flybyjohn

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Video will be available for sure at the maiden flight, however my film crew is still in the learning stages and at 10 and 11 years old, sometimes have a hard time keeping the plane in the center. I have often thought about attaching the camera to a hardhat and have a small wire loop that sits 8 inches in front of my eye that I can "aim" the camera while I fly.

Any way, A slow night. Only got the battery pack soldered up, extensions soldered into the servo wires and the switch soldered up. My goal for tonight is to get the rest of the trim on the plane, connect all the linkages, intall the battery, and before the end of the night, seal the wing saddle with silicone, glue on the wing tip floats, and take pictures.

I played around with waterproofing the rx. I found that if I take a vacuum seal bag and place the rx inside the bag and press on the connectors with a piece of soft balsa, the pins push through and form almost a airtight seal. I vacuumed and sealed the bag and it actually held the vacuum. I think if I do this and then put the electrical grease on the connectors and push them on, it will seal any little gap that my be around the pins. I can attach the bag to the inside of the fuse and it should be watertight. The bag does a pretty good job at holding the antaneas in place also. If I don't want the bag to be that big, I can punch a coulple of pin holes in the bag and pull the antanea through, the stretching plastic should make a seal around the plastic, then I can arrange the antaneas where I need them.

flybyjohn

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pictures as promised. I had to run the fuel lines out the side becuase I didn't want to kink the lines inside the compartment. The cowls wont go around the whole engine, only the crankcase part, so the lines should be ok where they are. The tail and supports came out nice. I am going to put a rubber grommet in the hole that the aileron rods come out of. If water gets splashed up and runs down the cover, it should flow around the grommet. The black trim piece coming down the left tail is a little crocked, I had it perfect before but it was first done with tower cote and I did not think it would hold up. I should have left it on until it fell off then redo it. The props from the side picture look like they have plenty of clearance but I don't know how much of a wake will swell up around the fuse when it starts to move. My center of gravity was right on laterally and is 1/4 inch behind the step as it is now. I don't want to add nose weight if I don't have too. The battery is against the front wall in the wing compartment. Picking the plane up by the back of the main spar balances it so I think I might be ok. Well here are the pictures.

flybyjohn

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some more

flybyjohn

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a few more

flybyjohn

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I forgot to mention, I plane dry weighs 6.5 lbs. it can hold 12 oz of fuel so RTF weight should be 7.25 lbs. I started the engines today and ran it around the yard a bit. it really moves out. At one rpm range the airplane really starts to resinate. The engines must be resinating perfectly at that point. I pointed it strait up and it is weightless at full throttle and half tanks of fuel. I think it will perform well. One engine went out and so I thought I would see what one engine would do. At half thottle and full right rudder, it shot across the yard. I had to shut it down before it got to the gravvel. The wind was really blowing tonight and when I was going into the wind one time, I saw it lift up slightly.I don't think I would have had a problem getting airborn, I just would have been in trouble when it came time to land in my yard.

flybyjohn

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Well I am trying to reason my way out of the one extra pound I ended up with from the original plans. The engines only weigh 2.5 oz more than a super tiger 40. I have 1/8" birch ply in all the places that called for 1/16 and 1/32" aircraft plywood. I sheeted the vertical stabilizer. I used hemlock main spars instead of balsa. I have one extra fuel tank, one extra engine mount, two more servos, and extra fuel line than the original plans. I polyurathaned the exterior fuse before covering. I guess all that must add up to be about 16 oz. extra.

scale only 4 me

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She looks great, but I'd like to see it in water to see what kind of prop clearance you have,, I think that's what we're all waiting for here

flybyjohn

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I took it to the lake the other day and had about 1.5" of clearance on the low wing side. Here is a picture of some spray from another ship I saw flying last summer. It was a bit smaller than mine and had about the same size engines.

flybyjohn

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whoops forgot the picture. Note this is not my plane.

flybyjohn

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Well I had my son take a little video of the plane in the yard. we will see if I can get it linked to this page. I am going to try and get to the water tommorrow sometime. I realize I wont be doing brodies in the water but I that is the only way I could get the engines to run up a little without picking up too much speed. [youtube]watch?v=-T-MzJgXBo0[/youtube]

flybyjohn

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well I don't know how to do it yet. I will figure it out later.

flybyjohn

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I went to he watter today and my maiden voyage became my maiden flight. I was just going to get my jitters settled today and see how much spray I would get into the props and as soon as it got into high speed taxi, it jumped straight up into the air at a 45 deg. angle. I had to hold in 1/4 down elevator to keep it level until I added in full trim adjustment and then still had to hold in down elevator. I circled a couple times and then landed. I readjusted center on elevator which was about 1/4" to 3/8" down from neutral, and refueled and took off again. A little up trim this time and it was flying level. Did a couple circles and landed a few times and took off a few time (same number). It flys great. I just need to figure out what I need to do to get the elevator neutral and the plane to fly level. I think down thrust is the solution, however the horizontal stab has 2 deg. neg incidence and the wing has 1 deg pos incidence. I wonder if just making the horizontal stab. with 0 incidence if it would solve my problem. When the fuel tanks are full, the plane takes off and land perfectly, however after they are 3/4 empty, the plane seams to want to porpose on the water on takoff and landings. I think my cg need to be moved forward a bit. Any way, I have video of the first 2 flights before my film crew lost interest and sat in the car. I don't know how to post them on here though. I think I can get them on youtube. Two videos are right side up and two are 90 deg. If anyone can tell me how to post them I will.

Oh, the water was calm and glass like today and there was absolutely no spray which is what I was hoping for. I don't know what it will do in choppy water. The inside of the plane was dry as a bone.

Firepower R/C

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T-MzJgXBo0

Lamoilleriver

Congrats - she flies.

flybyjohn

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Thanks firepower, You have the yard video, now I need to get the other two water videos. I have one downloaded to youtube now and am waiting another 30 minutes for the second to download. I don't know why it takes so long to download to youtube. I can't seem to get it right. I can get the link to get me to you tube but not to the video. What am I doing wrong. I hit the link button above and it asks for type, url, and url name. what goes in these boxes.

flybyjohn

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7YJQDkpKAg

I think I have got it now. I will upload the second flight in a few minutes.

flybyjohn

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Here is the second flight after elevator trim was adjusted.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd3cKHrQ_Q8

Lifer

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How was the prop spray issue?

Lamoilleriver

Thanks for showing the videos, she flies great. Just have to love the sounds of twins in flight, certainly does not lack power. Glad to see that water spray does not seem to be an issue, my experience with a SIG Sealane slants my opinon. Looks like the flat bottom of the Seamaster gets up on step better than the v-hull of the Sealane. I found holding just a "whisker" of up elevator on the take-off run to limit the porpoising. Looks like a beautiful place to fly.

flybyjohn

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Thanks for all the comments. I cannot detect any spray what so ever. Here are two more videos of the same flights with a little more zoom from a different camera. I wish I could erase the kids fighting in the background noise. I guess that is what some brothers and sisters do. I wish mine did not.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bTo5qyQfV0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0iUIjfFuIA

Lamoilleriver

Videos are great, good luck. If brothers and sisters weren't fighting, I'd be concerned. Not use to looking at mountains with that few trees. Probably could go fishing in between flights, lesser known benifit of float flying.

flybyjohn

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In Montana, we have thick forests in the west and flat farmland/plains in the east. I live right in the middle of them here in Helena. To the west 20 minutes, I am in the trees, to the east is the plains. I have never fished this area, It is just a little too big of water for my taste. I like small mountain lakes and streams, however there are not that many in my vicinity.

I am going to hack the tail off and reduce the neg. incidence in the horizontal stab. Right now the stab has neg 2 degrees and the wing has pos 1 degrees, and my engines are at zero, That would be like my wing at zero, engines at neg 1 and horiz. stab at -3 degrees. I will set it to zero and see what happens. I just have to figure out how to cut it off without ruining anything.

Lamoilleriver

Trying my hand of posting a picture myself, of my Seamaster, hope you don't mind.

flybyjohn

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That is a real nice looking seamaster. I am thinking of adding extensions on to my exhausts as well to keep some of the oil deposits off the bottom of my wing.

Black Drape

flybyjohn

Good job on your Seamaster. That is my Canadair that you have posted on post 58. I try to make it to your float flys every year. Where are you flying from in the videos? It doesn't look like Hauser. We don't have anyplace to float fly in Missoula anymore, they won't allow us to fly off of Frenchtown Pond anymore. Your float fly and one at Trout Creek is the only two times I get to fly each year. Maybe we can put both planes up together this year.

Ron