Has anyone put pontons on their CX and landed in water? I know this is dangerous in genral, but watching a heli or plane take off or land in water is neat! I know there are kits for some helis out there, the CX would not need much for a ponton. The easiest way would probably be foam carved nice and put on the skids. Opinons?

We touched on this a while ago briefly and I believe it was Soloboss (correct me if I'm wrong) that brought up the idea of using cigar tubes. I thought it was a great idea. You could cut them down to size, epoxy them together then paint them zip tie them to the landing skids and your done. Should be light enough. Might just have to try it for kicks.

Somebody may want to check my math before they drown their helicopter, but this is what I get;
water = 62.4 lb / cu ft = .036 lb / cu in = 16.33 g / cu in.
and a cigar tube that is 1.5" diameter X 10" long (big cigar) will hold 7.5 cu in. (radius x length)
And you'll need two tubes or the heli will fall over so that's 15 cu in
So 15 cu in X 16.33g = 244.95 g

And the heli is floating!
Somewhere in here the heli is getting goofy looking because the pontoons are 97% submerged. If we want the heli to sit with the pontoons only half submerged, they need to be even larger. That's based on my heli with the xtreme grips, blades, motors, Lipo, and stock flybar and cockpit with a boom at 238 grams.

Maybe we just need to glue a boat to the heli. It wouldn't look any goofier.

Possible, but I would be to affraid of it tipping over due to it being top heavy...BUT... you could use the training skids and slightly modified the ping pong balls and cross arms.

Ideas:
Add more pingpong balls to the cross bars.
Seal tight the balls with expocy.
Move 4 balls closer to the body of the heli, maybe all the way to the landing skids to keep the heli from touching the water and keep the 4 balls at the end of the cross bars for support and balance while floating in the water.
Maybe use plactic wrap to proect the bottom of your heli from splashing.
Add more balls [X(] maybe even up to 3-4 per arm. I would personal do 4 to start off with.

Please Please some one try this and take a video. I can't cause my wife would KILL me.

Also test it fight before to try to land in water, and make sure it floats first.
I know that was a stupid comment, but i've seen some stupid people. (just look at how some people drive)

I believe "TallPaul" tried it in the original CX2 post, IIRC he said there was a problem breaking the water's surface tenson on take-off.

Do you know if he used pingpong balls and the training skids? I would think that round balls would hold/create less suction to the water in take off. hehe i used suction and balls in the same sentence.

Brilliant! I didn't even consider that but great point. Not sure you would have enough lift with a CX2 to break the surface tension of the water. I guess a guy could coat it with some silicon spray.

You could always try to land it and then take off on a baking sheet filled with some water. That way, if it tips or can't lift off, you won't drown your bird.

Some excellent ideas! I usually do mods and then end up taking them off over time due to crashing. I took off the laser mod since one of my servos crapped out. Where does one get cigar tubes?

Try a cigar store.
Hey, I'm serious!

All that stuff is too heavy. Just blow up two condoms tie off and rubber band them to the skids.

Interesting idea, although party animal balloons might work just as well. I was thinking more in the lines of a inflatable item to use.

IMO sculpting white insulation styrofoam to the correct shape would do the trick. The irregular surface of the foam cells would probably decrease the surface tension, I think.

like I said - it just keeps getting goofier looking.
However I do think that your idea would work fine. The balls handle the surface tension and the wide stance handles odd landings. But I can't get past the look. Maybe if the cigar tubes were filled with helium?

What about modelling balloons?

what are modelling balloons?

I am going to give this a go tomorrow.

Here's a Frenchman's idea for floats on a T-REX...

[link]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_6ef-NHc8g[/link]

this guy put a landing pad for his cx2 on his rc bardge/boat thing.

http://www.rollonvideo.com/izlelv__1...E15A37B91.html

Those long skinny balloons that they use to make animals out of. You know, like the little dogs and stuff... I got some at the party store. Havent tried it yet though, been busy with work! Will give it a go this weekend and maybe get a pic.

just make sure somehow the skids don't pop em =) or whatever you land on =)

you could put a protective piece between the skids and the balloon just so the edge wouldn't push too hard into it or something =)

Absolutely mrasmm. They really are quite tough, but I figured I might be able to double them up to be on the safe side and give them a trial run in the kitchen. See your point though, would have to make sure there is no flashing on the underside of the skid so as not to pop them, and then a protective... something? Hmmm...

Ok, so I tried the modeling balloons and got a quick vid of my efforts. No flight just yet as, well.. you will see. Nothing spectaular here, just trying to get a good result! BTW, I also learned they interfere with the down wash of the rotors more than I would have given them credit for too.

2 minute video is [link=http://www.rcuvideos.com/item/GT8F12BW6HYKK3M1/received]here[/link]

Lol...Good attempt Chris...! Wait for the snow...You can "sled around", or the next time the Portland rains hit (probably now...Lol..) Hit to the parking lot, and look for the biggest mud-puddle you can find, and there's your lake. We'' be expecting an update...Lol..


Have a good one,


-- Jeff

lol, that was a funny vid =)

looks like you got the cg and all of that figured out... it all just might be too close to the walls and stuff..... maybe you could take a big baking pan and fill it with water and put it on the kitchen counter =) I also thought it was a really good idea to only fill the tub up just enough to let the heli float =)