They fly well! But can they swim?
10-06-2005, 02:16 AM
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They fly well! But can they swim?
After some serious work the last 3 nights we got a couple of floatation devices built and fixed onto the good ol OMP 47" Yak-54. I was getting desperate to get things done when midnight struck last night and the floats were not even bolted on yet. If I could find my duct tape things might have been easier as I was running out of ideas here and there but hey they only gotta stay on for a weekend at this point. Well we got a group of 30 odd friends ligned up. I got two cases of beer and a little food ready. Mother nature and aero modelers meet again as we tackle a dam out in the middle of nowhere. So will she swim? Stay tuned for more!
10-06-2005, 06:24 AM
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RE: They fly well! But can they swim?
Hahaha! Yea remember the first set of tetherite I had for the yak that was a little too weak? Knew there was going to be a use for them again someday! Thank heavens you guys were so kind to let me just keep them. 
On the rear gear it's hard to see in the picture (My bad I made them too small) but they are actually just held against the bottom of the fuselage with a piece of hook and loop (Velcro) going all the way around the fus. I didn't want to make any permanent mods to the plane at all and managed that. All I have to do is loosen the velcro and the front gear bolts and voila floats a gone. Put wheels back and fly on land. Problem with the velcro though was that it can swivel and move a little. That's where I started running out of ideas and materials to make the floats solid thus the piece of string just keeping the rear gear from sliding backwards. I'm going around the LHS tonight to see if I can come up with a better plan that won't require me to do anything to the current permanent front gear. I need some sort of cross brace or something there. They will work great as is though, just doesn't look to wonderfull.
On the rear gear it's hard to see in the picture (My bad I made them too small) but they are actually just held against the bottom of the fuselage with a piece of hook and loop (Velcro) going all the way around the fus. I didn't want to make any permanent mods to the plane at all and managed that. All I have to do is loosen the velcro and the front gear bolts and voila floats a gone. Put wheels back and fly on land. Problem with the velcro though was that it can swivel and move a little. That's where I started running out of ideas and materials to make the floats solid thus the piece of string just keeping the rear gear from sliding backwards. I'm going around the LHS tonight to see if I can come up with a better plan that won't require me to do anything to the current permanent front gear. I need some sort of cross brace or something there. They will work great as is though, just doesn't look to wonderfull.
10-07-2005, 02:13 AM
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RE: They fly well! But can they swim?
Hahaha...Mike I will try buddy. Please don't make me promise anything? I will try though!
Speaking about filling things. I weighed the model last night after I got the wing a little water proof and dang she gained a pile of weight with this little mod. NOT GOOD! The floats added about a pound to the plane which is a sad thing. I sure hope I'm not convined to flying circles with the floatation devices on. Sure my Boxxer flies at nearly the same weight and still hovers, lets hope. T minus 6 hours before me and the girlfriend hit the highway to the big pool for the weekend! Wooohooo
Speaking about filling things. I weighed the model last night after I got the wing a little water proof and dang she gained a pile of weight with this little mod. NOT GOOD! The floats added about a pound to the plane which is a sad thing. I sure hope I'm not convined to flying circles with the floatation devices on. Sure my Boxxer flies at nearly the same weight and still hovers, lets hope. T minus 6 hours before me and the girlfriend hit the highway to the big pool for the weekend! Wooohooo
10-10-2005, 03:34 AM
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RE: They fly well! But can they swim?
What a weekend! Doesn't get much better than what we had. And yes it is confirmed! THEY CAN SWIM! lol...we had a blast to say the least. I'm burned like crazy all over from too much sun exposure but there was no way I was going to miss out on two days of solid float flying fun. Very minor incident rate and only one plane didn't make it back home, guy just couldn't dodge running out and grabbing trees surrounding the dam. Conditions weren't amazing as the dam was seriously small and surround by various trees/powerlines and the usual RC stuff. The rescue teams were good and no planes drowned. Not a single incident on the water that put a guy out of flying the rest of the weekend. Except for the little T-rex heli that took a very spectacular spring board backflip something something into the water. Needless to say it's not in IC and just suffered a minor head breakage. I'm not sure whether any of the electronics got damaged as we couldn't dry em up there to test them. A very successfull weekend for all in my humble opinion and the location was awesome. Great accomadation and beatifull views. Plenty of wild life around and lotsa adventure. Heck me and a mate even got a attacked by a snake in the BBQ area so there was no lack of excitement.
Well I'm not going to hold out too much. I have about 170 useable piccys and I'm going to post as many as I can. Sorry I shrunk em all quite a bit so if anyone wants a high res image of anything just let me know, I still got the original photos. I'll try to stick to only a hundred pictures for this round though. Not going to describe them either as most just speak for themselves. There is a couple which might need explaining so I'll try after all the pictures are up.
Well I'm not going to hold out too much. I have about 170 useable piccys and I'm going to post as many as I can. Sorry I shrunk em all quite a bit so if anyone wants a high res image of anything just let me know, I still got the original photos. I'll try to stick to only a hundred pictures for this round though. Not going to describe them either as most just speak for themselves. There is a couple which might need explaining so I'll try after all the pictures are up.
10-10-2005, 04:49 AM
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RE: They fly well! But can they swim?
Last batch. Some pics show the tree eating the poor trainer alive as we all stand and watch helplessly! Hahaha...plane only broke the wing in half and the rest survived. You can see the one half of the wing on the ground while the rest of the model remains in the tree. I had some pictures of the wildlife in the distance (Rhinos, giraffe and some other weird things) but they were too far for my camera to capture so I left those pics out. I have some video at home too and I'll se if I can stitch it together and find someone to host it for me so I can share. Mostly just landings and take-offs etc as that was just about the most eventfull on topic.
10-10-2005, 09:51 AM
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RE: They fly well! But can they swim?
Great pictures! Looks like a great time.
http://www.putfile.com/
A lot of folks on RCU are using putfile to host their videos.
http://www.putfile.com/
A lot of folks on RCU are using putfile to host their videos.
10-12-2005, 02:48 AM
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RE: They fly well! But can they swim?
Oof yea I forgot about putfile! Thanks Dep for the reminder. I quickly scanned the video clips I have this morning but all of them are fairly boring if it's not being watched by a float addict. I will stitch together the little I have of the yak tonight though and post it for fun. I didn't do anything exotic with the plane as it wasn't too 3D friendly with the heavy floats on. Vertical CG was way off and made harriers very tricky.
10-12-2005, 03:58 AM
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RE: They fly well! But can they swim?
Yes sir! Vmarr at its best really. That's the Dornier DO27, .45-.61 size ARF. If I'm not mistaken the floats are from Vmarr too. I don't have the specs on the plane but it flies very well. Flaps are efficient and it doesn't have any bad tendencies from what I've seen. It flies great on something like a Saito .72 or well of course a strong .46 2-Stroke. If I recall correctly that one has a OS .46 on it.
That's the Dornier DO27, .45-.61 size ARF. If I'm not mistaken the floats are from Vmarr too. I don't have the specs on the plane but it flies very well. Flaps are efficient and it doesn't have any bad tendencies from what I've seen. It flies great on something like a Saito .72 or well of course a strong .46 2-Stroke. If I recall correctly that one has a OS .46 on it.
10-13-2005, 02:30 PM
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RE: They fly well! But can they swim?
Great shots Spacey, Looks like a great time. Never saw that brand of Beer....I mean Soda in the States.
I tryed float flying this year too, And I'm hooked, something about the water ??? or maybe it's just cause of the change from wheel flying ??
At any rate great shot's glad you had a wopper of a good time.
.I tryed float flying this year too, And I'm hooked, something about the water ??? or maybe it's just cause of the change from wheel flying ??
At any rate great shot's glad you had a wopper of a good time.
10-14-2005, 02:36 AM
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RE: They fly well! But can they swim?
Oh yea I'm hooked too. Definitely not missing another float fly for anything if I can. It's something different for sure and just about the first time since I learned how to fly that I enjoyed doing the good ol touch and go. The simplest of things become the most fun when you got a couple of floats strapped to the bottom. I definitely don't want to have them on there the whole time but I wouldn't mind doing it 4 times a year or so.
10-17-2005, 02:20 AM
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RE: They fly well! But can they swim?
Yea real shame these glow motors don't like running on water otherwise a couple of inverted touch and goes might have been in order.
I took the video clips I had out this morning to see if there's anything useable but I'm afraid I can't put together even 30 seconds of worthwile video...and then it's all just hovering. We were flying simply too far out to capture anything with my camera. Sorry guys.
I took the video clips I had out this morning to see if there's anything useable but I'm afraid I can't put together even 30 seconds of worthwile video...and then it's all just hovering. We were flying simply too far out to capture anything with my camera. Sorry guys.
