Scott_nra

Have you flown it yet? How did it do?

turbobob

Last night I finally got around to putting in the micro servos, ESC and receiver. Now all I have to do is wait for a break in the rain, maybe this weekend.
I have done glide test and it seemed like it will fly if it has enough power from the little 250 motor. I am using an old cell phone NIMH battery (got for free from AT&T phone store) that I took apart, nice and small and will run for a long time. I hooked it up to the motor to test and it ran for almost 40 minutes befor it started to slow down noticebly.
Enjoy
Turbo Bob

strato911

Hey Bob - rather than waiting for the perfect weather outside, maybe your local High School / College / University will let you fly it in their gymnasium. With such a small size and light weight, it'll probably be better off indoors.

turbobob

Well I would if I thought I was good enough to not crash into a wall or the floor. I have only been flying about 3 months now and my landings are still more of a semi controled crash
Of course this is a seaplane and has no landing gear any way.
I should look in to it because there is a middle school about a block away from me.
Turbob Bob

strato911

The indoor flyers around here (not me) recently got kicked out of an airport hanger they've been using for years, due to security changes after 9/11), and now fly in a College gym.

turbobob

Here are the latest pics of the seaplane. All the radio and electronics are in and it is ready to fly.

turbobob

If you notice I found a trick for hooking up the control wires. I used some pieces of stripped off wire insulation pushed on the end of the control wire as keepers. Works great and was FREE!

Scott_nra

Hey TB! That is pretty cool. I can't wait to hear how it flys! I got a boat to play with this summer and might try to build me something to fly at the river too.

turbobob

Here is a good shot showing the pontoons and the basic shape of the bottom.
As soon as we get a break in the weather I will try it out.

ryanrink

Job well done. I love it! I wish i had the talent all you guys have. It seems like you guys just whip planes out. I've been working on a .061 floatplane (my own design) for ever and I keep having to go back to the drawing board. I'm Really curious on how it flies. let us know. by the way, would you be interested in building one for me ;-)

ryan

Scott_nra

Ryan, thanks for noticing. Yep. I whipped out my Chicken Boy foamy from meat trays in about 10 hours. Here's the catch... it was in spurts of sometimes 10 minutes at a time over about 1-1/2 months!

You do what you gotta do. then you do what you can do with whatever is left.

The best part of foamie PF planes is they are are real cheap on material and the gear you can re-use once you bang 'em up so much that they are more epoxy than foam and no longer air worthy.

It will be a while before I spend $120 on a foam plane again just because it's a bit prettier.

jamin

My Feedback: (2)

Here is my first scratch built. Got basic plans from http://geocities.com/hoppyfl/

Wing span is 29" and use 300 GWS C geared motor.
Made form sturdy board with paper removed. Uses 350mah 6 cell 2/3 aa pack. First taxi ended in flight!!! just jumped into the air. First loop resulted in snapped upper wing support. Rebuilt with inproved support and hope to fly again tomorrow. Has A/E, fixed rudder. Based on Ultimate Biplane.

turbobob

Well I finally got a break in the weather and took the plane out to test. As predicted by several people, the high mount of the motor caused the plane to dive as soon as power was applied.
So went back to the house and moved the motor down to the nose.
Dosn't look as cool and would be a problem if I actually try to land on water. Went back to the park to test it out.
IT FLY'S!! Very under powered and basically just fly's along losing altitude slowly. As soon as I try to climb it just stalls and drops even more. Got 5 or so quick flights by tossing off of a hill to test the controls and trim it out.
I am running a 4.5 volt NIMH cell phone battery and will have to try a 6 volt that I have. I think once it gets a little more juice it should fly nice. There were some other guys there flying there zagi's and they just could not believe what they were looking at.
I will not be able to try it out again till next week end as it gets dark before I get home from work.
I will post a picture in the next frame. I am sorry there is only a couple, I was there by my self and had to take the picture with one hand while trying to fly with the other. Got several pics of the empty sky before I finally got one with the plane in it.

Turbo Bob

turbobob

The pic did not load so I will try again.

turbobob

That is so weird. The picture is not showing up but if I click on "show full size" it comes up.
Oh well, I tried twice so maybe when I get some more pics it will work like it is supposed to.
later all.
Turbo Bob

Scott_nra

I wonder how it would act if you put a 280 motor on it in the origonal location and moounted it with an upward tilt. Hmmmmmmm. Just a thought. You must be on the right track though. It's flying and you brought it home in one piece. That is as much an accomplishment.

ryanrink

nooo, dont put the engine in the nose...that would be an insult to floatplanes every where. maybe if you put it just above the lower wing enough to clear the fuse the pitching problem wouldn't be as noticable. you should defitenly find a small pond or pool somewhere and see if its seaworthy. that would be really cool. i've never seen a park flyer seaplane. enough power and i think it could rise of the water w/o a step (or does it have one?) you prolly didn't intend to fly it off water but...why not, that would be really cool. thats great news it flies, keep up the creativity.

turbobob

Well I had to make some major changes to the Foam Tray plane. I just could not get it to do any thing but fly around slowly loosing altitude. I tried several different prop sizes and even put a hot speed 280 on it.
So finally I went back to the drawing board so to speak, I put 2 of the original 9V Johnson’s on it in a pusher set up with little Sky Zap props. First on the top wing, big mistake, as mentioned in earlier posts, as soon as I applied the power it dove straight into the ground. After some hot glue and a few Popsicle sticks it was back together again. Now I put the motors on the lower wing still in pusher mode and tried again. SUCCESS!!!! It flies great, tons of power, does loops from level flight and flies around for about 10 minutes before the cut off kicks in. I even had a bad landing and caught a wing tip on a bush and broke one of the lower wing ends off. So I just broke the other one off at the same place and it flew again.
I have now glued it all back together and will be taking it out this weekend again.
I know it is a seaplane but I have also added some wheels so I can do ROG and touch and goes.
This one is pretty beat up now so I think I will make a new one and add the step in the hull so that it can see if it will ROW.
This is now one fun and cheap little plane.
I cant beleive how much fun I am having with so little money invested.
I will post a couple of pics in the next post.
Turbo Bob

turbobob

Here is the successful set up.

turbobob

Picture

ryanrink

hey turbobob, you wouldn't have happened to make any plans for that, CAD or just sketched? or even a parts list? dont worry about it if you haven't made any plans, not a big deal, i just would like tinkering with something like that in my spare time and im new to the foam thing and the special considerations to the building process.

Scott_nra

Excelent TB! I love the twin set up. You should think about sending a pick or two to backyard flier mag.

I went out this weeekend and flew my v-tail sailplane. (More to come on that soon.) I have problems with drag from the wing design and will most likely scrap it for a solid pink foam wing. Still looking for one that I think willl suit my need. I may even do a thin airfoil and sheet it with balsa. As it is now once the forward air speed bleeds off due to drag it just sinks gently to the ground with little forward travel and no more lift.

Watch my gallery for pics to come. If you check out the gallery you'll see the picks of my tray stunt plane "chicken boy". (The plane next to my post)

You have done a great job on that bird! If you can, post some more picks in your own gallery sometime. MAbey some flying shots. (on my to do list too)

diabolic-mind

its an old post but thats a nice bipe!