dionysusbacchus

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I have never flown a float plane of any kind and I was wondering if I could fly a Japanese A6M2 Rufe as a first float plane? It has a 78 3/4!QUOT! wing and weighs 18lbs. I am a very experienced scale flier, but I was wondering what I should know about flying from water and if anyone has experience with a float configuration like this, is it tricky or stable in the water?

Thanks,

Luke

scale only 4 me

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If you think you have the Cahoneas!! sure give it a try, I hope it has plenty of power and operational flaps!! you'll need them

my buddies I just built for him, much smaller,,World models arf converted

Neo02

Hi Luke,

just be sure to point the model straight into the wind for takeoff and landing, as otherwise it will be impossible to lift off from water... This configuration, while excellent in flight, is quite tricky in the water.
It sounds like an interesting project for a scale or semi-scale model. Hope you have lots of fun with it and report when you're about to take off!

Regards,
-Fabrizio

JL1

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A friend of mine owns a 60" Rufe which he and I have flown several times. It flies well but the water handling can be a little tricky. Depending on winds, one or the other of the tip floats will want to drag while taxi ing before take off. The plane will want to turn in that direction and you need a powerfull water rudder to counter the float induced turning. Once you start to accelerate for take off, it becomes much more directionally stable. Another sort of odd thing that he and I both experienced was that it was easy to become dis oriented as to the flight attitude of the plane. It was hard to tell if the plane was turning toward or away from you. All of the floats hanging off the bottom seemed to "confuse" the sight picture.
I had a scale OS2U Kingfisher that was the same way. Maybe it was the color scheme and maybe it was just us but we both experienced the same difficulty.

scale only 4 me

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I've never experienced that phenomena with my Kingfisher, but I have with other planes, Slope Gliders mostly. This happens not because of the planes configuration but the fact your looking towards the sun, when the plane "Silhouettes" you get that "playing trick on you eyes" Phenomena. You need to remember which way it's going and not trust you eyes.

If the tip floats on your Buddy's plane are digging in, one or two or both things may be wrong, the tip floats are to small(not buoyant enough) and/or they are set at to shallow of an angle.

JimCasey

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Amen to the too-shallow tip floats causing problems. A buddy of mine scratch-built a flying boat, and he curved the profile of the tip floats a little too much, so they were actually inclined upward where they touched the water. Once a tip-float touched, it stuck but good! It was impossible to take off until he reprofiled the tip floats.

For the Rufe, Point it into the wind, Hold it level with delicate touches of aileron, and also be quite gentle on rudder as left rudder will make it roll right while it is on the water. My only experience with single central float was a TF Kittiwake, and I made a lot of high-speed runs to a splashy immediate stop because the tip-floats would catch. Then I learned to be more gentle on rudder and to keep it level.......also I took off the tip floats.

JL1

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The tip floats were not "digging in". I am familiar with tip float angles, both the "Rufe" and the OS2U had inclined tip floats and handled well. In my experience with central float models, one of the tip floats, generally, will exhibit more drag than the other and the model will want to turn into that float at low taxi speeds when the air rudder is not effective. This can be offset to some degree with aileron (or differential power with a twin) but it usually requires a good water rudder to overcome. Bottom line, don't build a central float model without a water rudder if good, low speed control is important. If you are going to do all of your surface maneuvers "on the step", then it is not so important.

scale only 4 me

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Oh, I misunderstood the severity of the condition.
A firm water rudder is a necessity on and float plane, but even more so with a single float design, True dat.
I never saw that condition as a hindrance to taxing, just a characteristic of the plane, never really seamed to be a big issue with me. Motor/Rudder overcome all

Luke do you have a pic of the actual plane? That's just a plastic model you posted right?
Also Luke, you're going to need to remember that, that plane now has turned from a Giant scale Zero into a Giant scale Dragmonster, Watch your speed, all that drag will slow that plane down fast while landing. Use flaps and keep the power on and your left thumb ready. It won't want to tip stall that bad, because of the low CG, but it will drop like a rock if you slow too much. Roll Video!!

Good luck, wish I could be there

dionysusbacchus

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Thank you everyone for this very informative discussion. I don't feel so intimidated now, so is that good?! Scale only 4 me, yes that is a plastic model. The one I have is not complete, I am currently involved in another project, on the plus side the other project (my Corsair) is almost done. I want to finish the Zero in a couple of months. It's not going to be an all out scale job, I'm going to try my hardest to not add to much detail! I will post pictures here when I get going on it so you all can follow along if you like. I would also like everyones assistance and advice if you would be so kind to give it!

I'll keep you posted,

Luke