Mighty "Mini" PBY-5A Catalina - WWII Flying Boat

[localfiend]

Still a beautiful airplane. Can't wait to see the next iteration. I have two 2212 1400kv motors with 30 Amp ESCs waiting for a project. New radio and extra receivers with big 3s batteries.... I think I will do something a little more tame than this model for starters.
I want to build a PBY though and fly it off the lake near my house. Might make the Loons mad but it would still be a kick.
Great Job!

Yeah, it makes an excellent land plane at the moment. I glued the wings back together last night, and have the parts cut out for the extended fixed floats, just got to build then attach them.

Also got my servo slow down mechanism last night, and it seems to work quite well. Gonna have to build another prototype soon, this time with working retracts.

 

[Geezah]

Here is a picture from plans showing how llittle of the tip float hits the water on a 60inch span Lake Privateer model.
Since that seems to be the major bugaboo on your PBY (Other than the color in the sun of course,) I figured I would shoot it to you.
What style of wing were you working with for your Peashooter test. FT, or full airfoil style?

 

[Order_55]

Great plane design! I can't wait until you make finals plans for this aircraft, as I am ordering my "Mini" electronics now!

(Also, just a thought, have you thought about making retracts for wheels, as an alternate version to the floats? That would be awesome!)

 

[localfiend]

View attachment 68445
Here is a picture from plans showing how llittle of the tip float hits the water on a 60inch span Lake Privateer model.
Since that seems to be the major bugaboo on your PBY (Other than the color in the sun of course,) I figured I would shoot it to you.
What style of wing were you working with for your Peashooter test. FT, or full airfoil style?

Yeah, that angle is close to what I'm going to use for the fun fly/trainer wing. On the Peashooter I used a fully symmetrical airfoil. I wanted it to be as clean as the actual plane.

Great plane design! I can't wait until you make finals plans for this aircraft, as I am ordering my "Mini" electronics now!

(Also, just a thought, have you thought about making retracts for wheels, as an alternate version to the floats? That would be awesome!)

I gave retractable wheels some quick thoughts, but I think they would be pretty hard to do on such a small model. Figured that if anybody wanted wheels that some fixed or detachable versions would work just fine. If you want to try and figure it out though that would be awesome. Being able to taxi down into the water with wheels would be pretty cool.

 

[flyingsquirrelRC]

The real ones had some landing gear that would be hard to replicate. However, only the later models had it, so we will just call this one an earlier model . Thank you War Thunder for that tidbit of information....

 

[M2oseMarshall]

Absolutely Amazing LF!!! Can't wait to show this thread to my RC Club at School!!!

Great Job LF!!! My students in my RC Club will Love this plane!!!
M2oseMarshall

 

[Tench745]

The real ones had some landing gear that would be hard to replicate. However, only the later models had it, so we will just call this one an earlier model . Thank you War Thunder for that tidbit of information....

The early models were not amphibious, the later ones were. However, the early models did have detachable "beaching gear" which was installed by the crew while still in the water. This might be doable in this scale. Ie. just a set of wheels that clip on or off depending on what you'll be flying off of.
I saw a video of the operation somewhere, but I can't seem to find it now.

 

[Tench745]

So, I ran across this "Handbook of Structural Repair for the PBY 5" Thought I'd share. Neat things.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjfgIrGu87MAhXD64MKHTxTBqsQFgg-MAU&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.seawings.co.uk%2Fimages%2Fmanuals%2FCatalina%2520Manuals%2FHandbook%2520of%2520Structural%2520Repair%2520Catalina%2520PBY%25205%2520-%2520PBY-5A%2520-%2520PBY-6A%2520%26%2520OA-10.pdf&usg=AFQjCNHLVVj53naOp2ex8HfG-XtUdEfjnw&sig2=Dowkusoz4zJsyAUe9Qdtdw

And here's a clip showing an early Cat rolling into the water on her beaching gear. You can see the crew, shoulder deep in the water crowding around the struts to remove the gear after she's launched. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcO86s06FIk

 

[localfiend]

I want to say that the PBY-5 was without landing gear, and the PBY-5A was with, but there may have been some overlap.

So, I ran across this "Handbook of Structural Repair for the PBY 5" Thought I'd share. Neat things.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjfgIrGu87MAhXD64MKHTxTBqsQFgg-MAU&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.seawings.co.uk%2Fimages%2Fmanuals%2FCatalina%2520Manuals%2FHandbook%2520of%2520Structural%2520Repair%2520Catalina%2520PBY%25205%2520-%2520PBY-5A%2520-%2520PBY-6A%2520%26%2520OA-10.pdf&usg=AFQjCNHLVVj53naOp2ex8HfG-XtUdEfjnw&sig2=Dowkusoz4zJsyAUe9Qdtdw

And here's a clip showing an early Cat rolling into the water on her beaching gear. You can see the crew, shoulder deep in the water crowding around the struts to remove the gear after she's launched. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcO86s06FIk

That handbook is pretty awesome. Pictures would have come in handy when I was drawing stuff up.

 

[Tench745]

I want to say that the PBY-5 was without landing gear, and the PBY-5A was with, but there may have been some overlap.

You're right. I had only done some cursory research on the PBY when I started looking at flying boats. I didn't get into model specifics. I just boned up a bit more. The A stands for amphibious, and both the 5 and 5A were manufactured concurrently with other models including the PBY3 and the 4-engined PB2Y. And apparently the 5 was the first PBY to have the waist bubbles? I saw that somewhere but haven't confirmed.

 

[localfiend]

Started playing around with inkscape, the free clone of illustrator. Pretty cool program so far. Fast and pretty simple to use. I need to add some panel definition, blur the rivets a bit, and and some weathering and shading effects, but it's close after a couple hours tinkering.

Scale wing test:

 

[Rasterize]

Started playing around with inkscape, the free clone of illustrator. Pretty cool program so far. Fast and pretty simple to use. I need to add some panel definition, blur the rivets a bit, and and some weathering and shading effects, but it's close after a couple hours tinkering.
View attachment 69741

Nice! So what were you thinking on printing this on? Vinyl? I was thinking in terms of water proofing.
It was great meeting you in person at Flite Fest! That big Cat you made was mind blowing!

 

[localfiend]

Nice! So what were you thinking on printing this on? Vinyl? I was thinking in terms of water proofing.
It was great meeting you in person at Flite Fest! That big Cat you made was mind blowing!

It was great to meet you as well. Flite Test is awesome just cause you get to hang out with a lot of cool people you've only talked to online.

I was thinking Vinyl or something similar depending on what weight stuff might be. Any suggestions for something light and waterproof?

The Giant PBY was a lot of fun, and I wouldn't have gotten it built in only two days without a lot of help. The other cool thing about Flite Test is how everybody helps out. Todd and Kevin with their CNC machines really sped things up, that saved a lot of work and the finished pieces were much prettier. And then Ray and Matt, two guys I had never met before, spent a lot of hours helping me out from start to finish. Quite a few people dropped by to lend a few minutes of their time as well, either cutting out a part, or helping hold something in place. Way cool.

Anyway, here's the maiden flight of the big one. 100" wingspan, and two C-Pack equivalent motors.

 

[Rasterize]

Absolutely E. P. I. C. Epic.

 

[AkimboGlueGuns]

I absolutely love this project! This really is the next evolution of DTF models right here, and I can't wait to start on my own.

 

[m00ndancer]

Next project a soon as Graupner gets FT boards in stock in EU.

 

[localfiend]

I absolutely love this project! This really is the next evolution of DTF models right here, and I can't wait to start on my own.

I'll try an clean up the plans from what I remember as being off during the build. I think I'll probably also start another thread for the Giant version, cause I'm thinking about building another as well. Your thoughts on a full cockpit with FPV camera inside has me really tempted.

I've had a Connex Prosight HD on pre-order for a while and it shipped saturday. I think HD FPV inside a Giant Catalina would be super awesome.

 

[J Bergsmith]

Both the small and the large PBY's are awesome, very nice work on both of them localfiend!

 

[pakrat1022]

I was wondering what happened to your PBY project

 

[AkimboGlueGuns]

DO THE FPV COCKPIT!!!

Here's an example of just what's possible with a basic cockpit setup.

With the catalina this would look insane.