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Major
Fun-
you steer it like a boat with
the rudder and keep the wings level with the ailerons-
usually cross controlling. During takeoff, if a wingtip is
stuck in the water you sharply rudder-turn
toward it and use centrifugal force to throw
the plane upright. The moment of takeoff, suddenly you're
flying and not boating- pay attention!
This is a multiplex Twinstar
electric converted to a Flying Boat. Picture by Nell Dillard
at Lake Anna Virginia April 2002. The conversion idea comes
from Irv Cooper of Minnesota http://ijcooper.20m.com/Hobby/tsfloat.html
Irv kindly gave me some hints,
including that tip floats and a water rudder are essential
if there's any wind at all. When I was having problems, he
reassured me by email that the plane actually would take off
water with an 8 cell 1300CP battery, which it now does. The
missing piece was to move the Center of Gravity as far back
as possible and ensure that the nose float extended behind
the CG- the location of the "step". It's hard to take off
without a few waves to help break the suction. Full scale
amphibians taxi in a circle and take off in the resulting
waveletts, but I need that initial battery surge for the
takeoff - although with a wind I have gotten 3 takeoffs on
one charge.
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