon has a great little plane. The plastic plane idea is great for a floater; she stayed dry, had no bad tendency, and the all plastic construction meant water was not an issue anyway.
The only problem is this plane is a blast to fly off wheels also. We are thinking about taking the water rudder off her. That way she could switch back and forth from floats to wheels in about 20 minutes. With the water rudder you really can’t switch her back easily.
The picture is of my very first water landing. More is posted in the Review Forum.
< Message edited by Splais -- Jan 19 2003 4:35AM >
Posts: 348
Joined: 6/16/2002 From: Peru,
IN, USA Status: offline
Been flying mine for a couple of years and don't have any yet, it gets flown about every weekend in the summer. It has an OS46FX and I snap rolled it real hard on a windy day take off and cartwheeled it in. Broke one side of the landing gear, Falcon sent me a replacement and been flying every since.
Posts: 2711
Joined: 12/12/2001 From: Yuma,
AZ, USA Status: offline
It is a very soft and pliable plastic that does not appear to easily develop cracks. We had an engine failure at about 20 feet up on its first flight. Smashed into the ground nose and wing first. I know we were lucky, but no damage to the plane at all. We made around 15 flights the first day out on floats without a hitch. Expect this bird to still be flying long after I am bored with it.
Posts: 29
Joined: 10/22/2002 From: salem, OR, USA Status: offline
Hi Splais, I just wanted to warn you not anything else. The local hobby shop owner has the plane and has had to rebuild tail and repair several stress cracks with no hard water landings. Thanks Pat
I noticed plastic planes like this don't handle the cold well. Especially ding ups in the cold. Is it possible that the stress cracks formed were in a colder climate?
Just a suggestion if you did not do this already. The Saito 72 is an expensive engine and I would run a steel fishing leader from the engine to a bulkhead in the fuse for safety. I saw a guy loose his wing on a float plane (I know what you guys are thinking - it wasn't me!). When the rescue boat came back, we noticed that every thing firewall fore-ward went to the bottom of the lake. I was videotaping at the time. The owner of the plane gave a copy of the tape to divers. The engine was never found.
Posts: 348
Joined: 6/16/2002 From: Peru,
IN, USA Status: offline
I had the elevator servo quit on a .60 size See Bird about 20 years ago and it hit the water straight in and exploded in a million pieces. It was in 40' of water and I lowered the anchor from our fishing boat to the bottom and tied the other end to a piece of foam from the wing to mark the spot. Went back to the cottage got my scuba gear and went out and followed the rope down with a light and it looked like a plane crash on the bottom of the lake. Picked up the Enya .60, the battery and the servo's, the reciever was still in a piece of the fuse. Lucked out because I marked the spot, it would have been impossable in all that water to pinpoint otherwise. I will never forget the look on my Dad's face cause it was his plane, I was flying it for him, as he was still in the learning stage. He said, " You crashed my airplane!" I don't think he forgave me for that because I always laughed when he would bring it up.
Posts: 49
Joined: 3/5/2002 From: Rapid City, SD, USA Status: offline
I will echo the good comments on the Ready. This is a really good airplane -- on floats or wheels. Mine has been in the air for about a year now on a second hand Thunder Tiger .46. I flew it on New Year's day at our fun fly, with the temp right at a balmy 31 degrees and a wind of about 15 mph. No problems what so ever. I see no sign of cracks, dents or any other wear and tear except for the normal paint dings.
I set mine up with two set screws on the rudder servo, so I can put the water rudder cables through and tighten them real easy. I can change from floats to wheels in 15 minutes. I bought a second water rudder from Falcon, I am going to mount twin rudders this spring.
Great airplane and a good perfomer -- very acrobatic without the floats and not bad with them on. No bad habits what so ever. And one of the easiest to assemble ARF's I ever built. You can every read the directions!
Posts: 26
Joined: 7/31/2002 From: wet and rainy County Durham, UK Status: offline
I flew my ready 2 at Keilder reservoit over here in the UK last sept, wot a laugh and a half, I only have on OS40 LA in it so it's a bit marginal for take offs, but with a long rin up and carefully pitching the elevator up and down it became unstuck eventually. I must have had about 15 flight that ady, the next meet is at Easter so guess where I'll be??
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"there I was, upsidedown with nothing on the clock but the makers name"
Posts: 1366
Joined: 12/27/2001 From: Gardnerville,
NV, USA Status: offline
I just came back from the Tomcat's swap meet in Gillroy today with one of these puppy's, can't wait to get my feet wet, literally. She's RTF (ready to float) with a Fox 45, a Hitec Flash 4 radio and a half tank of fuel for $260.00 and is in excellent shape.
Anybody know anything about Fox 45 engines? Should I just bolt in one of my OS 46 FX engines and get it over with?
The Fox is waayyy more finicky than the OS. If it was broken in properly it may be good. When they run right they have fantastic power. They like a little extra Castor oil too.
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Wooooeeeee - Ready on Floats - 
Wooooeeeee - Ready on Floats - 
