Scratchbuilt twin floatplane

by Sirglider | May 16, 2013 | (8) Posted in Projects

After a long and mostly rainy winter, the weather allowed me to bring Alcatraz, my renewed scratchbuild twin floatplane, back in the air.

 

Note: if you cannot watch the video due to copyright on this amazing music by Woodkid, use this link

 

The previous fuselage was made of 3mm Depron but due to its hard nose down stall attitude, I crashed it by landing on a pound. Yes water can be hard!

 

Specifications:

Total weight: 920g

 

I'm pretty happy with it. I have so far set the max throttle range to 75% otherway it was too powerfull. I'll add now one right and one left 8x4 two blade APC style props in order to remove gyroscopic effect of them.

 

Great fun for this summer :)

 

EDIT: Below you can find more pictures of the model with some dimensions. If you need a specific dimension, don't hesitate to ask.

All the dimensions are given in mm, as for everywhere else in the world ;))

The wing has a dihedral of about 5°.

The wing is made of two pieces of foams cut with one main spar of ply wood. It is reinforced in the middle with some light glass fiber. I don't know the profile, but you can guess it from the picture below.

From the top, you can have the main dimensions of the fuselage

The side dimensions of the fuselage, you can measure them from the picture below, keeping in mind that total length is 917mm. Note bis: the image is at the scale 1:1 if you click on it to enlarge it ;)

 

Finally, you can find a few details of the construction below.

The motor mounts

The inside of the fuselage. Note that the two ESCs are epoxied with radiators on them and bind to the wing holder. In case of some water inside the fuselage, they will always stay out of the water level. I have tested it in normal configuration and also upside down...

The Rx is also hold with velcro at a certain height on the side wall.

The battery goes pretty much to the front to keep the CG at the correct location. 

The two 9g servos are in the back.

Finally a detail view of the decoration, contribution of my girlfriend to my hobby :)

COMMENTS

strows on May 16, 2013
Would love to see some pictures of the plane.
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Sirglider on May 21, 2013
Added!
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Heaveyd2 on May 16, 2013
Yes maybe even plans would be cool
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Sirglider on May 21, 2013
Dimensions are given on the added pictures ;)
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Sirglider on May 17, 2013
I have bought the plane from second hand. I made some modifications and covers of the Depron fuselage this winter. I'll try to post a few pictures and some more details of the construction. I hope it will help :)
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Flying Fox on November 16, 2014
Nice Mate
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Jon L on July 9, 2015
I built a copy of this plane in blue foamboard. I hotwire cut the wing and fuselage. It flys real good with two mini scout motors.
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Sirglider on July 27, 2015
Great to hear! I'm happy that you could build your own. Any image or video to share?
Cheers!
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Scratchbuilt twin floatplane