Hey floatplane experts, are my aileron servos at risk on a low wing plane like an astro hog or supersportster? If so should I seal them with with something like vaseline? Don't laugh but seems like there's lots of water splashing up under there and could render them useless. Thanks for any responses.

Jim over by the lake

You can open the servo up and spray it with Corrosion-X.

You can cover the front of the servo with the plastic bubble from a spinner package. Great Planes ones work great. I attach with canopy glue.

Bluebird standard servos, the 600 series, are water proof. I have tested them in the lake and in a water glass. Mine have not leaked where as the Hitechs fill up with water.

I have had several planes with standard miscellaneous servos mounted under the wing and never a problem. Water exposure to the servo is momentary and it blows off as soon as you take off or pull any Gs. I suppose water could wick uphill with capillary action, but it has to get thru the greasy gearset first before it can hurt the electronics.

Now a servo buried in a float is entirely different. I'd dunk one of those in wax before using it that way.

Love the spinner cone package idea!

Thanks Jim. I'll throw the Astro Hog and later the Super Sportster in the lake then. I also like the cover idea too if nothing else for the looks. Painted to match.

I would pack Vasiline in geartrain.. The electronics don't seen to get wet, but I've had some (servos with bearings) that the upper bearing rusted and froze solid.. It didn't freeze while flying, but as it sat in the basement between floatflys... Capillary action is probably how it got there...

I had a pair of aileron servos fail due to water getting into the circuit board. One failed full up when flying...put the model into the prettiest flat spin you ever saw...unfortunately, nothing would break the spin and it went splat! The other servo seized up solid during the post mortem.....


An ounce of prevention.........

I do my best to mount all the servos and rx in a light weight box with a plexyglass topin the fuseand use linkage to control the surfaces. The less exposure to water the better.