NEW FliteTest Beaver!

Aireal Anarchist

Elite member
the distance between the floats and the fuse on the flyzone 60" beaver seems in proportion to yours so I dont think it sits too low from design, I think that weird water tail rudder is too much drag too far back and sucking the tail feathers too low not allowing enough ground speed to allow the tail to rotate

the WATER rudders on the flyzone beaver are on the back of the floats! so they dont suck down the tail feathers you could fab up a twin rudder system like the setup below or by inserting a servo in one of the floats and fab up required linkage...

my beaver will not break free of the water suction on the floats unless I use flaps too so maybe increase the travel on the flaps if possible to get full deflection??
you fly with a pistol too ;)....big cats around me

edit:
is it possible to raise that water rudder so that just part of the blade is in contact with the water to reduce the drag the flyzone rudders are the same size as that monster your dragging behind you and the flyzone is a 60" plane with 12" prop
it would be possible to cut your rudder shaft and make a few torque arms and replicate this setup .....
or just toss it in the air and have fun landing on the water.....maybe more work than you want to put into it
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Hondo76251

Legendary member
When I flew the first video without the rudder I was able to get up on plane easier so no doubt that the rudder induces even more drag but the plane was nearly impossible to keep straight once up to speed. The rudder solved that but also makes getting to planing speed harder so kind of an even trade. Adjusting the angle of attack helped to get up on plane better and also kept the prop out of the water better but did little to help with getting rear crossmember up and out of the water any sooner. It is out of the water once up on the plane and you can see the beaver quickly accelerate once that bar is clear of the water.

I was doing my best to get it dialed in with the stock setup (although the 6" prop it came with was a no go from the start so I was running various 5" props) But I have to say that, in my experience so far, the beaver is not great off the water. The only way I could consistently get lift off was with a bit of a head wind and full flaps (not a stock feature either) In all fairness however, the plane is a tad heavier with the extra servos and I'm running a 750 battery most of the time so I am a bit heavier than stock.

I have done a few tests off the water now with the new motor and that seems to have cured the issues I was having. I'll have some videos up of that before too long. ;)