I have all the items it needs.. I guess it is a matter of how much it will be to ship to us...

Guys,
Although April 16 is a bit early, 2013 is the 100th anniversary of the first Schneider Cup Race. Rob and other seaplane enthusiasts, we should have a Schneider Cup Commemorative Float Fly at sometime this season! If we can do this, please make the date later in the season as right now, the closest model I have to a Schneider Cup racer is an Apprentice on floats! Will help with organization if anyone wants to schedule a date?

Well, Bill, you're speaking my language!

For sure I'd be interested in organizing a Schneider oriented event... in fact, I think we should have an annual event.

Several years ago, while a small group of electric flyers, including Martin Irvine, and Keith Shaw, hung out at my family cottage, the beautifully calm, inspiriing night before the Kingston Electric Fun Fly, we started planning an annual float flying event inspired by the Schneider Trophy race to be held on the Saturday evening of the Kingston fun fly.  Let me cut and paste my intro posts for the event that I made on the EMFSO Messgae Board in 2005:

******
"It all started over beers at the Pike's cottage after the Kingston Electric Fun Fly.

It's been a bit of a tradition for a few of us to attempt float flying on the Friday and Saturday evenings on the weekend of the Kingston event.  This past summer the weather finally cooperated and it was calm and beautiful.  We did do some very nice float flying.

Well, this seemed to have inspired the gang, so after dark, with beer in hand, the likes of Louis Dionne (from Ottawa), Martin Irvine, Keith Shaw, and whoever else was around started hatching a plan to build similar sized Schneider Trophy racers and have a mock race (more like a "parade" as Keith puts it) at the cottage next year.

I, of course, was all for the idea, but suggested to Martin that it would be great if we could find a pond or small lake closer to the Kingston R/C field so more people could come by and participate and/or watch.

Martin called me last week to say that he knows a guy who has a cottage about 10 to 15 minutes north of the flying club.  He is more than willing to have a bunch of us come by on the Saturday evening next year for some float flying.

SO, that's the plan.  So far we have 9 people planning to build Schneider racers.  It would be very cool if some more of you wanted to join in too.

Heck, even if you don't float fly very often (I don't very much either), the Schneider racers are very cool subjects that would fly from land as well.  I had a plan to permanently mount floats on my Cub and have plug in wheels for land use.  The same could be done with a float equipped racer, I suppose.

Anyway, the rules are very loose.  The bottom line is for people to build what they like.  The guys mentioned approx. 300 watts, approx. 350 sq/in. wing area, and 1/8 or 1/7 scale.  The idea is to keep the model small enough for a fairly quick
build.

We'd like to see reasonably scale lines and colouring, but super detail is not necessary.

Let me know what you think?  It'll be a fun project.

If we get enough people float flying, maybe we can have some more casual get togethers around the T.O. area."
******

Well, several people starting building planes.  Most of you know about Ben's Curtis Racer.  Some have even seen Glenns Supermarine S4, which is flying so well now, and my Macchi M-33, which is about to start flying really well  .  Martin also has a beautiful Macchi MC72 that apparenly flies nicely, but I haven't seen it fly yet.

The problem has been the fact that the Kingston event is only one opportunity per year to float fly for many people and often the weather is unfavourable and we're usualy pretty tired after the Saturday of flying at the field.  Michael and I spoke to Martin recently and told him to expect to do float flying this year as there's a renewed enthusiasm from the Toronto gang.

Anyway, I think that with our greater float flying activity within TEMAC we could get enough people interested to pull this off this time... perhaps with a little teamwork toward getting people set-up with planes.  I'll put some thought into the easiest, and most practical way to get a Schneider racer and participate.  Also, perhaps with some Schneider inspired events on the day, we can bring an element of fun and excitment that'll make everyone want to be a part of it.  I already have some ideas.

I'll leave this post with a You Tube vid of a pretty sweet looking MC72 created from a Formosa kit.  We know that the Formosa can make a fun float plane.  With a little slicing and painting you can make a reasonable copy of any of the Supermarine enties or the Macchi float planes.  I'll probably try that myself.

Macchi MC-72 - Radio controlled Schneider Cup Racer
   

I had posted a You Tube clip in my original post in this thread, but it doesn't seem to be working now.  I can't remember if this was the one, but here's a cool clip from the 1929 race with the cool sound of those early Merlins.  Remember, this was before the Spitfire and Mustang, etc.

1929 Schneider Trophy

And a good article on the Scneider Trophy Races:

http://www.letletlet-warplanes.com/2008/06/14/the-schneider-cup-racers/

A "racing" flypast or something like that with models of Schneider Trophy models sounds like a highlight of the TEMAC float flying season...especially to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Schneider Trophy racing.
The idea of models roughly the same scale/size makes huge sense...how big were the ones from the original group supposed to be?

Here's a nice video of a Flyzone Beaver from a guy in Montreal:

FLYZONE DHC-2 Beaver-mist-FlightDubb

Hey Bill, the idea was to keep the size pretty small, but large enough to handle a bit of wave action.  The goal was for approx. 300 watts, approx. 350 sq/in. wing area, and 1/8 or 1/7 scale (about the size, or a bit bigger than a Formosa).

As I said, I'm all for it, but we may have a hard time getting others to commit to putting something tegether.  However, I asked Michael last night what he thought about this discussion and he admitted that he's not really into seaplanes so he doesn't check this thread.  Once I told him what we were talking about, he was still skeptical.  Then when I told him about the concept of converting a Formosa, he check the link above, and the next time he appeared fropm the basement he had a motor in hand that would be perfect for the project   

Anyway, I'll get Ben and Glenn together to resurrect the Schneider racers that we have flying and maybe get some interest growing.  Maybe I'll start a Formosa conversion to a Supermarine S6 or Macchi M67 to create some interest.

OK, I'm going to do this, but I'll be using a totally different approach.

Watch for a new thread in the Build/Construction featuring something new and innovative. 

(I have to finish my Nooner first.)

I have an old Formosa or 2......any rules/tips for the conversion?

Wow! Beaver has sound too!

Bigstik

That Stranraer is a Canadian one!

Are you going to do an RCAF version?

Jack.

Quote from: piker on March 06, 2013, 05:04:41 PM
Hey Bill, the idea was to keep the size pretty small, but large enough to handle a bit of wave action.  The goal was for approx. 300 watts, approx. 350 sq/in. wing area, and 1/8 or 1/7 scale (about the size, or a bit bigger than a Formosa).

As I said, I'm all for it, but we may have a hard time getting others to commit to putting something tegether.  However, I asked Michael last night what he thought about this discussion and he admitted that he's not really into seaplanes so he doesn't check this thread.  Once I told him what we were talking about, he was still skeptical.  Then when I told him about the concept of converting a Formosa, he check the link above, and the next time he appeared fropm the basement he had a motor in hand that would be perfect for the project   

Anyway, I'll get Ben and Glenn together to resurrect the Schneider racers that we have flying and maybe get some interest growing.  Maybe I'll start a Formosa conversion to a Supermarine S6 or Macchi M67 to create some interest.

Rob,
My dad's half finished a Macchi M5 (early Schneider Trophy flying boat) which is similar size to a Formosa and I'm hoping to have a Macchi ready to fly in May or June. I'll bet there are some other lurkers out there that may catch the Schneider bug! If you need any help putting a Schneider celebration together, I'm available for grunt work.

The video on the beaver is amazing! If you want the plane, Ron said that it is selling fast and supply is limited.  I really like the fact it is foam for the water sports!

Hey Jack, about the Stranraer... It depends on whether Colin comes through for me     Actualy, I'll model it after whatever documentation I can get, but since the one and only existing example seems to be an RCAF version, then that works for me.  In fact, it would be my preference.

About Schneider... things are brewing and interest is already starting to grow (based on my chats with Michael  ).

I'm planning to get my Macchi M33 running reliably this year and hopefully we can get Ben's Curtis in the air once and for all.  I'm also planning to do a Formosa to Macchi M67 conversion... sometime between a 1/4 bipe, a nooner, a CL215, and a Sparrowhawk.

You guys are killing me. I am planning on doing a fokker universal that was used in the 30's as a Canadian bush plane. I am going to use some JH plans that I found in a magazine that ken Ross gave me. I am heading to the printers now to do two enlargements .  I wanted to do a 63" version and a 110" version. Just for some float fun.  Can't let Robert have all the fun with the big planes.