P51C Otter

slowjo

Master member
Greetings from Grand Rapids, I kind of started this on Andrewar's page on sea otter troubles, so I decided to try and start my own thread, a first for me, I'm kind of computer illiterate but I'm trying , after building the Sea Otter I learned it used the Mustang wing. My thought was to make a "Water World" smashup, a P51C Mustang sea plane with the bottom scoop on the front, but backwards for the step, and the full top of the P51-P51C, and the power pod with a tractor instead of a pusher. Then Dutchmonkey started some prints calling it a Mustter : ) so what are y'alls thoughts. jo
 

slowjo

Master member
here is my Otter with 1 flight on her
 

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slowjo

Master member
I got some progress on my prototype, I had a four blade prop laying around but its too big, but for now just left the pod extra high so it will fit. Never built a canopy let alone try to design one, that was challenging , lots of trial and error, error, error
 

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Tench745

Master member
That's a cool looking plane. I think if you fly it from the water that the scoop isn't quite long enough to put the step where you want it. As it is I suspect you'll be floating very tail-down and even with some speed it won't get "on step" (or "on plane" if you're a boat person). I would suggest adding material to move the step further aft, something more like this would be a good start. Of course, there's no harm in trying what you have and seeing what it does first. I think it would be a fun experiment. :)
stang amphib.jpg


Edit: just saw the further progress photos; really cool. Reminds me a lot of a seawind.
 

slowjo

Master member
That's a cool looking plane. I think if you fly it from the water that the scoop isn't quite long enough to put the step where you want it. As it is I suspect you'll be floating very tail-down and even with some speed it won't get "on step" (or "on plane" if you're a boat person). I would suggest adding material to move the step further aft, something more like this would be a good start. Of course, there's no harm in trying what you have and seeing what it does first. I think it would be a fun experiment. :)
View attachment 150748

Edit: just saw the further progress photos; really cool. Reminds me a lot of a seawind.
thanx, my original idea was to have the mustangs belly scoop reversed and put up front, so that's the size I made it? but I thought the step was suppose to be just behind CG?
 

Tench745

Master member
thanx, my original idea was to have the mustangs belly scoop reversed and put up front, so that's the size I made it? but I thought the step was suppose to be just behind CG?
Yeah, I guess you're right. the amount of curve in the scoop is throwing me off a bit. To get on plane you generally need the bottom to run pretty flat forward of the step, this creates the surface the float planes on when "on step".
The step position makes more sense seeing it with the wing on.
 

slowjo

Master member
Here is my big P51c Otter, still trying to figure out shapes, im completely computer illiterate so plans and shapes are just trial and error
 

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slowjo

Master member
My maiden didn’t go very well, like the Otter, taking off from the ground can be alittle tricky, don’t know if it was alittle nose heavy and or wrong thrust angle? I could change the name to P51 ostrich cause she didn’t want to leave the ground, so I hand launched, by myself, maybe to much throttle, but it went straight to the ground 😐
 

Jonny Gum

Elite member
This is such a cool idea! If possible, use a smaller prop or such to reduce the height of the motor tower. It's possible that the thrust is too high up, which pushes the nose down into the ground.
 

slowjo

Master member
This is such a cool idea! If possible, use a smaller prop or such to reduce the height of the motor tower. It's possible that the thrust is too high up, which pushes the nose down into the ground.
yes, its a C motor, so I'm running an 8''x 3 blade, I think most of it is with my sea Otter I used it for winter where I could run up plenty of speed to get the wind under my wings, sounds like a song??? I never liked hand launching the Otter either, no matter what with the motor so high a burst of throttle always pushed the nose down, its reassembled, I need to find the correct CG as it is not on the plans for the p51?
 

slowjo

Master member
Being Impatient I never put on the “floats” probably would have saved my wing 😳
 

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slowjo

Master member
Well I’m still impatient, winds were not dropping tonight like I hoped, I waited bout 20 minutes with the plane already and the wind never let up😐 so I tried my second maiden??? With the out riggers on and the battery moved back she took off! and she flew nice very little trim needed. Got two nice flights and more importantly two nice landings😎
 

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OliverW

Legendary member
Well I’m still impatient, winds were not dropping tonight like I hoped, I waited bout 20 minutes with the plane already and the wind never let up😐 so I tried my second maiden??? With the out riggers on and the battery moved back she took off! and she flew nice very little trim needed. Got two nice flights and more importantly two nice landings😎
Awesome!!