Waterplane Scratchbuild--jump in, the water's fine!

[peason]

Great job Paul, good pics too. 
I'm like Red, I'm so slammed with work right now I can't see straight.  I expect to be home for a couple days next week and the I'm heading out again for more quality time with an airplane seat... I'll get to it, but it might have to wait, my 30cc Sbach came in today and I don't even get to see it until next Tuesday afternoon.  I did get the HK motor that I was referring to in my previous post.  It looks great and seemed snappy when I ran it on the bench with a 30A ESC and a 3S battery.  Not bad for $9.00.

[PTKohlmann]

Heya, Paul.  No worries--plenty of time between now and the end of Float Fly season

I'm hoping to fly mine a bit more but by the time I get out of work its time for the nightflyer.  Maybe this weekend.  I need to aggravate Red a little more by flying her with her top off

Btw--Drew went on a mission last weekend and cut out all of the parts but the fuse sides for his Twin.  I think that he will be keeping his end of the deal.

Paul

[peason]

Paul, when Drew starts in on the nose of the Twins, I've got some advice on how to do up the nose gear.  Probably don't want to mess up a long discussion about it on this thread but send me an email before he starts to glue the fuse together, I have some experience on how to do this right.

[PTKohlmann]

Spring break started for the kids today and I had a day off too.  Drew and I spent the first half of the day driving his Polaris to a maidenable state.  Like mine, he had the easiest maiden ever.  He launched off of the grass in a vacant field, took two clicks of aileron trim, and then flew it like he had a dozen flights on her.

Once he felt comfortable and we had a few photos out of the way, I had to launch mine too.  Nothing like two unmarked identical sky blue planes in an overcast sky at the same time.

Here are a couple of photos of the boy in action.

Paul and Drew

[peason]

Great work you two! 

[PTKohlmann]

Thanks, Paul!

Drew and I got so busy getting our planes in the air that we skipped over the last of the build photos.  Here are some details on the tip floats on mine (Drew's aren't on yet).  I used spray adhesive to build up the stack of foam just like on the nose cone.  Once set, the floats were sanded and fitted to the wing and then Gorilla Glued on.

I also added a heat sink to my ESC due to the feedback from Wiley, Merle, and others.  I picked up several types at HSC.  Man, that is a weird place.  I cleared away the heat shrink from the integral heat sink and epoxied a larger sink that will protrude through the foam fuse top.  Epoxy isn't the greatest choice for thermal transfer, but with a thin bond line it should be fine.  The ESC/sink was surprisingly cool after the flight with Drew, but that was with the fuse top completely open.  We'll see how it works when the ESC is sealed in its air/water tight chamber.

Just waiting on an Rx and then the fuse can be sealed up!

Have fun, Paul

[PTKohlmann]

Finally got our Polari closed up, hulls glassed, and paint on mine. 

Our simple heatsinks aren't as efficient as the pinfins that Paul E has, but they were easier to seal to the upper fuse. 

Once the tops were on, we cut larger battery hatches than the plan calls for.  I wasn't thrilled with the stock setup that required the hatch be framed with ply rails.  As for water leakage, we caulked all of the seams inside the battery compartment with silicone, so I'm not concerned about how much water gets under the hatch.  We also used paintable caulk around the wing and other joints that could leak into the fuse.

Next on the hit list was to glass from the nose to just behind the first step.  We hadn't tried fiberglassing before, but I watched Cole do it in his shop once.  We put down 3/4 oz cloth (won in the raffle ) and 20min finishing resin with a credit card.  Man, that worked like a charm! Really easy to apply and with a long finishing time.  We added a second layer just ahead of the step where the most damage was seen from ground operations.

After a light sand, I shot a coat of WBPU cut 50% with isopropyl alcohol over mine to seal the joints from water and to seal the foam from the solvents in the spray paint to follow.  That worked pretty well, but I did get some light damage to the foam when I applied the rattle can flourescent green.

Now I'm 100% ready for the pond, and Drew is right behind me!

[peason]

Hey - that looks great.  I may do the glass as well when I start mine... well err... might be a while!  Good work you guys.

[PTKohlmann]

Drew and I met Steve Koll and his buddy Keith out at the pond today.  Beautiful morning for a mini-float fly.  And a great time to maiden Steve's Polaris.

Unlike Drew and I, Steve has no fear and planned to skip that sissyish maidening from the grass.  After checking our Polari for rates and balance and watching Drew take his for a spin, Steve went straight into the drink.  Initially he was a little underpowered, but after a prop change and some trimming he had his flying beautifully.

Drew and I snuck out to the pond on our own yesterday so that he could get his first water flights in without a crowd.  Not surprisingly, a day later he is better than his old man!

Here are a couple of pics of Steve including one where he is switching from missiles to guns.  A shot of Drew, too.

Paul

[stevekoll]

Hi Paul,
Thanks for meeting us out at the lake today. It was a beautiful day especially because the Polaris came back in one piece and it didn't sink. It was amazing to see your son Drew catch his plane in midstall by the way. Glad I had a chance to come out and get the Polaris all dialed in before the big crowd next week, at least I will look like I know what I'm doing.

[stevekoll]

Hey Paul, here is a pic of plane #2 for next week!!
Hope the weather is as nice as we had it. 

[PTKohlmann]

First Float Fly for 2013 is tomorrow morning!  Drew got the bug to bash build a boat in time for the event.  Handy--he rescued my Polaris today after I exceeded my allotment of electrons.

Calalina looks great, Steve!

Paul

[PTKohlmann]

Drew and I have been flying our Polari every weekend.  Here's a little video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UceCMDJPXBI

Not quite up to Stychno's standard for pond video, but that's ok.

Paul and Drew