Who loves bush planes? We do! They're an absolute blast and can take off from every surface imaginable - snow, water, dirt or just plain old grass. We even got to spend some time with the Flying Cowboys and their full-scale planes not so long ago. Recently, FMS announced that they are going to start producing a brand Short-Take-Off-and-Landing (STOL) plane with a 1400mm wingspan. It's called the FMS Kingfisher and it looks simply gorgeous.
For maximum fun, the FMS Kingfisher can use floats meaning you can enjoy the aircraft on water! The floats just look great on this thing and nicely proportioned. As you can see from these initial release images, there's an attachable rudder for steering in the water that gets connected to the Kingfisher's vertical stabiliser.
Having this makes taxing on a lake is far easier than simply relying on the prop wash against the tail to govern your direction. Many seaplanes have small rudders on either float, but this one doesn't.
As well as being a seaplane, the FMS Kingfisher can also work as a ski-plane! Plastic skis can be bolted to the landing gear for winter flying days.
It's also worth noting that the landing gear assembly itself is positioned fairly far forward, just ahead of the wing. This configuration, on STOL or Bush planes especially, makes landings reliably predictable; being forward of the CG, it's very difficult to nose the aircraft over on rough terrain.
There's also a special mount for an FPV camera on the nose of the airplane. This is detachable so that you can preserve those fun-scale looks when flying line-of-sight.
We'll let you know more about this model as information is released. In the meantime, make sure that you take a look at FMS' website. Packed with features, this thing looks so much fun and I for one can't wait to try it out for myself!
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Hanging out with the Flying Cowboys Vlog
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Article by James Whomsley
FliteTest.com Editor
I think my FMS SuperEZ & Durafly Tundra will need a new baby brother :D
-Mike
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