We had the chance to do some flying on the water with the Aqua Cat and Polaris, kit airplanes from ModelAero.com.
The Polaris seaplane parkflyer and the Aqua Cat kits are made from depron sheets and come with these high quality sticker schemes.
Before the maiden, we discovered a faulty servo. Repairing it meant cutting into the hull of the aircraft. A simple angled cut keeps the piece from falling through and speeds repair. (Another great tip from Alan!)
Mornings are often the best time to fly from the water. No wind, boats, or swimmers!
Flying amphibians can can be intimidating. The Polaris and the Aqua Cat were a blast both on and off the water. We loved keeping them on the water while driving them around like speed boats.
Every episode has to have a near miss, right!?
Big bird.
Aerobatics were a breeze with both the Polaris and the Aqua Cat.
The Mobius was very useful in capturing different angles. We used tape over the buttons and connectors to make it more water resistant.
Steve Shumate is the designer of both the Polaris and the Aqua Cat depron kit versions. He is truly passionate about these aircrafts and he was a delight to spend time with and hear more about his airplane designs.
We flew both water planes with the recommended power set-ups from ModelAero.com
Learn more about these great water planes at: ModelAero.com
Keeping the heat sink of the ESC exposed is a great way to reduce heat from aircrafts that need to be sealed.
Alan's power set-up was quite large and he showed us some easy mods to strengthen the tail of his Polaris.
Alan also used a tray divider from his tacklebox/ toolbox to make a useful window to see his receiver.
He used a keel to protect the belly of his polaris while racing it on the ground.
Magnets to the cover and a custom lower tray are another great mod that Alan did to personalize his seaplane.
Steve has a great trick to provide the same protection with simple plastic folders cut and glued to the belly.
We want to thank Alan Bruce for inviting us out to his house to fly with him and taking the time to share his experience and tips with his Polaris.
These are great airplane kits and a blast to fly on and off the water. We hope you get some time to check them out! We also want to thank Steve from ModelAero.com for offering a discount to everyone who supports Flite Test! You can use the coupon code: flitetest and receive 10% off your purchase. CLICK HERE
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But if you remove the paper before building the plane and make it stiffer using other means (i.e. carbon/wood reinforcements) you can build it waterproof and perfectly flyable without any other covering.
InvertedG already said he/she removed the paper and used two layers of DTFB core for the wings; I believe this plus some carbon (as specified in the plans) is enough to make it a decent plane.
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The outermost cells do in fact take some water; but the cells are tiny and "sealed inside". The water collected on the surface is not enough to bring the plane down. Even if for some reason some of the surface cells are not sealed, there are still quite a few more cells on the way trough the foam - one of them will stop the water. You would have to be really unfortunate to get the leak without phisically damaging the foam.
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I am trying to find a good plane for me is the ^^^ plane suitable?
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I would build this but not fly this as my first plane. I would try building the FT Delta, FT Duster or the FT Tiny Trainer that just came out. Look back at some of the old videos. Even might want to try the FT Nutball. Check out the getting started section. If you listen to the podcast, a repeated theme is how people took out a plane over their heads for the first flight and failed over and over again. No doubt about it you will fail but better with something easier to fly and rebuild. However this plane does look awesome I hope you do build it and eventually do fly it but with some time on some simpler planes first.
All three of those guys are superb pilots. Even though Josh tends to crash a lot. I think that is why his building skills are so good from rebuilding all his crashed planes so many times. LOL
Good luck and happy flying.
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http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=922465
Built one and flew it over 200 times before I had to retire it. Fantastic plane. Super easy to build. Very stable at high alpha... surprised they did not cover that. It is super stable at fast and slow. I actually used Adams foam board without the paper. Used two layers for the wings. That is all.
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If you Google 'how much fun is it possible have?', the answer will be Polaris ;)
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