FlyerInStyle
Elite member
I am building a 350% FT BRAVO, and I have to find workaround ways, as it is over 100 sheets of letter paper. How are you keepign hte sheets down?
Build log of the GIANT SEA DUCK BUILD. yes, it’s happening.
- Thread starter Dutch Breeze
- Start date
-
- Tags
- 200% giant sea duck sea duck
Dutch Breeze
Active member
DAY 3 Has been fun. It was a puzzle kind of day. The regular size Sea Duck’s body lines are pretty boxysleek; like, she can’t dance, but she moves well. When you super size her like a Big Mac, she ends up looking more like the box that delicious piece of Americana, so full of all that deliciousness…. Sorry, side tracked. Yeah she ends up looking like a Big Mac box. I couldn’t be having that, so modifications were warranted.
I narrowed the aft of the body to 4.5” down from 11”. As it pulled the lower hull together, it opened some ideas for new body lines in the lower aft hull. I don’t know how far I’ll take that mod or if I’ll pursue it past this at all. It did add a little style to the badonka-donk. Along with narrowing, I also greatly enlarged the battery compartment opening. I gave her a hood like a Buick. The compartment lid is secured with 6, 1/4” rare earth magnets on each mating surface that hold it nice and tight. If I would have thought about it while I was doing it, instead of just a lip for the lid on the underside, i would have made the whole thing a doubler. That is one of the areas along with where the wings pass through the fuselage that is going to require a lot of reinforcement. The top fuselage still has a long way to go before it can be mated with the bottom, but of course I did a dry fit. It is Sunday and monday starts the week. I doubt I will do much on it this week. I need to make a decision on wing reinforcement and get that material ordered before i can move on. I do have a 72“ FT C-47 that should be here Tuesday so I’ll probably start on that. maybe a log for it? Who knows? This project Is fluid until the glue cools.
I narrowed the aft of the body to 4.5” down from 11”. As it pulled the lower hull together, it opened some ideas for new body lines in the lower aft hull. I don’t know how far I’ll take that mod or if I’ll pursue it past this at all. It did add a little style to the badonka-donk. Along with narrowing, I also greatly enlarged the battery compartment opening. I gave her a hood like a Buick. The compartment lid is secured with 6, 1/4” rare earth magnets on each mating surface that hold it nice and tight. If I would have thought about it while I was doing it, instead of just a lip for the lid on the underside, i would have made the whole thing a doubler. That is one of the areas along with where the wings pass through the fuselage that is going to require a lot of reinforcement. The top fuselage still has a long way to go before it can be mated with the bottom, but of course I did a dry fit. It is Sunday and monday starts the week. I doubt I will do much on it this week. I need to make a decision on wing reinforcement and get that material ordered before i can move on. I do have a 72“ FT C-47 that should be here Tuesday so I’ll probably start on that. maybe a log for it? Who knows? This project Is fluid until the glue cools.
Attachments
Dutch Breeze
Active member
First lay them out, then trim the same two sides off every piece. It doesn’t matter if you do it as you assemble or before. The key is always the same two sides. Top/right, bottom/left, whatever. As you can see in the pictures I use blue masking tape to hold the paper together. To attach the fully assembled plan to the foam, I apply a light but complete coat of super 77 to the foam. With the plans laying on the floor face down, I place the foam onto the paper. If needed, make sure you have index marks on the back of the plans for the corners or edges of the foam. I use a piece of 1” x24” pvc like a rolling pin to help stick the foam to the paper. After everything is cut out, if you want to remove the plan paper and not the FB paper, I use a hobby iron on low (it’s pretty hot but wont actually burn you). Or for the size you’ll be working with, a regular blow dryer (NOT a heat gun) will get the paper hot enough for the super 77 to realease.
FlyerInStyle
Elite member
how many sheets did you end up printing out?
Piotrsko
Master member
Oh. 9ft means 3piece wing on a boom aircraft to fit most cars, would be a pain even on my slider door van 30 years ago. Barely fits the 8 ft bed of my F250. Gonna be iffy getting it in todays cars. See if you can get a fly fishing pole in the door, the plane will be tougher. May even want 2 carbon spars
Think about doubling some portion of the nose sides, back to the wing attach area unless you land really smooth, and an ugly triple layer on the outside, some string tape also. Bob Hoover said 3 smooth landings in a row violated all known laws of nature.
Wing pontoons are for keeping the wing tip out of the water with resultant immediate turn and motor dunking. Wont lift off? Touch of full up for a micro second should be enough to break suction
Think about doubling some portion of the nose sides, back to the wing attach area unless you land really smooth, and an ugly triple layer on the outside, some string tape also. Bob Hoover said 3 smooth landings in a row violated all known laws of nature.
Wing pontoons are for keeping the wing tip out of the water with resultant immediate turn and motor dunking. Wont lift off? Touch of full up for a micro second should be enough to break suction
Last edited:
Dutch Breeze
Active member
32 sheets of paper per 1 complete plan sheet for 200%
Dutch Breeze
Active member
Thankfully we have a huge sliding door to the house and a couple options for trailers and trucks. Also, if i really wanted to, my neighbor will let me pirate launch from his back 40; if I want to bribe him with a 12 pack, his wife a box of wine (we are fancy in the country like that) and his 3 dogs get some uncooked short ribs. Actually their dogs get spoiled by us regularly so the pooches might owe me a couple takeoffs. As for the wing, I have an assortment of CF rods, tubes, flat stock coming. Supposedly, all of that will be here this week along with some stronger servos so the build log may continue this weekend. For the pontoons, I’m thinking of greatly reducing their width and sharpening the bows.
When this thing is finished, I’ll hire my buddy with a wide-load flatbed if a have to, to get this thing to the pond.
Dutch Breeze
Active member
All of the carbon fiber I ordered will be here by tomorrow, some showed up today. Very promising. I was a little concerned that the flat stock wasn’t going to be strong enough because of the small dimensions. Those concerns are no more. Rather impressed, actually. I have enough for two spars running 90%+ of the wingspan, and for some type of connecting mechanism. I have some other pieces coming and slightly different dimensions that I plan on using for fuselage reinforcement. Work has been hectic this week. It‘s been like driving in the fog, without your lights on, backwards… Blind. But tomorrow is Friday, and there is a giant sea duck that won’t build itself. In my best Mr. Burns, ”eeexcellent”. Stay tuned!
Dutch Breeze
Active member
Dutch Breeze
Active member
Well, almost… I ended up with part of a center wing. I did a complete redesign on the wing shape and structure, twice, mid build. BUT! I have high hopes, like real high, like high apple pie in the sky hopes, that this final iteration is a winner(shout out to the three people that got that reference). After doing some very rough calculations on the original airfoil, I decided I should have a go at shaping a real one instead of the high school geometry nightmare that is the OG Duck wing. 1) it doesn’t scale well, and B) a smooth airfoil Is much easier to achieve at this scale, and 12) at this scale the airfoil shape is actually slightly important. I am pleased with the fit and semi-finish of what i have so far. I plan on this thing being a heavy lifter so there will be an additional carbon fiber spar that will securely pin the booms to the wing.
Attachments
Dutch Breeze
Active member
Here is the starboard wing and nacelle mocked up. Still needs more spars and struts and all the wiring for the all of the servos. Also i think i am going to lengthen the booms. And that’s my big ol fatty fatfat Bruno the Bucket laying there to add a little scale. He’s 140 pounds of cuddle puddle.
Attachments
Mr Man
Elite member
Very Nice!
Jo's squadron
Well-known member
Very Nice!!!
I see you were tempted to omit tip floats. I strongly suggest you don’t omit them. In perfectly calm conditions, it would likely float fairly stable on the water, but even a faint breeze will cause it to tip over and put a wingtip in the water. Then the drag of the wingtip in the water causes the model to turn towards that wingtip. Not at all easy to get it clear of the water once it touches.
Have been flying RC seaplanes and flying boats since the 1980s.
Have been flying RC seaplanes and flying boats since the 1980s.
Dutch Breeze
Active member
The thought briefly crossed my mind but wiser thoughts prevailed. Though i am thinking of making them some sort of retractable. IDK, that’s still a long ways off, but they’ll definitely be there when the time comes.
Dutch Breeze
Active member
Here a is the first aileron. I considered using the original FT design and just doubling the control surface and reinforcing with a carbon fiber bar. Instead I decided to put in the extra work and make a good looking, functioning aileron following the airfoil lines. The top skin is going to extend another 1.25”-1.5” past the current trailing edge and doubled and shaped for strength and appearance. That will give the entire control surface dimensions of around 36” long by 4.5”-5” wide. The available downward pitch is about 55-60 degrees. There is a 17” CF bar that the control horn will attach to. For the hinges i used 1 layer of gorilla packing tape, 1 layer of gorilla crystal clear tape(the thick stuff) and then opened the control surface and applied a smear of hot glue. it seems to be secure enough while still flexible for the fairly extreme forces its going to deal with, but we’ll see.
Attachments
Dutch Breeze
Active member
a lot of research on the Clark-Y and what the ratios are supposed to be. I also looked at the available opening and wiggle room i had in the fuselage. And then, honestly, I just kinda winged it. Every pun intended. This is the third iteration and im pretty pleased so far.
Piotrsko
Master member
TLAR engineering works on Clark Y, not a intense engineering requirement since there a couple hundred official variants with only minor changes to the Aerodynamics. Generally fatter is better for lift\strength, up to 20%, pay attention to the nose (affects stall characteristics) flat bottom for building easily of tabletops.
Similar threads
