Looking for information on setting up a float fly pond.Wanting information on what size pond is the general size required to fly off.
Our club here in Melbourne Australia is looking at setting up a float fly pond.We own our own land which is 105 acres in size.
We are a lucky group of modelers that have a membership of 185 members.We are in the planning stage / budget phase of the project.

can any one provide any information ?

Our club is P&DARCS

Web Site : www.pdarcs.com.au

Regards

Paul

Well, most of the requirements are the same as a flying field: Lots of open space, no trees at the takeoff or approach ends, etc.

As for the size of the pond, you'll want at least twice the length of a normal runway in every direction.

Most people just use a local lake where they can bring a retrieval boat and they fly from a dock or beach.

The club I flew at for years had a 100' x 600' pond/water tank. more than enough to fly in and out. wasn't bad for retrieval if flipped one. fishing pole would do it if no breeze.

I would think a couple of acres minimum with .40 and up size planes. Any smaller might be hard to line up for landing. The 80 acre one we used would be the max.  When you go out with the retrieval boat it would get wobbly. It must be nice to control the size of the lake.  Make it 3 feet deep to walk out and get the dead planes.

I would think 50m long by half that wide would be absolute minimum for seamasters and skilled pilots. One of the things I love about flying off water is that the landing area is huge, so more is better. It dosn't have to be very deep at all. A foot or less would work fine. Smaller planes could land in less area. We have 3 docks, spaced at 50 ft intervals and I can do two consecutive touch and go's in the space between them with my capricorn. I am always suprised how far a plane can stay on step with a hot aproach though, esp when it's headed for something solid..... It would help if the beach was forgiving and not a cement wall.

How big can you get?
I would think 150 yards diameter would be comfortable for takeoff and touchdown, as long as there are no banks or obstructions around it. Any smaller will limit your models.
Double that size would be better as you will then be over water for much of the flight.

Our loch at home is over a mile long and the waves get quite big (uncomfortably big)with 15 mph onshore winds, so heaven will have 1/4 mile smooth paved runways, 1/4 milesquare grass and 1/4 mile diameter 3 ft deep lake, all an easy walk from the clubhouse.

While a shallow pond is convenient if you can walk out to get your dead ducks it will be a problem on windy days. Shallow ponds get whipped into short choppy waves that are tough on float planes. A deeper pond will be less susceptible to wind - although when it does get whipped up the waves will be serious!

I visited a club at Greve in Copenhagen, Denmark.
They have a pond for waterplanes and boats, 115 metres long by 32 metres wide (380 x 105 ft) so it is unidirectional but the 115 metres is long enough and unobstructed enough as a runway.
Check it out on Google Earth at 55deg 35'49.10 N; 12deg 16'43.28 E
The main problem there is that after a few years it is unusable due to weed. A shallow pond will get clogged with weed quite quickly.
Do you have a solution to the weed problem?