jtiller

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Here's a couple of pictures of my Falcon Trading Company Cardinal on Floats.

I have sung the praises of their Ready in a thread on here previously. I sold that one to another person in our club when I saw the ad for the new Cardinal. The cardinal has the same floats on it as the Ready but is a little bigger. Mine came out at 8 lbs on floats with a O.S. .90 4 stroke.

I put the first water flight on it last weekend and am very impressed with this airplane. The .90 is over kill. (even at 3000 feet, which is the altitude of our club's water site.) It would fly well on a lot less, but it is nice to have all that power.

Since it is a bigger plane on the same size floats it sits a little lower in the water, but that did not seem to be a problem. It came right up on step and rose smartly from the water.

I put in two aileron servos, so I have flaperons but haven't tried them yet.

There is a little open space around the gear legs, but I found no water in the fuse at the end of flying.

This thing went together fast, and is a ball to fly. Is there anyone else out there who has one of these? Any similiar experiences?

jtiller

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here's one more photo.

MORROMAXX

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Good afternoon, just wondering where can I buy the Cessna Cardinal on floats from an online hobby store?
Thanks a lot

Morromaxx

jtiller

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You can order direct from Falcon Trading Company at:
http://www.falcon-trading.com/

I got mine from my local hobby shop. Asked if they could get me one and had it in a week at the price listed on Falcon's web site. Plus I did not have to pay any shipping.

I think Quantum Models handles them too.

Hope that helps.

MORROMAXX

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Thanks a lot, I will try to get mine the same way.
Morromaxx

MORROMAXX

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I just bought it from Quantum Models and I was told their new name is Modelfy it is no longer Falcon Trading, when you look for Falcon it shows an error.
Morromaxx

jtiller

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I see the change in the name of the products to Modelfly on the FTC website. I am still able to get to the their webiste at address I posted. I'm not sure why you cannot go there.

Good luck with the kit. I am sure you will enjoy it.

Meesh

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I'm just finishing up one of these. I put an OS .61 in it. What prompted me to get this was a Ready On I saw at a local float fly in. I figure bigger can only be better!

thepope

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http://www.falcon-trading.com/index.cfm
Try this it works for me.
Bill

All Thumbs

Is it safe to assume that plane comes in all white? It appears you put your own highly visible color scheme on it.

Also, how do you like the plastic? A friend asked me what I thought of this plane and I couldn't give a good response just from looking at the pictures in their ads. Obviously you feel it's strong enough since you've purchased another, so perhaps that answers my question . I could never figure out if it was going to be cheap or something nice since I never had my hands on one. I'd like to recommend that this fellow gets one so he can float fly along with me.

His business keeps him pressed for time so I wanted to find something that looked good and went together fast.

jtiller

My Feedback: (21)

yes, I did paint it. The sticker decals that come with it are fine, but with all the white canvas I could not resist painting it. I had the local sign company make me some graphic N numbers.

The kit comes with very few parts, so your friend with little time should like that. Just remember to sand the plastic where the glue goes, it doesn't stick well to the shiny plastic.

Our float season is over so I have it back on wheels for the winter. It is quite acrobatic -- snap rolls are really quick. The flaps really help get it slowed down for landing. This is becoming one of my favorite airplanes.

danvel

I also have a similar plane (READY from ARC MODELFLY).(No floats because not many lakes near my hometown)
Its my first plane and I'm very satisfied with it.
The quality is superb; the plastic looks very sturdy.
I've learnt to fly with this plane and I'm very happy. The only disadvantage is that due to its weight, you have to fly a bit faster than with lighter trainers. Landings are a bit too fast also (sometimes I would need a longer runway) and if you try to steer without slowing down enough it tends to touch the ground with the wingtip due to centrifugal force.
Here's my photo:

Bill Rademacher

My Feedback: (77)

Hi all,

just received my cardinal and floats. Looks like a beauty. I have a lot of expereince flying floatplanes, and can't wait to get this one together.


What glues did you all use for these? I think the directions say thin ca and some epoxy for the wing...

I'll have a four stroke 91 on mine.

thanks!

Bill

danvel

I've used 15min epoxy for the wings and 5 min epoxy for the rest of the pieces.
I haven´t used any cyano because I've heard that epoxy withstands vibration and shock much better.
Don't forget to sand the pieces very well before gluing. Especially those made of fiberglass reinforced plastic.

Good luck with your new plane and have fun!.
Send a photo when finished!

Bill Rademacher

My Feedback: (77)

Well, I have the cardinal and the floats. It is going together well. Looks great.

I noticed there is no plug for the fuselage muffler indentation. I plan to use a four stroke. Did anyone else who has this plane receive a plug? I think it is part 54 in the directions, but I see none.

thanks

Bill

Meesh

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Hi Bill,

I didn't get one either. If you call Falcon Trading they will mail one to you.

Nice folks. I got mine in 2 days!

Bill Rademacher

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You are right! I emailed them, and one is on the way.

Very Cool!

Bill

Meesh

My Feedback: (135)

Bill,

I haven't flown mine off floats yet but on wheels this thing flies like it was on rails!

You're going to like it!

Red Baron Dave

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Hello all,
I am considering this 177 for a much differant purpose - racing if you can belive it!
so I will not need any floats - but what I am going to do is drop in my Clarence Lee 61 (K&B) for our clubs trainer races - but I cant find the final models weight anywhere. Can someone with the manual (or a scale) help me out here please

All the best

Dave

Meesh

My Feedback: (135)

Go to http://www.falcon-trading.com/

They have the specs listed.

Bob

Turbobeaver

A friend of mine has the Falcon Ready on floats and I have flown it a few times.He has a Enya .45 on his and it flies so,so in my opinion.The floats do work nice on the water I'll admit.They plane very nicely.I,ve got quite a few years of building and flying experience under my belt so it takes quite a bit to make any kind of impression on me.I am a scratch builder first and a kit builder second as wood is my preferred medium,not plastic for obvious reasons.
My friend on the other hand is rather new to all of this and lacks the patience/building skills to put together a descent BIY float plane.He loves this thing....but said he would never buy another one.He has had it for 2 years now and it looks like hell with all the cracks and splits every where on this thing.ABS is a pain in the butt to repair and to get it to look like anything when your done.He has had plenty of problems with his plane,ranging from floats falling partially off in flight to wing bolt pad mounting problems etc.If you have a mishap with one of these planes,there's really no fixing it per say.You just order more replacement parts.My friend is on his third set of float LG cross braces and they have to be special ordered in everytime.Parts are not cheap for these things either.He says they look nice when they're new and fly O.K but hates the hassles of working with repairing ABS and constantly ordering more plastic replacement parts($$).Worst of all is your single sourced for parts.Here today,gone tomorrow?Who knows the answer to that one.Things change very quickly in the hobby industry.He has since discovered that repairing balsa and plywood is a dang site cheaper and easier to work with/find than working with these ABS ARF models.Bottom line is........different strokes for different folks.A more experienced builder,flyer would probably have far less problems than my friend did.If you don't crash it or damage it,there's nothing to fix.With that said,how realistic is that.As the saying goes in R/C,"we build em to eventually crash em!"Even good pilots have bad days.

Bill Rademacher

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I have the cardinal with a Saito .91 in the nose. It flies great and looks great.

If you do the routine maintenance on it, you wont have any problems with it.

It looks very real in the air. It is awesome on floats.
Bill.

Red Baron Dave

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Thank you Turbo, those are some of the REAL lessons that I was looking forward to, without openning my pocketbook
With that said of COURSE I will NEVER even ding a prop so she should ALWAYS look nice and NEVER have to do repairs on her...
Their site gives some very detailed and drawn out advise about how to 'repair' the plastic with heat - that is why I am GETTING off my Thunder Tiger Trainer 60 with the ABS turtledeck and upper fuse, it started to sag so I 'briefly' hit it with the heat gun - mistake. It looks just like you would expect a plastic milk jug to look after exposing it to heat - wrinkled (plane is still a gental flyer)
So it comes down to:
Beauty over function?
It still 'appears' to be on the heavy side after all this debate - any other takers?

Get it blue between you and her

Meesh

My Feedback: (135)

Even the die hard 'woodpeckers" in the club were impressed when I brought my Cardinal to the field although they thought it was "heavy". After they saw it fly and some flew it, they said that they were surprised at how well it flew. I let the resident "expert" pilot fly it and he was further impressed with its' aerobatic capabilities.

I have to say that this plane is almost indestructible. I've had some real hard "landings" with this that would have turned the typical balsa trainer into toothpicks. This plane took it all in stride.

Oh yeah, did I mention that it looks great also?

I think this plane is one of the best kept secrets in the hobby.