I put her in the air today, got 3 flights in. The Beaver flys great. My first flight was a non event, with 1click down elevator, 1 click left aileron. I checked the stall up high , she mushed staight and forward. I landed without flaps with a lil speed, a pretty wheel landing.
I dialed in some ele-flap mix for the second and third flight. She come in low and slow. The ZDZ runs excellent, I have about 3/4 gallon thru it, and sounds great with my special fabed muffler, I like em loud. I am very satisfied with the plane and engine.
My custom landing gear is solid as a rock, aluminum construction, tig welded. 6" Dubro tires give it plenty of cushion. I did raise both ailerons up just a tad, making turns, banking a lil better.

I am ready to go to the next project Cutiss Hawk and P-47 and bigger Cap232.

So I am going to sell The Beaver, probably put her in the want ads this week, I still havent done anything with the floats yet or decals. But she is built rock solid.

Well, after waiting on a few things and the usual distractions, the Beaver is almost done. I weighed it yesterday with no CG modifications and it was 19 lbs- 2 oz. I was expecting it to be a little heavier with the Sea Commander undercarriage. I will have to add 1lb- 4oz to the float tips (10 oz each float) to pull the CG in to 80mm. Total weight now will be 20 lb- 6 oz. Right where I hoped it would be.

I had to cut out access hatches on the float tips to drop in the weights. I'm working on that more tonight. Will post some more pics.

This picture is my CG machine for big planes. You may note the plane is suspended a few inces above the cradle. Very accurate for finding CG.

HI all, nice planes!

would a ST G2300 (2c 1.4) be OK for this plane with floats?

Hey there Noah, howz your flying been?? Beaver still flying too?

Just reading back thru the thread you mentioned that you remade the u/c wires to give you more height for the 20inch prop... did you end up doing it? Have you got any pictures?

Finally getting back into getting my Bea flight ready... I'll be land based for a while, but geez I hate the look of the stock set-up and am looking for a better looking alternative. Looking to add wheels to the floats later, just wanna get it airbourne for now.

Thanks for your valued contributions on our KMP Beavers

CFN, Paul

Goldie... do you have any pictures of your custom landing gear made for the Beaver??

Thanks heaps,
Paul

Have you guys having bought the KMP Beaver kit opted for the foam wing kit or the full composite kit ? I want a Beaver from ages and this kit might make me go for it. I have read that there are some quality control issues with KMP, has this been found also on the all fiber kits ?

Thanks for any info on the full composite kit
Sk

Did anyone have a problem mounting the floats. I found when mounting the gear to the bottom of the plane then setting the step of the float to the CG ,the forward gear was forward of the forward bulkhead in the float where there was no plywood to screw it down. The 3 rd set of gear from the front was over the servo hatch. Im talking about the new Green and Yellow beaver I bought in March 2008.

Anyone put an Electric in this bird? I got one of the Original yellow ones and havent started putting it together yet and was gona go Elec-LiPo on her...Any ideas?

Can anyone remember the "large" thread from last year of the KMP Beaver...?

I have had no problems mounting the floats. The incedence is right on at 2 degrees positive from the wing to the floats. Minor quality fits with the windows on the glass fuse but nothing serious. All in all I think this is a great kit and I have no complaints and have heard nothing but good about the flying habits.

Hiya Noah,

Just finally putting my floats together ( using your pictures and instructions ). On your picture you show #4 float strut as being 246mm, and you wrote using the 247mm one. I'm going with 247mm as the rear struts but can you please confirm that??

Also, how did you fix the strut braces to the floats? I have some Stainless 3/4 sheetmetal type screws to use. Going to let them self tap and then remove and drop some thin CA down into the threads made... would this be good or shall I get some machine and blind nuts?

Thanks for you help... our float-fly is in a couple of weeks []

Chow for now, Paul

Paul,

I just looked back through this thread and saw that you also asked about the wire gear that I made... I am sorry that I was not paying attention and failed to address your questions and supply pictures. If you are still interested, I can get some pictures taken this afternoon (and some measurements as well, if those would also prove helpful).

I have not flown the Beaver since January (I also have a set of self-made skis). I have been busy with other projects. I actually stripped the beaver of all servos recently in order to get another plane ready for maiden. I have all replacement servos in hand, but I just need to devote a few hours to getting the beaver back together again.

Anyway, I re-read my post and it looks as though I indicated (in both the text and the diagram) that the last strut (#4) should be 246 mm from hole to hole. Now, in all honesty we're talking about the difference of 1 mm (if you go with 247 mm strut in position 4), so it's likely that all will work just fine. Just be sure that when you finish that the wing incidence is close to 2-3 degrees positive relative to the top of the floats. Don't worry too much. Just get it close and the plane will fly just fine!

Regarding the attachment, I also used stainless screws. However, be sure to drill some appropriately-sized pilot holes in the fiberglass. You know the pilot hole is correct when the screw requires some force to get it to enter the material, but not so much that you start stripping the heads. If the pilot holes are too small, and aside from stripping the heads, you run the risk of cracking the fiberglass by driving in an over-sized screw. If the screws go in (tightly) then there's no reason to fear for water leakage. It'll be a very tight seal that prevents water entry into the floats. Try to also make sure that there is some wood below to bite into. The CA sounds like a good idea, especially if your screwing into wood. Just make sure that you let it dry completely or you'll never get those screws back out!

Don't worry about your float fly... the beaver will be great!

Let us know how is goes!

best regards,

Noah

Hi Noah,

That would be marvellous if you could do some more pictures please, especially the rudder set up and mounting position.

The positioning of the Ernest rudder mounts has me a little stumped, I have figured out that I will have to trim them some of the front part of the rudder material. My intention is to steer them via the tail wheel using something like Dubro 4-40 size push-pull cable( or some coated fishing trace wire ). So I think I'll have to have the rudder control horns above the float deck height.

I will use the 247 for the back strut seeing as I will be making the middle four up... if anything I guess it'll just slightly decrease the float wing incidence some? How it you check the float step in relation to the 80mm CG at the wing?

Many thanks, Paul

What would it require to fly this off a saltwater river? I just moved to the intercoastal waterway and this looks great!

Paul,

you're right about the rudder set-up... I forgot that I added an extension to the shaft in order to get the control horns above the top of the float, and at the same time, keep the rudder as low in the water as possible. The solution that I came up with prevented me from having to trim the rudder... I got it mounted so the front radius drops below the float. To do this I glued two shafts from two separate Ernst rudders together. I'm sure that you can come up with some surrogate material, rather than buying two as I did. Photo for details (forgive the poor quality). Also note that my rudder is made from plywood... this a consequence of getting into a rush... I broke the original plastic Ernst rudder trying to rapidly get the plane loaded into my car. So, don't worry... the plywood rudder is NOT any special performance-enhancing modification!

Anyway, I ran Kevlar fishing line from the water rudder control horns through pulleys (available from Proctor) mounted to a plywood plate. I simply bent some 2-56 wire in a "U" shape, slid on the pulleys, then CA'd these wires into holes drilled in the plywood plate. The plate was then screwed into the top of the float, just behind strut #4. From there, the lines ran through another set of pulleys (red plate in my hand). This plate is screwed to the bottom of the fuse (ply added inside the fuse for bite). From this plate, the lines crossed over one another and then were finally attached to the tail wheel via a tiller bar that I fasioned from an old dual-sided servo control arm. This took some fiddling to get it seated on the tail wheel wire (and set tightly so it wouldn't slip). Laslty, I used a couple of small-gauge springs to relieve the tension on the kevlar fishing line (also should be visible in the photos).

This set-up has held up well to two rigorous float flying seasons. I have been very pleased with both the look and the performance. By the way, I use only one water rudder. I found that it works just fine with only one rudder. So, in my opinion there is little point in trying to double the work, weight and complexity! You're call, of course.

While you may not have the exact materials lying around your shop, I think that you can substitute where required and set-up your linkage similarly.

Regarding the step and 80mm relationship, If memory serves, I simply put a carpenter's square on top of the float (above the step) and checked that the perpendicular rise of the square pointed to a spot on the bottom of the wing that was 80 mm from the leading edge. I think. I may have to think about that some more. I'm pretty sure that's how I did it. Yeah, that should work. I think. You should think about it, too. I'm almost certain that this was how I set it up. Almost.

Hope this helps!

Your beaver looks great in the air!

Let me know how it goes and whether you need additional help or clearer descriptions.

Best,

Noah

No logs or debris floating down? lol Do you mean as far as fitting one out with an engine and radio gear?

Chow for now, Paul

Noah your brilliant! Thanks for all that info.

Had another flight on the weekend ( wheeled ) it flew like a pig and I nearly lost it! Guys at the field think I had too much aileron and rudder throws and not enough expo around centre on ailerons too.

I think I had over ridden my computer settings... are well start from scratch again. Probably shouldn't re maiden it off the water though?? Hope weather OK next weekend to set it up before floats on the following weekend.

What throws did you have all around Noah? and did you use the stock under carriage at all?

Cheers, Paul

Right, Paul. You may be better off fine tuning its handling characteristics on the land before you drop her in the water.

When you say "like a pig," do you mean unresponsive and sluggish? With all that throw it should be nimble. I have as much throw as I could get out of all surfaces. I also have about 45% exponential on elevator, 30% on ailerons and rudder. The plane makes much better turns when they are coordinated (aileron + rudder). Get it out there and fly it a lot before you take it to the lake.

Regarding the wire landing gear, I disposed of the stock gear and made my own. I did, however, use the stock gear as a template to get the general shape and angles (particularly where it mounts to the bottom of the fuse. I bought a length of steel wire (music wire), solder and more of the kevlar fishing line. I found that solder was not sufficient to hold the wires together, that's why I wrapped all the joints with the kevlar and then soaked it with CA. Bullet-proof.

I'll try and get some photos when I get home from work tonight.

When you wrote, "Do you mean as far as fitting one out with an engine and radio gear?," to what were you referring? Not sure how to reply to that question!

Be in touch soon.

Noah

Thought the wheeled version for fine tuning would be the case... just was wondering if it actually flew much differently ( more sluggish? ) in the air with the floats?

Last weekend it flew the rudder was very sensitive and I needed way less throw and more expo, ailerons also were the same. Must have been my model selection program error []
I too had all the throws max'd out, the only good one luckily was the elevator. I think more than the 20-30% expo dialed in which would have helped. At the time I also had what I thought was just a little rudder mixed into the ailerons, turned out I had far too much as the Beav nosed down heavily in the turn ( nearly snapping ). Lesson here... is for ME to use my rudder!

Beav had another flight flight that day with rudder mixing off and had some stall tests done up high. Without flaps she smartly dropped the left wing, half flap it was heaps better and full flap ( includes a bit off flaperon like the fullsize ) was great... just sunk without dropping a wing at all. Only thing it did was slight yaw left which I think would be the aileron trim I've got on.

Argh well if it doesn't fly at the event I determinded to at least put in the water for a floatation test and taxiing around looking good

Keep you posted... many thanks for all your input Noah, dunno where I'd be without ya!

Chow for now, Paul

PS Do you mean as far as fitting one out with an engine and radio gear.... was referring to kart2000's Q "What would it require to fly this off a saltwater river?" as in what did he mean?? Cheers, Paul

I witnessed an attempt to fly a KMP Beaver on floats without success. It's obvious the floats were not installed properly as per the posts on this thread. I'm going to try to contact the owner or get this info to him as it was a shame not to see this plane fly.
thanks for the thread.

Hiya, What did, or didn't it do?

Definately have a good read of Noah's ( Butlern ) imformative contrabutions, especially post no 26 on this thread to gain the correct workable float to wing indicents which will help get that Beaver in the air.

From talking to an actual Beaver pilot he always took off with flaps down or it'll take forever to get airbourne.

I myself am ( touch wood ) about to try float flying this coming weekend... weather and if I can get my water rudders functionable.

Cheers, Paul

Hi everyone,
having just bought one of these a/c secondhand, i need some assistance from other owners please.
In its life it has suffered some fairly bad hangar rash and i need to re-cover a couple of areas. I have the white/black/red colourscheme. Does anyone know which type/brand of covering was used and the reference no. for the red.
The info on here is in-valuable re wing/float incidence as thats thje reason the guy sold his, he couldnt get it sorted!
Thanks in advance.

Nick.

Got a few questions for you guys....
i just bought one of these planes from a good friend of mine. It is an older model, Yellow and White. He never got it off the water, so it is still technically a virgin plane. As stated above by Jolly Roger (apparently this has happened before), this one also started it takeoff run and suddenly veered off course. Apparently this happened quite a few times, frustrating him severly. A full up take-off ended up nose down in the water.......
This is where I come in.
I don't like the original float attachment on this plane. I sways and wiggles too easily. The Floats are paper thin. He says the CG was set over the step on the floats.
So here are a couple of questions.... does anyone else have flimsy floats? do I need to cross brace with flying wires? It is powered with a Zenoah G-26ei. Is that enough engine?

Soooooo.. I ordered a set of Sea Commander floats and the corrosponding attachment set. Streamlined tubing is much more rigid than flat aluminum. I have seen these floats on a cub... and they are really well made. (pricey though)
I hope that eliviates the wobbles and (hopefully) the sudden unexpected turns on take-off.
Any thoughts on my questions?
Thanks!
CC

I just purchased a used KMP Beaver from the classified section and it is missing the fins on the stabilizer for float flying. Could someone measure theirs and provide those measurements to me? I would much appreciate it. Also, I read a few reviews where they drilled new holes in the front struts 3/8 to 1/2" up to lower the incidence without making new struts. Has anyone done this and had good results. This way does not address the step to CG location and I wonder how much of a difference that would make if any. Thanks, Mike

I recently posted a bunch of photos in my gallery of my Beaver flying from water. Some of them are actually pretty cool!

Paul, did you get to fly your from water this past weekend? Any report?

Noah