FTFC20: April Showers by Foamy DM, FT Sea Angel

[FoamyDM]

This year I will be building the FT Sea Angel for the April Showers Challenge this year.


I have a laser cut "kit" for nearly a full year. (Thank you @kilroy07 ). and a little while ago I pulled it out and have been looking to put it together. I have red spray paint, and time to build.

it is also one of these:

I will be building the plane.

Build Notes:

Flying Experiences:

Maiden Video:

 

[FoamyDM]

I Finally got started. Especially since we had a huge thunderstorm roll past, like @The Hangar .

Two things worth noting,
1. this is looking beautiful.
2. I spent over 35 mins on the first 10 of the vid.
3. I am glad this is a laser cut set. Hand cutting this would be painful

I'm glad I finally started.

 

[The Hangar]

I Finally got started. Especially since we had a huge thunderstorm roll past, like @The Hangar .
View attachment 166940
Two things worth noting,
1. this is looking beautiful.
2. I spent over 35 mins on the first 10 of the vid.
3. I am glad this is a laser cut set. Hand cutting this would be painful

I'm glad I finally started.

After doing one scratch build of it, I have the sbk that I started building. Seeing yours makes me want to finish mine up. Maybe this weekend after I do the simple stick.

 

[FoamyDM]

centered servos and waterproofed the ESC and Servos.

I still need to find a motor I can leave in this one.
It isn't swappable

 

[FoamyDM]

Making tons of progress. Then took a break. Got this far around 3:30pm.

Now back to the rest. This kit is well put together and I learn a few ideas from this.

 

[The Hangar]

Making tons of progress. Then took a break. Got this far around 3:30pm.

Now back to the rest. This kit is well put together and I learn a few ideas from this.

Great progress!

 

[Hondo76251]

Oh my GOD! Is that a prop on a motor while you're testing??? Haven't you heard? That thing could take off your entire arm... maybe your dogs arm too (is a dogs front leg an arm, or a leg?) Might even fly to your grandmothers house and give her the Rona... can't be too safe... should just lock yourself in your bedroom for the next 2 years...

 

[FoamyDM]

Oh my GOD! Is that a prop on a motor while you're testing??? Haven't you heard? That thing could take off your entire arm... maybe your dogs arm too (is a dogs front leg an arm, or a leg?) Might even fly to your grandmothers house and give her the Rona... can't be too safe... should just lock yourself in your bedroom for the next 2 years...

It depends if your dog is a family member or just a sweet pet. My big one has arms, the little one has arms half of the time.
Props - Guilty... no excuse. I didn't put throttle hold on at first either, so consider me shamed.

Project update:
I spent a good part of Saturday putting this plane together. Sunday Morning-ish, I finished this up. (I will post pictures) and I have some FPV footage. I put the camera right behind the removable section. It was REALLY windy, The wind sock was fully extended. I didn't have a 9" prop, but I did have a 8x6 prop. so I used that. This plane felt somewhat underpowered, but it still flew very well. I flew her for two batteries, and because of the wind, it was nearly full throttle for the full 5-6 minutes. I think this bird needs a steeper pitch, or a bigger prop. I really enjoyed the flight, it needed very little trim, It was difficult as the gusting and high wind speeds mad smooth level flight impossible. Turn a wing to far and it would get caught by the wind, and tossed. slow down and it would stall, there wasn't enough power for a steep climb, but It was enjoyable. I will post the FPV footage below when I pull it together.

 

[The Hangar]

It depends if your dog is a family member or just a sweet pet. My big one has arms, the little one has arms half of the time.
Props - Guilty... no excuse. I didn't put throttle hold on at first either, so consider me shamed.

Project update:
I spent a good part of Saturday putting this plane together. Sunday Morning-ish, I finished this up. (I will post pictures) and I have some FPV footage. I put the camera right behind the removable section. It was REALLY windy, The wind sock was fully extended. I didn't have a 9" prop, but I did have a 8x6 prop. so I used that. This plane felt somewhat underpowered, but it still flew very well. I flew her for two batteries, and because of the wind, it was nearly full throttle for the full 5-6 minutes. I think this bird needs a steeper pitch, or a bigger prop. I really enjoyed the flight, it needed very little trim, It was difficult as the gusting and high wind speeds mad smooth level flight impossible. Turn a wing to far and it would get caught by the wind, and tossed. slow down and it would stall, there wasn't enough power for a steep climb, but It was enjoyable. I will post the FPV footage below when I pull it together.
View attachment 167358 View attachment 167360 View attachment 167361 View attachment 167363 View attachment 167364 View attachment 167365 View attachment 167366
View attachment 167359 View attachment 167362

Awesome! I love the Sea Angel so much! I thought about working on it this weekend but I only had time to finish the Simple Stick.

 

[FoamyDM]

don't be ashamed, link it...

 

[The Hangar]

don't be ashamed, link it...

Link to my April showers entry? Of course!
https://forum.flitetest.com/index.php?threads/ftfc20-april-showers-by-the-hangar-simple-stick.62404/

 

[Hondo76251]

Lookin sweet!

I was just poking fun at the general internet overreaction to such things... I never take props off either, and rarely use a throttle cut myself 😳. I work around dangerous machinery and livestock on a daily basis and I've still got my fingers. I figure if I cant keep my fingers out of the prop I probably have it coming... 🤣

 

[FoamyDM]

@Hondo76251 Thanks!

I suspected, and appreciate the humor. I woodwork, and those will take a hand/finger etc, as fast as you can say, "we need more Cowbell". The safest thing is to remove the prop. simple. if that's the baseline, you have further to go to making a serious accident.

I set up throttle cut, as I often have my remote hanging while I arrange the plane at the field, and a accidental bump is more possible there. but when it's on the table, I will point it away, and test.

 

[luke k]

wait a minute somebody just gave you a kit? it said that in the first comment

 

[FoamyDM]

wait a minute somebody just gave you a kit? it said that in the first comment

A friend cut a kit out for me. I reimbursed him for the supplies and effort. It saved a TON of time on this one.

 

[FoamyDM]

 

[luke k]

oh, i see.

 

[FoamyDM]

Here she is, the maiden water flight.
I still have on board footage from the maiden flight.

I had a great but short time flying this off the short drainage puddle along my field's entrance drive.

wipe it down and we are ready for more water fun!

Takeaways:
This build is fairly robust. Places I normally see failures, I didn't. The popsicle reinforcing and fuse guides for them are very ingenius. And sturdy.
Weak points are sadly the wing and motor standoffs. And I only think they are weak because of the couple hard grass landings. And the pontoons are strong but naturally prone to damage on landings. If all my landings were water. They may still be in perfect shape.

Heed Andrus's warning at the video end about low speed tip stalls. I noticed a strong rudder movement causing severe tip stalls, on the inner wingtip. Nearly every time. I used the old C-pack emax GT2218/09 powered by a 2200 3s battery with an 8x6 prop. I had to keep it to wide open throttle for more scale flight. It was hard to fly that way to not have enough power to pull out of a hard manuever. I am looking forward to testing this on different props.

Lastly it held up pretty well in the water. Bring a towel to wipe it dry afterward. The less exposure the better.

My advice build a water plane. It's fun to fly on and off the water.