I only have one float plane and it is my old trainer on floats (nothing special) I don't get to fly it much. The other day a boinked a landing in fresh water and the floats stopped as the plane kept flying/falling. It hit the water very smooth on the fuse and then began to slowly fill with water. It sank to the wings before I could swim out to it..

The real question is what do I do now. I dried it off by keeping it in a hot suv for about three days and tested the electronics yesterday. One servo is toast but everything else checks out. The receiver was in a plastic bag but thats it. All the other servos got soaked.

Anyone else have any experience with this sort of thing?

The airframe, engine and electronics all need different attention and it should have been started as soon as you got it out of the water. You already should have removed as much water as possible, turned the engine over to get any water out, if a lot got into the engine pull the plug and spin it over fast. Then and this is important, start the engine up and let it run until it reaches operating temperature to burn out any remaining water and to lubricate it with the oil in your fuel. You don't need the radio for this, operate it manually. Then pay attention to your radio gear. In fresh water most things will dry out and start working again. If you are in hi mineral water or very polluted water I would open everything up (radio equipment) and rinse it with good clean water, distilled if you have it. Trake that servo that doesn't work apart (bottom part) and rinse it. Set it in the sun or in your attic or hot car for a while. Hopefully it'll work again soon too. As far as your airframe once you get it dry check for crash damage, loose glue joints especially if a water based glue was used and warping of any wood parts. Warped wings are common and can be straightend with a head gun. Range check everything before you fly again.

Good luck!

I also suggest as soon as possible opening up the receiver and servos, blotting them dry with a paper towel and then use a heat gun to further dry and then set in a dry atmosphere for a day or so before closing back up. Completely agree with the need to run the engine as soon as you get it to the shore.

Finally, and probably most importantly - you should never, repeat never, plan that your retrieval technique is swimming out to the plane. You should always have a boat available for this. I've seen folks have to swim until they were out beyond their swimming capability due to a combination of their initial burst of adrenalin to get to their precious plane and a breeze blowing the plane ever further from shore. Never heard of a loss of life from this, but it seems like an unnecessary risk.

AND if you have a 4-stroke motor you have problems. When a hot 4-stroke engine hits cold water, the air in the crankcase shrinks and sucks in a glop of water. The bearings don't dry out just from running it up to temp, so flush the bearings with a corrosion inhibiting oil like corrosion-X or marvel Air tool oil.

Thanks for all the great replies.. BTW Here is a couple of photos.....

That middle picture of the fly-by looks cool. Shame it had to sink!

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned that you said you "swam to it".

First rule of float-flying, have a boat! At least on RCU. If you are a confident
swimmer and the lake isn't polluted, then whatever works is good.

If I had to swim after mine, I'd just go ahead and call in a scuba rescue team,
'cause I ain't swimming for it! Or, treat it like a fly-away, and say bye-bye![X(]

I swam because it was so close to shore.. I have a ski boat but it just wasn't worth getting it underway to go 40' into the water. Besides my friends and I are all very accomplished swimmers and we were all on a team together (years ago) and swim the lake on a regular basis. A real non issue but you would have had to have been there.... I had just crawled out of the water a few minutes before because the group wanted one more encore flight. I would probably use the boat if it were more than 100' or was moving away because of wind or current.

In any case the plane is all but repaired. I really just slapped the floats on for the weekend and neglected to make it a true float plane by sealing all the holes. The holes are now sealed and the wing saddle is now water resistant to some degree, and I have re-enforced the mount points to make them sea worthy.. I don't thing they will fall of so easily next time.

The lake is a private resort owned by the property owners and we all use it mainly for wakeboarding/waterskiing. In the morning it is all but empty and a really great place to fly. I have never flown off water before that day- but I often thought about it. In the future you can bet I will be bringing one more or more float planes for the weekend. What fun....

Sorry Jim I don't agree with you on this one, you've seen my Quaker with the Saito .56 and it's been under too many time to count and I just flip the motor over to clear the water, prime it with a finger over the carb, start it and get it in the air. I've been flying the same motor on the Quaker for at least eight years and have never replaced bearings or had any issues with it. I just make sure I don't put it to bed "wet".

N7OR -

Perhaps if you read the earlier post of mine where I said

You would see that I completely agree with you and the comments from the original poster don't change my perspective at all. Safety first, last and always is the only way to go in this hobby/sport.

Why do I suspect that if I were able to see through you computer screen this it what I would see!!!

Great pic Broken. The more I think about the more I giggle.

If that's not a classic.... it should be


John