Hi all,
I'm looking at modifying my new Supercub to take floats. I have the floats from my original E Flight J3 cub but they don't naturally fit.
Various threads on RC Groups say that floats for it should be about 28" or 29" long.
I've found two different suppliers of floats:
http://www.seaplanesupply.com
http://www.maxfordusa.com/hz-40-fiber-floats-3.aspx
Maxford charges $50 to ship to canada :o
I'm feeling inclined to try to get the J3 floats modified for it.
Any suggestions?
Is the Super Cub the same size as your old J3? If so, and assuming the weight of the new plane isn't significantly more, I'd just build a new set of struts for the old floats. Possible?
Robert
The e-flight floats are 27.5" in length. This post on rcgroups (http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1630289) suggests that the supercub needs 29" or 30" floats. You can see the supercub in the video having trouble on the eflight j3 floats, but I think he has the step to far forward.
I'm tempted to build a mounting system and try the supercub with the eflight j3 floats I already have if you don't think they're too small and not buoyant enough.
Ben
If you look at this guy's landing on the j3 cub floats they do look a little small. I can't tell if his bouncing is due to pilot error or a fundamental problem with using these floats. Opinions?
Chapter 2.mpg(2) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q1r46N2wEg#ws)
Looks like the floats would be O.K. to me. The bouse was a result of too rapid a decent in my opinion.
BTW, I have the trailer lid boat ready to go. I'm wondering if we should have a small float flying get together this weekend. Sunday evening perhaps?
Robert
Hi guys, I split the rest of this thread off into Other Events. Organizing a float-fly will probably get more traction there.
You just didn't want me to hi-jack your thead :)
Hi Ben,
did you see this on the MAAC site?
http://www.maac.ca/articles/view_article.php?artid=4 (http://www.maac.ca/articles/view_article.php?artid=4)
jack.
That's a great resource. Thanks!
Well, I bit the bullet and mounted the floats. I had to bend the stainless steel float struts in a vice to get the angle of incidence right. I recovered a ventral fin from my old cub and made up mounts that hold the struts in place in a groove and screw into the fuse.
Then I broke down and painted them to match the Super Cub :) We'll see if it flies tonight at Frenchman's Bay with Rob (See Other Events section if you're interested in joining).
Might as well add the rest of the photos :)
Fire! Fire!
Wow Ben although bad it looks like it survived. I bet if it had the fire on land there would have been more damage. What caused the fire? Did the packs ignite from getting wet and shorting?
I think the ESC shorted due to being submerged and in turn shorted the Nanotech battery which delivered all of its power in a short. The current was so high it desoldered one battery lead and two motor leads. When Rob pulled it out of the water to put it into the rescue boat it started shooting flames. He dunked it back in to douse the fire. In his words "Good thing there was plenty of water on hand".
You're right, on land it would be a write-off like Michael's big Spitfire that burned to nothing that day. The motor looks ok but I'll only know when I try to spin it up. The receiver wasn't submerged but might have gotten a jolt from the short. I'll have to test it too. The first order of business is to wash the interior with white vinegar to get rid of the $$$ smell.
Ben
Did you use anything to protect the electronics from the water, like Corrosion X?
Chris
I didn't before but I will now. Not CorrosionX though, it's only temporary. I'm going to get some conformal coating for a more permanent solution.
Quote from: bfeist on August 07, 2012, 02:52:49 PM
I didn't before but I will now. Not CorrosionX though, it's only temporary. I'm going to get some conformal coating for a more permanent solution.
I thought Corrosion X was a permanent solution. Dip, dry and use. Just a newbee here with float flying and would like to hear all the info. Last thing I need is a flaming plane skimming across the lake.
Just noticed your avatar of the fire extinguisher. Were you foreshadowing something? ;)
Chris
I noticed my fire extinguisher yesterday with new eyes and smiled.
There's a good discussion here on how to be super thorough on waterproofing
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1690893 (http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1690893)
Hey Ben,
I think the fire has overshadowed the rest of the Cub's flight which was awesome. Your concern in this thread was whether the floats would be sufficient, and i think you proved that they were.
For those who weren't there, the Cub sat beautifully in the water, took off easily, and landed perfectly. It was only when the touch and go was upset by the cross wind that a float grabbed and tore the screws from the mount causing the plane to sit with it's nose in the water (is that correct Ben?). BTW, I did a similar thing with my Decathalon the flight before, but my rear float mount was stronger so I was able to taxi back :)
In fact, I know my plane would have been badly damaged if I had done the same over land, and I'm sure Ben's would have been damaged too. It's just unfortunate that Ben's stuff fried. I've never had that happen in all my years of float flying. It's the exception, not the rule ;D
I hope to see it out again, Ben.
Robert
You're right Rob. That's what happened. My haphazard float mounting job didn't hold.
Upon further inspection I don't think the battery itself caught fire. It was the ESC that was shooting out flames. The battery compartment has no signs of burn marks. The battery itself was extremely hot, puffed, and ruptured but not scorched. Who knew that FETs could produce so much fire.
I cleaned out most of the soot last night have have the plane airing out in the back yard. I think i'll spray the interior with clearcoat to cut the smell.
I'm going to order a couple of new batteries for it but it'll be a few weeks before they arrive.
Ben
Can you borrow a pack from another plane for this weekend?
BTW, I'm planning for this weekend and probably next at the Bay. The week after that I'm in Banff, then it's the TEMAC weekend, then Beeton, then the EMFSO Float Fly, then TEMAC Skill day. That takes us to the end of september. I'll try to squeese some float flying in between those events, but unfortunately, our days at the Bay are limited :(
I hope we can float fly into October as late as possible. Heck, maybe even November if the weather's O.K. We would have to move from the evenings to the mornings by that time of the year.
And, we'll be good to go for the Spring. We'll start in early May next year!
Robert
No other packs fit. I have a few other 4s packs. Maybe i'll try them again.
I need conformal coating first. Not flying on water again without it (i've had it with soot).
Ben
Cub update.
I repaired the fire damage (pic below). The colour is a bit off but now that I have the scratch on the new car as it were, I can really enjoy this plane. I epoxied the float mounts I had previously only had attached with screws. These mounts don't get in the way of the regular landing gear. I also took the covering off a cheap Plush 80 ESC and sprayed it with two coats of conformal coating and taped the cover back on. The next dunk will tell me whether it worked to waterproof the ESC but all reports say the stuff is amazing.
I received two new Nanotech 25c 4s 3300 batteries that fit perfectly in this plane. This should give me much more air time than the single pack (that puffed into oblivion during the fire) was giving me.
I still feel like this plane is new and a bit of a hand full. It flies very slowly and a stall test at altitude shows a nasty snap into a spin to the left upon stall (quite scale). The plane hasn't really felt "right", even less so on floats. That is, until this past weekend.
I was telling Glenn about the plane's sluggish and piggish nature that I'm still getting used to and he suggested that the plane might be tail-heavy. He reminded me of the ultimate test for CG:
- Neutral trim the plane
- Climb the plane to a good height
- Throttle off, and nose down 45 degrees
- Take your hands off the controls
If the plane pulls out of the dive you're tail-heavy
If the plane noses under you're nose heavy
If the plane stays on the 45 degree down you're perfect.
I was quite tail heavy. The tricky part is that picking the plane up by the spar on the ground to test CG causes no rocking one way or the other. BUT, this is a tail-dragger so if the plane maintains its ground attitude when held by the spar that mean it's tail-heavy, not neutral. I had forgotten that it's all about wing incidence when held by the spar.
I slid the 3300 battery all the way forward and now it's neutral in a 45 degree dive test and flies much more nimbly. I was able to grease in a few touch-and-go's, even skitter across the field on one wheel. This plane has gone from being a hand-full to lots of fun. It still flies very slowly like a scale cub, but I no longer find it disconcerting.
Floats will probably represent tail weight, but with the battery all the way forward it won't be as tail-heavy as before. I might even be able to add some temporary nose-weight for when it's on floats. Any suggestions on how to do that? Hopefully this will mean it will want to sit on the floats a little more neutrally when landing and be less prone to bounce-bounce-splash-bob water landings.
I'm so excited I even ordered a lighting kit to add to the cub this winter :)
Ben
Great news Ben! A quick thought would be to add weight to the float tips. That way you would always put the pack in the same place and couldn't forget the additional weight when switched to floats. Just a thought.
I was thinking the same thing. Maybe I could add some fake retractable wheels to the front of the floats Cessna Caravan style so at least I get something out of adding weight.
Flying off land at the TEMAC Funfly on Sunday my motor mount popped lose leaving the motor hanging on a rough landing. It was a very gentle jolt. Upon inspection it appeared that there was NO GLUE holding the tongues of the motor mount box together. I thought this might have been shoddy workmanship from E-Flight, but Rob Pike suggested that the dunking and extended submersion that the nose of the plane got in Frenchman's Bay may have dissolved water soluble glue. I'm guessing that E-Flight uses water soluble glue--a word of warning to anyone putting this thing on floats!
I borrowed some medium CA and reassembled the motor mount and flew many successful flights of touch-and-go's that were loads of fun for the remainder of the weekend.
Ben
Hi all,
Here we are almost a year later and I finally installed the lighting kit. What a job--Ssolder solder solder. It took me (no joke) about 8 hours to install everything. This included adding flap/aileron multiplex connectors as well to make wing assembly at the field somewhat tolerable. I even had to sharpen a flex cable into a drill bit to drill through the tail join from inside the fuse, then snake the wire to the correct position on the tail. All for a tiny light. I did it though and I'm very happy with the outcome.
I mounted the lighting system control board to the underside of the servo access hatch near at mid body. It's very nicely tucked away.
The system could be made brighter by supply 9v to it. I have a 9V BEC that I bought to do just that, but figuring out the switching and grounding required to get 9V operational seemed overkill. It would also eliminate the ability to switch on and off the landing and cabin lights.
From what I can find, the Super Cub doesn't have strobes on the wings or fuse. Too bad because the crazy good lighting system I bought has about 6 more lights that I'm not using.
Here are some shots.
Very nice! Those lights will look fantastic over Frenchman's bay tomorrow night. I hope you can make it!!!