Our esteemed Club Secretary, Simon, has been keeping himself occupied part of the lock-down time with a Cessna 188 crop sprayer model. He has kindly forwarded a photo selection accompanied by some text describing what he has been up to………..
As we were all well and truly “socked in” for four weeks, I thought I would add a set of floats to my Dynam Cessna 188 which I purchased to fly at Longham. (This being a CDMFC club site.)
Having got the “waterplane flying” bug back in the Summer, and having had great fun flying my small Tundra, I thought it wise to get a reserve model, having already had the inevitable “mid-air”!.
I have briefly test flown the model at Trigon, to get all the controls / mixing / flaps etc. set up. No horrors so far!
The Cessna was end of line from Inwood models, and the floats a set of Tundra floats from my friends at HobbyKing UK.
First thing was to investigate exactly where / how the floats should be positioned relative to the c/g etc.
After mucho research, I found: https://www.hooked-on-rc-airplanes.com/rc-float-plane.html
I more or less followed this to the letter, as can be seen from the photographs.
I had to add a small amount of lead to each float (now buried), to obtain the correct c/g.
I had to make up a water rudder fitting, which is attached to the steerable tailwheel point on the rear lower fuselage.
I also changed the stock ESC for a reversable version. I have found these invaluable when trying to avoid the reeds / ducks / other models at Longham.
I have really enjoyed my venture into the world of water plane flying, so now it’s just a case of waiting for the weather!
Looks good Simon, we all wish you the best on the water!