I broke down

[cteno4]

Just got a good chunk of work in the door, ok money, but mind numbing labor, so I thought I needed something fun. I've got pleanty of trains to play with, but not done rc planes for a long while. they have come so far and are so cheap these days!

 

Always wanted a rc seaplane and found this one

 

http://www.nitroplanes.com/60a-d8943-catalina-rtf-24g.html

 

just couldn't resist! It can take off and land on grass so will be perfect at the park right next door! So should be a good 20 min break to go over to the park for a 10min fly.

 

Cheers,

 

Jeff

[ilox]

Looks like fun Jeff but the big question is, can it land and take off on water?

 

[cteno4]

yep! watch this one

 

 

im actually getting the blue version

 

 

no easy access to water with an open area right near the house, but sure i can find some nearby!

 

jeff

[ilox]

Just magic. Look at it aking off on the water. Once he got some practise in that could be looking so cool.

 

The blue one is just soooo sweet. Hope you have a lot of fun with it.

 

PS: My son, who has flown quite a few RC Aircraft over the years calls them Splatt-craft and Matchstick Makers. I think that is the voice of experience talking there LOL

 

BTW: My cousin flies some quite decent RC planes and even has made a private RC Airport on his property so he and his mates have somewhere to go and play. He tells me that you never put the Pilot into the models. He says that they will often take over the controls an crash the planes so it is safer not to have them in there in the first place. Any comments?

[cteno4]

LOL, yes splat is the word! in the old days it use to be hand built stuff and one crash and it was major rebuilding or totaled. equipment was so expensive and unreliable communications that it was a huge risk to go out and try. i did a couple of gliders and they fared much better flying them at the dunes as you could usually do a softer crash. i started a gas prop, but stopped part way through as the cost was going to get high and other hobbies were tugging (as well as girls!)

 

ive had a couple of cheapo 3 channel plastic rcs that i use to fly around, but with 3 channel its sort of half flying and their battery packs were limited due to the planes very light construction. these foam ones are sturdy and can take the wing loads of bigger packs and the newer lito packs really pack a punch! they were also pretty fragile.

 

these days its all high impact foam so you can do lots of splatting with these Ready To Fly models. its all about the flying and not so much about the building. While i love building stuff, i would rather build stuff for the trains (with little risk of it being destroyed in a blink) and just have fun with the flying. goal is to have something to get me out of my chair here and take a 20min break to walk over to the park next door and fly it. if it crashes then a little epoxy and tape and ready to go the next day!

 

yes those little pilots get really mad that you are not letting them do the flying and just end up cutting a wire and crashing the plane. thats always my excuse for crashes, so i leave them in! w/o them then its big pilot error! i just frisk them to make sure they dont have any wire cutters on them so they have to chew through the wire if they want to crash it!

 

i could see this getting addictive like trains!

 

i love seaplanes, i guess from growing up on a ship! flew in a few as well as well as a lot of float planes and take off and landings are such a rush compared to a strip! thats why when i saw this one i got hooked. plus it can land well on the grass in the park. there is a small asphalt path and a basketball court at one corner of the park but trying to get over there to land with landing gear can be tricky and limited so i figured this would give much more options on where to play with this plane and its sort of lands on the grass like water! ill just squint and pretend its green seas!

 

jeff

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Guest ___]

I couldn't imagine how a grass landing would work.

 

Did however see a seaplane land at Harve de Grace a few years ago. He landed in the Susquehanna a few years ago. Upon landing, the owner, wife and child came out on top of the fuselage and hung a pirate flag.Less than five minutes later the Coast Guard was out there. We have docks there for seaplanes to moor up at but IDK if it was something on his approach, his landing, that upset USCG. I was off duty and on land at the time so I wasn't able to speak with the coaxial about why he intercepted. The seaplane was a ways off from the NEC bridge. Of course, IDK why the seaplane did not taxi/sail from landing to the docks either, so it could have been an unplanned landing.

[cteno4]

yeah so many restrictions these days! many places have done all they can to get rid of them due to the takeoff noise or limit their direction so severely that its hard to have wind conditions to be ok. Most all my seaplane and floatplane time is in alaska so its pretty much the wide open up there. done some wild landings and take offs with some superb pilots that beat any roller coaster ride out there!

 

there was a retired united air 747 pilot that would bring his seabee up every summer for sight seeing rides. was so easy for him to just putt right up to the swim step and folks could hop right in, no crawling out along a float. plus he had installed larger bubble windows so fantastic viewing!

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_RC-3_Seabee

 

he also had a skymaster and did 2 day trips from se alaska up into the interior which i always wanted to do but never got to.

 

i had the dubious honor of landing with a bush pilot back at the strip with zero gas once, engine quit right on touch down! we had to drag the plane the last bit off the strip!

 

the few helicopter rides i got to do up there were with an old ex vietnam chopper medivac pilot, and he was nutz. always would hear Ride of the Valkyries when we took off! never could figure out how he passed his medical as he always looked like hell and was a chain smoker but man he could fly!

 

i use to be amazed how well the good floatplane guys would know the water gliding characteristics of their floats (no brakes!) as they would always kill the engines at just the right moment to coast in and gently come to a stop after an arc at the float dock and just step out w/o having to stop the plane at all. was kind of like the old cowboy movies with the horse stopping from a gallop at the saloon hitching post and the guy swinging off the horse, looping the rein around the post and stepping up the step in one fluid motion!

 

jeff

[Bernard]

I love the sign in the background in the 2nd video..."Don't Fly Planes Over Rifle Range!" what a great place to have a model plane field. Brings a whole new dimensions to trap shooting when they say "PULL!"

 

Jeff - it looks like a lot of fun! Upstate on the lake a few year ago a Model Flying Club rented a cabin and flew their planes on the lake.....some of these guys were outstanding with the way they flew their planes....but they were all gas and heavier. The lake were they were flying in the 1st video look very calm to me...expect "bounce" when you land the plane.....and make sure you have an inflatable one man raft!   

[cteno4]

PULL! LOL would be fun as long as you could buzz the shooters as well! hey a whole new sport here. guys do rig their rc choppers and planes with paintball bombs!

 

The hunter i really respected in alaska was a bow grizzly hunter. just a compound bow and knife out on the open hills of central alaska! you miss or do only a wounding shot the bear had a crack at you! he use to lead some groups as well and always be ready with a kill shot as half the clients would miss and never get a second shot off as as soon as they would miss and the bear would turn at them they would be off at a full sprint the other direction.

 

one guy left the comment there which is true that in any wake you power the plane into the water so that you dont bounce off the crests. its a careful balance (especially on floatplanes) not not to dive under and flip the plane though..probably wont have to worry about waves much on the grass to get my practice for water!

 

theres a reason a float/seaplane license is a whole nother thing!

 

jeff

[scott]

I seem to have missed several generations of R/C plane evolution--last I knew, they were expensive, breakable, and gas-powered.

 

I really like the Catalina--especially the blue/yellow "Rescue" version. How much do the batteries and controller cost?

[cteno4]

yeah these aint the old rc now! lots done in the high impact foam with carbonfiber tubes in the winds and such. all electric powered.

 

all told the small ready to fly (rtf) systems run $75-125. the bigger ones like this $125-200. you can go to big fancy ones at $200-400. thats for the works, plane, motor, batteries, servos, receiver/controller and transmitter! this sea plane for the whole set up is $159. i was looking at some smaller single engine planes with wheelsets for closer to $100, but that would vastly limit where i can fly it in the park where i can land or pull off the gear and do hand launches and belly flop on the grass, hoping not to break a prop. part of the fun is the take off and landing so i thought the seaplane would be more versatile for me to play with first.

 

you can also get almost ready to fly ARF planes with everything there but the receiver/controller and transmitter. some folks standardize on one good transmitter and then get a bunch of controllers so they can fly with just one transmitter. you can program them to lock on digitally to different ones with all the presets sort of like dcc. but the difference in price between many of the ARF and RTF models can be only $20-40 with a cheap transmitter/controller/receiver.

 

we shall see if this is something i get into more or not. also an issue of hwo much i can do at the park next door of if folks will bust me on it. there is also another open space about a mile from here where there are three large radio towers. its an unofficial dog park but is huge and some guys fly planes there now and then.

 

it was just too cool watching those videos!

 

jeff

[Guest JRF-1935]

Jeff

  Friggin "Awesome!"  Thers a lake on the other side of the P & W tracks from Clothier at Bryn Mawr Station at the old American College - you have to bring it next time you visit.  I have to see it in action !!

Rich C

:-(  Now I want one

[cteno4]

Box showed up today. Quite nice. The blue rescue version is not quite as nice as the USAF silver version. Transmitter is not quite as good, but good enough for my use right now, I could upgrade it later if I get more into the hobby and want more planes. Going to take a few hours of assembly. Pretty poor instructions, but I can figure them out I think. Also will probably need a lipo battery as it comes with a Nimh pack.

 

I'll keep you posted

 

Jeff

[JR 500系]

Congrats Jeff on your buy! Neat looking plane!

 

In Sillypore, i think you cant find the space to fly a model airplane without getting out in the open field (which is decreasing cm x cm with each minute) or getting fined for invading air travel space and not informing the authorities...

 

I've got to FOCUS just on 1 hobby and 1 hobby alone, and that is N gauge. Really dont have more dough to go into another hobby... Envy you guys! 

[ilox]

I agree with you JR500, one hobby at a time is just enough and that is like you, N gauge. Still in the dreaming planning stages for my big layout but I think I am getting closer to beginning.
Problem is that I have done a silly thing, signed up for Open University Australia to do a Bachelors in Internet Communications. That seems to be sucking up every available moment and not even leaving me with time to do any decent railway dreaming planning :)

You can see my latest plans/dreams at http://railway.loxtonfamily.info/index.php/track-plan-gallery.html

[Mr Frosty]

I remember when RC planes meant a month glueing balsa wood sticks together and another week covering them in tissue paper and dope.

 

Its all far too easy now. :)

[Bernard]

Jeff - I justed looked at the 1st video again and notieced that the pilot's friend is wearing shorts and no top.....kinda like a bathing suit.....I wonder why :)

[cteno4]

Ha! Thought occurred to me that it might come to that. When I was a kid I use to build model sail boats and sail them at the harbor and marina. No rc so if you misjudged the wind, sheet setting, rudder setting you ended up with the boat not making it to the other side. Water in Monterey was way too cold to jump in though. Use to have one of those little folding fishing poles and with a tri barb you could usually retrieve the boat if w.in 50' with a few tries!

 

I have to keep working on the model I got stalled this fall while working on the aquarium exhibit this fall. Hope to have it flying later this winter, but i think I'll stick to the park grass next door for now!

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

[Kiha66]

Hey Jeff, did you ever get around to flying this model?  Being so close to the water myself, RC seaplanes seems like a fun hobby!