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Awesome! I want to see some video when you have her completed.
Mighty "Mini" PBY-5A Catalina - WWII Flying Boat
- Thread starter localfiend
- Start date
720p no lag FPV video is pretty darned awesome. I may or may not have been running around in my yard this evening wearing my fatsharks to try it out.
Think it'l get it's test drive on the Sea Duck, then I'll find some head tracking gear and get it ready for the PBY.
Think it'l get it's test drive on the Sea Duck, then I'll find some head tracking gear and get it ready for the PBY.
Localfiend,
I started on a PBY based on your beta plans. .....this plane you've created is a work of art! ! This is my 7th DTFB scratch and it is a step above the others in complexity. ....but she sure is a beaut!!
Have wanted a PBY since 1976 and the movie Midway.
But I have some questions for you.
Did you place the ESCS in the wings behind the little doors? If so, any problem with trapping heat or is heat not an issue since you're not doing any 3D ?
I've been able to figure out pretty much everthing including the wing pylon/tower, but the front end/bow ahead of the hatch has me stumped. How does the "top nose plate" fit relative to the front of the lower hull and hatch??
Finally, how in the heck were you able to fly that thing in the 1 video with all those trees??? I might have made 1 circuit before a tree would have eaten it!!!
Many thanks for any guidance you might provide.
I started on a PBY based on your beta plans. .....this plane you've created is a work of art! ! This is my 7th DTFB scratch and it is a step above the others in complexity. ....but she sure is a beaut!!
Have wanted a PBY since 1976 and the movie Midway.
But I have some questions for you.
Did you place the ESCS in the wings behind the little doors? If so, any problem with trapping heat or is heat not an issue since you're not doing any 3D ?
I've been able to figure out pretty much everthing including the wing pylon/tower, but the front end/bow ahead of the hatch has me stumped. How does the "top nose plate" fit relative to the front of the lower hull and hatch??
Finally, how in the heck were you able to fly that thing in the 1 video with all those trees??? I might have made 1 circuit before a tree would have eaten it!!!
Many thanks for any guidance you might provide.
When I built mine the esc's ended up inside the power pod. The little doors are there just to make routing wires easier for those that might want to use them. With a little planning when you build the wing they're not needed. I just started building my second version (Mighty Mini PBY Catalina Beta v.2 - Tiled), and I hope to cover some more of the little details to make builds easier.
Heat hasn't been an issue for me so far, probably because it really doesn't take much throttle at all to get the plane moving. If you were running full out for a whole battery you might cause an issue.
The nose is one of the things I plan to rework, It's hard to get it to come out right with foam or posterboard. After building the Giant Scale version at flight fest I think I know what I want to do, I just need to do it. All of the current nose pieces need a little trimming to make them work, as it depends on how you fold the poster-board.
Try and see if you can make it look like this (Ignore how rough around the edges some things are, it was a group effort and we were flying through the hatch and cowl assembly after some of the CNC parts got smashed).
Simple two piece cover that goes on after the hatch. The nose formers on the plans should fit underneath, then just cut out the cover pieces and put them over the top of things like the above pictures. Like I said, it may take some trimming. I'll nail things down for the nose in this next build, I'm actually thinking of using foamboard instead of posterboard. We'll see how it goes.
Well that's easy. Fly around a bunch of trees until you get tired of crashing into them until things just click.
Oh, and don't put away the ladder and 40 foot pole, cause even after you get good at judging orientation and depth perception you still crash. I like to use a nutball for tree dodge training. A whole heck of a lot of fun, and you don't care one bit if you break it by throwing rocks at it to get it down, or shoot it with an arrow.
Heh, I've actually got something very similar, but it has a 2.5 gal air tank instead of a small one. It shoots things too far to use at the house. Last time it was in use, the projectile (a can of tomato paste - hey, it fit perfectly....), overshot the target in the middle of the pasture and landed in the neighbors goat pen. Tomato paste went everywhere and the goats went nuts. :black_eyed:
So yeah, it's relegated to field duty where anything breakable is at least 300 yards out of range.
Ok, I can see how that would work. Thanks. I'm thinking maybe I'll try a hunk of carved blue foam on the very front end instead of fiddling with the formers and posterboard.
Next question: where did you put the servos?
But version 2? Oh, man.....I'm just now working on V1 !!! You guys work too fast!! Guess I gotta quit my day job to pursue my hobbies!!!
Next question: where did you put the servos?
But version 2? Oh, man.....I'm just now working on V1 !!! You guys work too fast!! Guess I gotta quit my day job to pursue my hobbies!!!
PsyBorg
Wake up! Time to fly!
So yeah, it's relegated to field duty where anything breakable is at least 300 yards out of range.
Do you do the "Tim the Toolman" gorilla ahh ohh ohhh Ohh when you use it? Something that powerful it should be mandatory. If you have trouble choosing the proper one here is a vid with ALL of them.
Don't worry, version 2 is pretty much the same thing, just reshaped the fuse some, and cleaned a few parts up. The fuse reshaping might make water handling better or worse, I'll find out. Oh, and I think I included a reinforcement piece for the tail. You might want to print that out and install it (should fold over the tail you already have even if installed on the fuse already. It really stiffens up the V and H stabs.
I'm considering making up sliced/profile style foam pieces for the nose, so that you can easily get the exact catalina nose shape with minimal sanding. For those who want it anyway. It's too bulbous and odd shaped to make perfect with standard FT techniques.
I'll see if I can get servo position pictures later, but I'd imagine if you run through the thread I show them somewhere.
Heh, might have to do that. I know there was probably some grunting involved. The recoil with tomato paste cans is considerable. Which is the reason it overshot.... A lot different than the apples we had been shoving in the barrel.
atpflyer18
Junior Member
Is there any hope of a build video in the near future, or is that just too much to ask for?
It might happen, but that's really hard to do without a cameraman who can dedicate a lot of hours to the project. I try to document my builds as best I can with pictures. I've thought about doing a video for this, but it probably won't be anytime soon.
If you're building and get stuck don't feel shy about asking for help here.
You can go for a fixed setup like I used on my nnChip build video. The dedication of hours and hours.. And hours, is still there but it's just your time and not anyone else's.
That might be doable. I suppose I could use the video out on my gopro to run to a monitor so that I can see real-time if stuff is in frame.
If I do a video though it will have to come after I build beta v.2 and work out any bugs that come up. If I'm going to dedicate the time to a build video, I want it to be a final release.
My CNC is coming along though, so I'll hopefully be able to do more test builds in a shorter amount of time for removing bugs.
If you read through the thread there are a bunch of flight videos. It handles very well, one of the easiest planes I've flown simply because it's light, is a twin (no torque effects), and has a huge wing.
Got beta v.2 all programmed up for cutting on my CNC machine.
I'm going to be trying to see if I can do the whole build without any posterboard, so the number of foamboard sheets went up from 4.5 to just over 5. Posterboard is great for a land only build, but waterproofing it is a pain. It could be substituted for vinyl, which is really cheap and pretty lightweight. But you have to get it from a sign shop, or order it online. If I can do the whole build with foamboard it may be worth it to some people. We'll see if the upper decking works easily enough.
pakrat1022
Member
Your having to much fun
I really can't wait for this. The head tracking + a scale cockpit will be absolutely epic.
