WWI style floats?
02-11-2005, 12:26 PM
#1
WWI style floats?
I have an old Top Flite 'Elder' (looks a lot like an Eindecker)kit I built with the WWI vintage flat type floats. It has the tail float also. Wondering if anyone has flown these type of floats and can comment on the handling of these, both on water and in the air. I have a little HP VT 21 4S on it which is what the plans recommended.
02-12-2005, 09:09 PM
#3
RE: WWI style floats?
I flew a Florio Flier Stuntwagon with tri-floats. The floats were cut from a set of foam floats and the rear was used as the step for location purposes. I mounted the tail float to the rudder for steering.
My plane handled the water fine, but since I was flying a very lightweight, fun fly type plane powered by a Thunder Tiger .46, I could fly off the water at any time. I still had vertical so my worrying about take off was not very much. I hit the power and the tail came up. A short run, a little up and she was airborne.
Actually, I searched the web and RCY for info on tri-floats and found very little, so I just went and did it. Mine was not a really good test because of the power-to-weight ratio of my plane. I was running a 12-25-3.75 prop and had loads of pull so I could have hand launched. For a real scale plane, I would set the front floats like the front part of regular floats with respect to location and angle. Once you are on the step, the rear of floats aren't in the water, anyway. The tail float is your water rudder. The tail should pick up pretty quickly, even at taxi speeds, at least into the wind.
My plane handled the water fine, but since I was flying a very lightweight, fun fly type plane powered by a Thunder Tiger .46, I could fly off the water at any time. I still had vertical so my worrying about take off was not very much. I hit the power and the tail came up. A short run, a little up and she was airborne.
Actually, I searched the web and RCY for info on tri-floats and found very little, so I just went and did it. Mine was not a really good test because of the power-to-weight ratio of my plane. I was running a 12-25-3.75 prop and had loads of pull so I could have hand launched. For a real scale plane, I would set the front floats like the front part of regular floats with respect to location and angle. Once you are on the step, the rear of floats aren't in the water, anyway. The tail float is your water rudder. The tail should pick up pretty quickly, even at taxi speeds, at least into the wind.
02-13-2005, 09:26 AM
#4
RE: WWI style floats?
Nice pics, especially the airborne shot. My setup is very similar and on the ground, the plane rests on the front floats. I tried taxiing it on grass the other day, but couldn't get it to move much at all. I have a small patio with outdoor carpet and it skimmed on that quite easily. I have flown snow skiis on grass and that was fun, just took several seconds to get moving and then gained speed rapidly. This fall, went to the air museum ( a fantastic exhibit) at Pensacola NAS and there was a full size WWI vintage plane with the flat bottom floats like mine. Guess the next step is some high speed taxiing w/o the wing to test rudder and elevator.
