Sea Angel flight characteristics?

[Oldbrass]

Hello FT community!

I've been wanting to try the Sea Angel build for a while now but was curious what folks have to say about its flight habits? So, to anyone out there who's made and flown one, what's it like? Stall characteristics? Does it glide well? Is it a brick with wings? Twitchy or docile? I have a pretty small field to fly in so maneuverability is super important. Thanks!

 

[tamuct01]

I built one from the FT kit. I also fiberglassed the hull with lightweight glass and epoxy. The first flight attempt failed miserably as the narrow fuselage was not buoyant enough. With any application of power, the thing would submarine and never get up on step for takeoff. It also lacks a water rudder so control of it in the water was non-existent.

The water rudder issue was fixed by cutting an old credit card into an L shape and using a small bolt to attach it to the bottom of the rudder. The bolt acts as a hinge point so the rudder can fold out of the way if it hits anything hard. The buoyancy problem was more of an issue. I took the shape of the nose section as a starting point and used some 1" insulation foam layered up to build up the nose section which is about twice the surface area of the original nose. I fiberglassed the new nose section and painted it. Here's a photo:

I also added a drain hole in the back to help remove any water that might make it into the fuselage. It's plugged with a foam ear plug. That part rarely touches the water and has held up fine.

As for flight characteristics, it's fairly gentle but does have tendencies common with other high-mounted motors. That is, applying throttle pushes the nose down. Mine did have some rather violent stall tendencies, so keep the wing flying. This is likely due to the motor being up high and the torque of the prop twisting the model around at slow speeds.

Other than those things, it's been a decent float model. I got my kit super-cheap, so it was worth it for me.

 

[Oldbrass]

I built one from the FT kit. I also fiberglassed the hull with lightweight glass and epoxy. The first flight attempt failed miserably as the narrow fuselage was not buoyant enough. With any application of power, the thing would submarine and never get up on step for takeoff. It also lacks a water rudder so control of it in the water was non-existent.

The water rudder issue was fixed by cutting an old credit card into an L shape and using a small bolt to attach it to the bottom of the rudder. The bolt acts as a hinge point so the rudder can fold out of the way if it hits anything hard. The buoyancy problem was more of an issue. I took the shape of the nose section as a starting point and used some 1" insulation foam layered up to build up the nose section which is about twice the surface area of the original nose. I fiberglassed the new nose section and painted it. Here's a photo:

View attachment 241015

I also added a drain hole in the back to help remove any water that might make it into the fuselage. It's plugged with a foam ear plug. That part rarely touches the water and has held up fine.

As for flight characteristics, it's fairly gentle but does have tendencies common with other high-mounted motors. That is, applying throttle pushes the nose down. Mine did have some rather violent stall tendencies, so keep the wing flying. This is likely due to the motor being up high and the torque of the prop twisting the model around at slow speeds.

Other than those things, it's been a decent float model. I got my kit super-cheap, so it was worth it for me.

Oh wow... That's a lot of really good info. Thank you so much for all that. It's exactly what I was looking for. I always wondered why FT had dropped this kit and now I guess I know the answer. I get that it's based on a fighter so obviously it's not going to behave like a trainer, but I'm glad I know your experience with it. It sounds like I would have been disappointed in this project. I think I'll put my efforts elsewhere. Thank you very much for your in-depth feedback.

 

[Tench745]

I built one from the FT kit. I also fiberglassed the hull with lightweight glass and epoxy. The first flight attempt failed miserably as the narrow fuselage was not buoyant enough. With any application of power, the thing would submarine and never get up on step for takeoff. It also lacks a water rudder so control of it in the water was non-existent.

The water rudder issue was fixed by cutting an old credit card into an L shape and using a small bolt to attach it to the bottom of the rudder. The bolt acts as a hinge point so the rudder can fold out of the way if it hits anything hard. The buoyancy problem was more of an issue. I took the shape of the nose section as a starting point and used some 1" insulation foam layered up to build up the nose section which is about twice the surface area of the original nose. I fiberglassed the new nose section and painted it. Here's a photo:

View attachment 241015

I also added a drain hole in the back to help remove any water that might make it into the fuselage. It's plugged with a foam ear plug. That part rarely touches the water and has held up fine.

As for flight characteristics, it's fairly gentle but does have tendencies common with other high-mounted motors. That is, applying throttle pushes the nose down. Mine did have some rather violent stall tendencies, so keep the wing flying. This is likely due to the motor being up high and the torque of the prop twisting the model around at slow speeds.

Other than those things, it's been a decent float model. I got my kit super-cheap, so it was worth it for me.

I have built a (modified) Sea Angel but haven't had the opportunity to fly it yet, so I too am interested in your observations.

As I understand it, the tail will sink down into the water a little once you've built up some speed, which should submerge the lower portion of the rudder and give a little better yaw control. As it is, yours sounds like it acts a lot like a taildragger with a tail skid. Ie, steering is accomplished by quick blasts of prop wash, large rudder throws, and possibly some down-elevator to lighten the tail and help it come around.

You might look at adding some more up-thrust on the motor to help counteract the high thrust line.

Wish I had flown mine by now so I could weigh in with some of my own observations.

 

[Shurik-1960]

Today, from the experience of my flights on hydroplanes "Sea BB" and "Slow boad": acceleration on the water is smooth, I always put a water rudder to the rudder (the rudder does not work at initial speed). The part of the fuselage that comes into contact with water is treated with SIVER Varnish Suites Sauna water-soluble colorless, adding a dye of black or red color. Initially, the fuselage of the Sea BB was covered with epoxy resin * the model took off from the snow, but from the water -there was not enough motor power (overweighted).

After the wing broke down in flight with the Slowboad model , I changed the wing to a flat-convex one. The entire model gained slightly. This is a test video with a new wing.

A very interesting Polaris model that I made a long time ago and it has been flying for more than 8 years.