Capricorn Sorta Clone

[Flysfloats]

On Sat, Jun 23, 2012 at 8:07 PM, Ford Wilson <fordwilson@gmail.com> wrote:

My flying buddy here in the Cariboo saw the thread on the Capricorn and had also seen similar foamies this winter in Lake Havasu, AZ so he/we decided to build a couple. The only suitable foam available locally was some 1/2" x 2' x 8' pink foam by Ownes Corning, Foamular. He built the prototype and powered it with a Turnigy 3548 1100kv motor with either a 3 cell or 4 cell batt. Taxied straight on some grass, no problem, then went to the water, again no problem. Took off and could only turn left but it flew well, had to use lots of rudder to keep it under control. Next flight he added more throw to the control surfaces and things got better.

I decided on a couple of changes after discussing our results on the prototype. Cut out main wing panels and the outer panels on my table saw. Wing area is 3 ft long and each panel is about 11" each, so sort of a wing span of 23 " or so. Will let you know how mine flys.

Here is a pic of me holding the prototype. Not exactly a thing of beauty, eh? FF

[Flysfloats]

Getting a bit of an unwanted lesson on using a hot glue gun. I am gluing my inner and outer wings to a profile fuselage. Thought a glue gun sounded easy and quick so I got my wife's 2 guns and enlisted her to help. As I was applying glue to one edge, I noticed that my foam was melting!!!! As I used the other and smaller glue gun it stopped melting but also was slow to come out. Got it in place and rested.

The other inner wing was attached with Gorilla Glue and that went pretty straight forward. After letting both inner wings dry I next attacked the outer wings and decided to give the glue gun another try. I had talked to a friend and he said he had to plug in and then unplug the glue gun to regulate the temp so that is what I tried to do. Still got some melting and the smaller gun was again slow putting out glue fast enough. When I finally had enough glue on the edge I pushed the wings together but quickly discovered that the glue had set up at one end!! I pulled things apart and was able to peel off the setting glue. I then went back to Gorilla Glue and completed attaching both inner and outer wings.

I will post pictures next. The one thing I like about building this type of foamie is that you can do about anything you want and it might work. And if it doesn't, you are only out $6-7, no big deal and not much time either. TBC. FF

[Larry3215]

Coming alone nicely guys!

[Flysfloats]

Finally! I had tried to fly my foamie a week or so ago but the prop didn't have enough clearance and threw too much water. I did a little grass taxiing but couldn't turn it at all. I put a larger servo on the rudder and added a couple more inches of foam on the front.

This morning I went over to a buddies place for my maiden attempt. It had nice water handling qualities as I did a little water taxiing and then I launched. YIKES, nice take off run and then vertical, and from there it was every bit of my considerable talent(tongue in cheek) to keep this flying abortion from crashing. Somehow I manged to get it back near us, a very large lake, and on the water in one piece. Put it on the bench and changed my dual rates to much lower and rested my nerves. Put it back in the water and took off again, this time it climbed to about 10 feet and then dove into the water with a smack. I added some "up" trim and tried to take off again. No go, throwing water again, hmmmm? Taxied it back to shore and found the wing broken at the fuselage. Have fixed the wing, reenforced the split with Z Poxy and fiberglass cloth and am ready to do battle, again.

I have to say that my buddy finally gave up flying his foamie as it just wasn't any fun and was always all over the sky. He took his gear off of it and stomped it, putting it into the fire pit. I am dubious that mine is going to fly "well" enough for me to enjoy it, we shall see, and TBC. Later, FF

[Larry3215]

Hi FF, Where do you have the model balanced? Sounds like you may have it set up a little tail heavy. This planform likes the cg pretty far forward if you want stable flight.

Id recommend you start no further back than the rear of the yellow portion of your sponsons. Maybe even an inch or so more forward than that for the first few flights. Then once you're comfortable with how it flies, start moving it back a bit at a time.

[Flysfloats]

Larry: Thank you for the suggestion. I put a couple of melted lead weights on the tip of both floats, moving the CG an inch or so further forward. I then went out into the middle of our lake and did a test flight, sort of. As I pushed the throttle up, the plane would not accelerate anywhere near flying speed. I tried several times but it appears that with the extra weight(substantial) and more forward CG that the floats were plowing much more water and that the prop now hit the water frequently.

This is just the opposite from my previous effort where the plane accelerated nicely with no prop splashing but had horrible in air flight characteristics. I took off both added weights and glued one on the fuselage under the battery. Will try another flight today. If I have similar problems I may try a takeoff run off of grass. TBC, FF PS Running our of time to tweak this plane, we are moving to Oak Harbor, WA this coming Monday.

[Flysfloats]

Ok, Flight Test #2 for the day. Took off the two round hunks of lead and put one of them on the fueselage, same distance from the float tips. Decided to add a couple small washers under the motor mount to tip the motor slightly up for thrust and maybe get the front of the floats out of the water better.

Yipee, still a little prop splashing but the plane got going and lifted off as smoothly as one could ask for!!!!! I flew it around a bit, did a roll and basically had a nice flight. Only problem was letting it get a tad too far away and the profile of the plane was very difficult for me to see and react to. With the quick turning ability I thought I could have been inverted but guess I wasn't and saved it from a dunking. Some more laps and I was getting ready to loop it when I noticed the motor wasn't putting out as much power as it was earlier in the flight. Decided to land it and greased it onto the water. All in all, very pleased. I may have to put a larger capacity battery on it for some more flight time.

Here is a picture before I pulled off the 2 lead weights. The white foam on the bottom of the floats was my ugly attempt to get the prop more clearance from the water.

[Larry3215]

Glad you got it working ok!!

[Flysfloats]

DEATH IN THE FAMILY! Well I took the foamie to my buddy's lake yesterday to show off but could not get the plane to accelerate to take off speed. All it did was push water and mush along. I decided to add more float, in depth, in forward distance, and a more gentle nose taper. Returned today and same result.

I have come to the conclusion that this plane had gotten too ugly to fly! A contributing factor is that is was getting very heavy for such a small motor. I am sad, and I apologize to Larry, to say that this particular foamie is now in a land fill.

I don't have enough time to fiddle around with this one any longer. Wed am we are moving to Whidbey Island, WA and have to keep packing stuff. As soon as we are settled in I will try another foamie but will make the next one smaller and lighter to better suit my designated motor. Here are a couple of pictures of the final version. Remember, I have already said it was ugly. Later, FF