red head

They are a neat plane. All I have left is the Beaver but I don't fly off water anymore . Still have 2 sets of floats just in case. To bad more people didn't catch on to them.

That float fly at the London Bridge was fun, I only made it twice . The first time wasn't very impressive on my part : I took off flew my pattern did some aerobatics and just as I was landing ( about 25 ft alt. ) one float bracket ( front ) broke loose and let the nose of the float hang down just as I sat down . Not a good demo. But I had it back flying the next day after fixing the bracket.

We came out with a better suggestion for putting the bracket on after that. lol I have flown a couple that we hand launched ( not suggested ) and landed on hard ground , we put a couple strips of Duck tape on the bottom of the float to protect the float. I have also taken off on damp / wet grass and landed with the floats , takes a bit more power / runway but it's neat.

Nice talking to ya after so long. Didn't mean to jack the site , sorry . ENJOY !!! RED

JohnBuckner

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Hmm never fun looking at one of your floats pointing straight when you are ready for landing Enjoyed talkin and no worries, I didn,t see any highjacks going on

John

Lamoilleriver

Note to self, kids done college, pack van full of float planes, drive around country visit float fun flys Float flyers are nuts, in a nice way.

red head

You will not regret it. ENJOY !!! RED

bikerbc

Thank you so much for sharing your adventure John..You went to a tremendous amount of time prepareing for this ..I have been waiting for this to happen... I would love to be there and try and see how far my Lt 82 would make...I am not sure how much longer I will be able to fly as I have just had a massive Stroke..So far it is in a place that is only affecting my eyesite ,balance , memory , speach and things like that..I am getting by pretty good...I can still get out to my shop and work on my planes and play with the dog ,talk on the phone( I am not crazy about talking on the phone anyway) Things like your story are what make life interesting and worth getting up in the morning for...Thankyou again..I really enjoyed reading about it...

SDCrashmaster

Great read. Enjoyed hearing about your adventure. It's a shame that this wasn't documented in photos and video. Would have made a great documentary piece.
Maybe the next one :-)

JohnBuckner

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Thanks so much Bikerbc and SDCrashmaster for the kind words that make all the effort worthwhile. I am faceing a kidney demon now and in the next few weeks an all or partial removal So if I don,t croak on the table am planning for the next one next summer and its gotta be an open ocean crossing the Long beach harbour to Avelon harbour Catalinas island. Its a shorter flight (26 nautical miles) and has been done back in the seveties by Mr. Robbins of Robbins hobby in glendale but to me thats the big one.

I am of course gonna give a go next november the River flight and actually complete that last three miles. Am working up a new airplane that may improve over the experianced old 'Soilent Green'.

Bikerbc would be pleased to have more teams along that can be helpful and even self supporting and in the case of the river trip since its definately off season appropriate boats can be rented for the day and possibly even a trailer one way recovery without breaking the bank. Give it some thought

John

bikerbc

Thankyou John I will , I really believe my Kadet would put on a reasonable show Have you ever thought about putting wing tanks in the wings ??I dont know if it would be worth the trouble...Please keep me up to date on your kidney operation You can PM me if you wish my e mail address is [email protected] Thanks John

JohnBuckner

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Fantastic bikerbc, The next one I mentioned actually is a Senior Kadet and its in the bones on the table now not exactly sure of its final set up yet and wing tanks could be done and am considering a single float but still up in the air over that as I am not sure if I want to give up the twin float stability thats works so well when wideset (over 25% of the span).


Definately will increase the span at the tips by a single bay as I have done on the Quad Kaydets. Definately thinking I can use a slightly slower cruze speed that way to minimize the circling. For this one I just may go a .75AX and want to avoid the .90's. The Soylent green Will go back together with appropriate reinforcement at the weak spot in the fuse and likely to use that ship for the next london bridge attempt in November.


Will go and photo in a few the single float I am working on. Even if that proves a failure in handling for the ocean flight, Already got the fuselage set up for my favorite twin floats.[8D]

John

bikerbc

Do you have to do anything special to protect things from the salt water? I have a Saito 82 On mine...It is easy on fuel...I have a 75ax on my Tiger 60 and another one on my Ultra Sport , they are great motors..Easy on fuel , quiet , hold their tune...Just a real nice motor...I like the OSFS81 better than the Saito 82 but I didnt know that till I tried the Saito...I might get used to it as time goes by...The OS is much cleaner running...Hardly any goo too clean off after flying...

JohnBuckner

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I really have no idea about the salt water but since this is going to be a one shot deal including just one takeoff and one landing (ideally) I don,t intend to do anything much different. One nice thing about the salt though is the ship will have more bouyancy.

Your Tiger two could be an effective ship and I beleve a bit better than the ultra sport and any of the engines you mentioned would be good candidates.

Here are pics of the single float I am in the process of modifying for the Kaydet. The heavy centerline struts will be removed and am planning four struts (likely aluminium streamline tubing) positioned vertically from the sides of the fuselage and extending down the round topped float a bit. Also will need a drag strut or wire from the top of the forward struts to the bottom of the rear struts.

John

Lamoilleriver

Mr Johnbuckner, You need to buy more propellers. Having vast amounts of propellers seems to be a common addiction for us RC' ers. You got me thinking of maybe doing my own long distance float plane, either east/west across Lake Champlain, New York to Vermont or North/South from Canadian border towards Champlain Bridge. Enjoying and learning from your progress and hope everything goes well.

JohnBuckner

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Oh now would that be fantastic. A great lakes flight also this summer. Nows the time to start working on that airplane

Now all we need is someone to propose a point to point somewhere on the Mississippi also this summer.

Wow the Pacific ocean, The Great Lakes and Old Missip now that's worth surviving for

John