All finished and ready to fly. I don't know how I did it but it came in under the weight of the original built by Nick Ziroli, his came in at 8.5 pounds and mine is right at 8 pounds even. His wing loading is 25 ounces per Sq. foot. Mine is using an engine twice the size of the one he used and I fully sheeted, glassed and painted mine using Klass Kote paint. The other one I built at the same time is way lighter then mine and is electric powered with open bay wing? Go figure.
Even with the added weight of the YS 1.10 up front and mounting everything I could forward I needed 2 ounces of lead to get the CG. I even used the heaviest spinner I could find. Mr. Ziroli needed a pound of lead in the nose to get his CG correct.
Maiden is going to be from land this week, the floats won't be tried until next spring or early summer. Looks way cooler with the floats on it though.
Specs are 63 inch gull wing.
Wing loading of about 22 ounces per Sq. foot.
Engine required is stated as .40 to .50. Right!! good luck with that.
Weight should be around 8 pounds but is stated at 8.5?
I kept everything aft of the CG as light as I could knowing from the building article it was going to be way tail heavy.
The weight with the land gear and floats isn't much different and may be why his came out heavier then mine but the floats are very light weight.
Had to give the old engine a valve job yesterday, a real thrill getting those little spring hold down clips in there. Don't want to pull the valves again any time soon. Fired it up today and was impressed with all the new found compression, happens when your exhaust valve isn't stuck open.
Anyway, maiden this week if the weather holds.

Gorgeous, GB! 

Thanks Ed, the builds were fun and I can't wait until the friend I built the other one for gets his finished but things keep getting in his way. Should be cool to see one with an electric motor. He has all the gear ready to get his finished. Has everything he needs but time.

Were the floats pictured before?<div>
</div><div>I have trouble associating old-time designs with electric. The smell of nitro and castor is part of the charm.  </div>

Two old farts with there new Swoose float planes. This is the only photo with both of the planes on floats at that point. It only takes about 3 minutes to change from floats to land gear. I built both the gear skirts to fit each plane. They are both a little different. The one I built for Smitty is quite a bit lighter with the open bay wing and no glassing. He is covering with Solartex and hasn't decided on the color. He is also making up an extended motor mount trying to get the electric motor out as far as he can. Then I will make up a glass cowl for his. I miss measured on my cowl when I made up the foam plug so I had to cut off the nose of it by a couple inches. I may make up another cowl after test flying and the trim work? Once I'm sure it will fly I will be making changes. The floats look good with there skirts on.

[8D]That is an absolutely beautiful aircraft! My hat is off to you.

Thank you Jerry, the Swoose is one of those planes everyone loves but you never see them at any of the flying events, land or water? The build isn't that hard and the gull wing was easy to do with the building jig. I did them both as two halves like you would do with most builds. The jig worked so well that both wings incidenced almost perfect. That was a first for me and the first time I tried using a jig to build a gull wing. Mr. Ziroil even gives you the angle to make the jig with on the plans. He only mentions it in passing on the build article though. I knew I would build one some day and I cut out and kept the airicle from MAN in 1989. It was some help but he glossed over everything and went into no real detail.
It's just a flat bottom wing but the plane looks sleek and fast, we'll see soon.

Very nice Gene. Great looking paint scheme!

Geat job Gene, it is certainly a unique looking plane, one that I'm sure will garner lots of attention at the flying field. I need to build one for my hangar! Good luck on your maiden....Any possibility of posting a video of the maiden for us to see?

Good luck Gene..Are you going to do the maiden yourself? I somtimes like to turn it over to a trusted friend depending on how I feel...We worry about wrapping our radio gear in foam but on the maiden we should also include our knees....I have been watching for months now and you have done a fantastic job on the two planes..You deserve to be very proud..Yours looks great..It will look even better on floats with the skirts on ..

Great job on those models GB which is of course what most of us have come to expect from you. Glad you got the YS up and running, sure hope the weather cooperates and the maiden goes well. Don't forget the flight pictures

Karol

Nice looking plane. BTW- is that your daughter in the background?

Looking good Gene. [8D]

WOW Gene, you just scored more points then anyone has in a long time.
Not a chance for video. I tried that with the only guy with a video camera with my last maiden and he just can't seem to follow a plane even when it's slow and close with me telling him in advance what I was going to do. I had also thought about going out after 11 during the week to do it while I was alone. I probably won't do that though but unlike my old clubs no one on the lake bed cares if you are doing a maiden and will be flying right along with you. Most clubs allow a maiden flight to be done with no one else in the air.
At one point in time I had an advanced instructor that was ranked very high in Pattern. I had him inspect ll my planes and do the maidens for me. He had a very bad stroke and can no longer fly. That was a long time ago.
After that I looked around the club and discovered there were no other pilots that were all that much better then myself and sure no one I trusted with any of my planes, from that day forward no one has ever maiden-ed any plane of mine. Mater of fact I started being the go to guy for maiden flights. I really didn't like doing it for others so unless they ask me I sure won't volunteer.
However, if I build or assemble a plane for someone then I will do the maiden flight. We had one club member that was doing the maiden flights for people and when he crashed, it was always something wrong with the plane or set up. After that if I built of assembled the plane I did the trim flight, landed, handed the TX to the owner and got my money, from then on if the plane died it wasn't my problem.
I do have someone else help check out my controls though. I have them stand there and I say something like left turn ailerons and they make sure they are correct too. I also hold the plane at the CG and they stand off to see if it's OK. Then I fly it.
I don't ever get that sweat on my forehead or shake in my knees except on the maiden flight, I miss the feeling so I look forward to it. If something goes wrong it's my problem and I know I did everything I could to save the plane, if it was someone else on the sticks I would wonder if there wasn't something more to be done?
That nerve problem was always a lot more when I was flying big planes. There was so much money and time in a big plane, 40% and bigger really caused the shakes, anything scale is another one. The little Swoose, not so much.

Took it out this morning for the maiden, got it all set up and discovered the battery pack I had in it was bad. I had it fully charged two days ago but today it was below the 4.8 so I will make up a fresh 6 volt pack with Eneloope's.

See that is Santa's way of saying let the other Gene Maiden it.

Just come on down!!! I have no pride. I'll email you with the high lights of my day.
Gene

Karol

Ha ha you guys are funny ..Good luck Gene..Boy am I glad you discovered the bad batt pac...Nothing better than a good pre flite....Lots of guys dont do that but it catches up....

Looks great! Good luck with the maiden.

A bad pre flight has jumped up and bit me in the butt, mater of fact a couple of times. I just happen to have learned my lesson, FINALLY!!! I tend to succumb to peer pressure, you know, the guys standing around your new plane you are having pre flight problems with. I'm that dumbass that always says what the heck and will take the plane up even when I know better. No more though. The Swoose is just a little plane, I don't have a lot of time or money in it but I do want to fly the little guy from water at least once.
Last summer I finished the build on my 1/4 scale Sukhoi. When I took it out for maiden the engine wasn't running correctly. Like ignition problems, a big ignition problem. That dumbass married to my wife decided to fly it anyway. This fool should be locked up!! 4 or 5 minutes into the flight the RF got to the receiver and I had no control, couldn't even kill the engine and come in dead stick. Another summer project scattered on the desert floor over stupid!!
I made up a new super duper battery pack for the swoose yesterday so it's just waiting for the right day to maiden. Storms and cold fronts have moved into our area so it may be a few days.

Having followed the build of the Sukhoi it was painful for me to see it all busted up. Glad you hopefully FINALLY learnt your lesson.

Karol