Re: Thanks a lot! - And the bad news: I got bored... again...

Hi Jenni,
Congratulations - you've come a looong way. Do you have an engineering
background? I assume the "stick to the water" experience occurred on a calm
day when the surface was glassy (no ripples). You can make T.O.s much
easier by taxiing in a circle (male ripples) then take off across the
ripples. Helps break the suction.) That's a technique full scale seaplane
pilots use. Wish you continued success and fun - hope you can get your
husband involved. It will make it easier to get stuff you want if both of
you want it! ;-))

"Jennifer Smith" <jennifer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:V6idnYxpa9Wg7QXZnZ2dnUVZ_oudnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
First and foremost, thanks a lot for your guys help with retracts, and for
clarifying the downwind issue.

The retracts work perfectly now, and the answer to the tail "breaking out"
on downwind laps was indeed to hit the throttle - the plane then gets a
bit twitchy when a gust hits it, but nothing too serious. I'm thinking of
putting a gyro in as a stabilizer, that ought to take care of it I guess.

Well... and since I love my plane so much I decided to build another one,
fixing the various bad design ideas I had when building the first 200%
Stryker. Also, I wanted to have it land on water... (yeh, I do get weird
ideas at times)

Things fixed:
- Wing attachment is now done with three hollow CF tubes in the center
body part, into which I insert the wings CF rods. More difficult to align
during construction, but sturdier. Fixing the wings in place is still done
with collars that get screwed onto the CF rods inside the main body. I
might experiment with rubber bands, but so far I don't trust them.
- Rear end considerably strengthened by putting a couple more CF rods
lengthwise from the motor mounts almost all the way to the front.
- Leading wing edge reinforced with a CF rod to prevent transport damage
(dents - my car is a little on the small-ish side for that hobby).
- Vertical fins cut down in half and slightly reshaped to allow for a
little more prop clearance.
- Air intake inlets redesigned to guide the air over the batteries and
ESC, then out right past the twin engines.

Since I wanted it to land (and takeoff) from water, I put a "drain"
approximately two inches from the air intake, and routed the air flow so
that water should never get into the main compartment. Out of paranoia I
did however put spacers below the electronics so that even if water gets
there, it _should_ run under the electronics, not through them :)

Well, floats... I had read up on all kinds of floats, but since the plane
is still comparatively lightweigt despite all the added CF, I decided to
build my own... Yes, yes... I am crazy. :)

I used thin 2mm depron, and glued it together with a CF rod in it. The rod
sticks out on top and on bottom. I made three pieces this way, all vaguely
shaped like this: |___/ - these are holding the floats. One piece
additionally has a hollow CF rod in it, meant for steering later, and the
CF rod does not extend through to the bottom.

The leading edge got sharpened, the rear edge just mildly blunted, in
hopes to reduce drag. On the bottom of these things I glued flat-bottomed,
hollow ski-shaped boxes, again hand made from depron. The lower end of the
CF rod goes into each of these boxes. The rear, wing mounted ones are
attached off-center, so that the CF rod glues to the inside walls of the
boxes.

Steering was simple... I put a thin plastic *** under the front support,
and on top of the float. Glides perfectly. In this case I glued a bit of
depron to the inside of the float, right in center, and glued a thinner CF
rod to it. Pushing it through the hollow tube in the front support,
securing it with washer and collar and attaching a servo provided a
steerable front float.

Last but not least I coated the floats with a thin coat of latex paint -
which is a bit heavy. I've got no idea what else to use to waterproof them
though. Someday I need to test if depron even suffers from being immersed
in water, maybe it doesn't need sealing? :)

Test flight was today, just an hour ago. I'm happy with the results, it's
even just fun speeding over the lake with that thing :) Props are a bit
close to the water, and takeoffs are a bit challenging yet. I am not quite
sure why, I attribute it to the floats. They seem to "stick" to the
surface a bit.

Landing was easy. Just come in low, keep it a few inches off the water
(pull up while it slows down) and when it stalls it plops down nicely.
Higher speed landings work too though - I nosed one in briefly, but the
shape of the floats pushed it right out and the air intakes were still
bone dry. The tube of the front float seems to suck water up, but it
wasn't more than a drip - I'll ignore it for the time being.

You know the best part? It was all dirt cheap to build (if you ignore the
electronics - and the only things I bought new was servos, ESC and
reciever).


What a fun hobby.

Jenni


.