Freakazoid

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Hi all,

There will be a big fair next friday in Dortmund, and Im planning on buying a new spacescooter since my old one is showing signs of wear and tear. I still would like to patch up the old gall and have it spend the rest of its days as an actuall waterplane. To do so, I was thinking of using a GWS float set, as this set seems to have nice plastic tubs to put on the foam floats, so I guess the plane has less water resistance as with all those foam-only ones. Am I correct in thinking so?

Heres the plane in question:


And these are the floats I want to use:


But with all the wetness, it brings forth a whole bunch of new things that ive never encountered before.

So heres a barrage of questions for you guys :
The battery and reciever can be shoved into a balloon if needed, but what should I do to prevent the linkages and tail screws from going all rusty? And can the servos deal with a little bit of splashing, or do I need to cover them up? Is the rudder on this model big enough to chug around on the water? The plane weighs around 575 grams (20.2oz), is this light enough for those GWS floats? The motor is a 1750Kv outrunner with about 500grams (17.6oz) of thrust, is this strong enough to pull up from the water? The prop is a 7x5" APC one, will the plane ride high enough for it not to hit the water? The motor is on the outside of the plane, do I need to do something to protect it? And IF the motor gets wet, is this going to a serious and easily noticable problem? Will it get all nasty about the big floats hanging from its belly, while flying?


I eagerly await your responce. [8D]

JimCasey

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Even with the floats you will still have a thrust/weight ratio of greater than 0,5. I can't imagine that it would not fly.

The only thing bad I EVER read about GWS floats was that they are a bit fussy about trimming them so the seam seals properly. Otherwise all sorts of planes-even with brush-type motors. are able to lug them about the sky. They are really shaped quite nicely for low drag. I have not checked the length, but the floats should be lone enough so that the step is at the balance point or just a bit aft, and the nose of the floats extends in front of the prop a bit. I have flown planes with shorter floats, so I know it is possible anyway, but long-enough floats really help keep the prop dry on takeoff and help prevent prop strikes when beaching.


You can attach them by cutting slots into the bottom of your fuselage and dropping the wires in in with a bit of epoxy. You may wish to add some light wire drag links from the front upper of the struts to the rear lower-just to keep the struts from collapsing to the rear on landing or beaching. The drag wires can be fishing leader or guitar strings...soldered carefully to the struts before epoxying them into the heat-sensitive foam fuselage.

With the wing-shape like the scooter has, I would rig the floats so you get noticeable positive incidence of the wing to the float. My first Wild Guess would be to have the leading edge of the wing (at the fuselage joint) a centimeter higher than the trailing edge when the floats are in a level fixture. Hold a small amount of up elevator when taking off and it will lift off when it is ready.

Freakazoid

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Sounds fun. Thanks for the tips.

I was thinking of glueing in a couple wooden slots, to prevent the skimpy thin wire U bend from jossing about the flexible foam and becoming loose. Might even make it so that I can remove the floats simply by undoing 2 little bolts, to make transport just a little easier.

But what about protecting the electronics? And is the little rudder sufficient for water navigation? And is the plane light enough for these floats?