solentlife

Today she got her maiden ... on water ......

Nice warm balmy near calm evening ..... river near flat ......

Had a silly moment - when I rewired one lead - I stupidly put pins in wrong way round in the plug ... of course didn't see that till out on the water ! Luckily its only 200m back to house ... cut a second hatch to access Rx .... corrected the servo pins ... tested (should have done that first time !). When I installed - that plug was not in ... so all appeared OK.

Back out on the river .... Turnigy 2826 2200KV, 6x5E prop, 2250 Rhino 3S 35C in and CoG on the step .... eyeball surfaces ... give 2mm up on elevator just in case .... drop her over side ... she floats absolutely perfect with slight rear sit.
Motor on ... give touch of power .. out she goes and she steers very well with stock rudder.

So time to give it the 'gun' ....... throttle open ... she's a bit skitty on steering but soon she's showing air under and away she goes .... not fast - but plenty of power there. No hesitation to lift and fly ... loops / rolls - all very nice ..

After a while of cruising / testing throttle range ... its time to try a 'skim and go' ....

Line her up and let her float on in with throttle keeping her under control ..... first touch - she did exactly same as Polaris / Skipper .... if a tip is just a touch low on one side - she touches hard that side and screws.
I let her settle and then motored her a bit and took off again ... to fly and do a landing ... this time greasing in nice ... wings level ... she did a good job. Flight time : 7:45 ... LiPo at 3.8V per cell at finish.

Video one :



Checking ESC .... this was hot - so I need to up to a 50A unit or more ... then I can literally forget about air scoops etc. I did this Polaris ... upped to a higher rated ESC and never had heat problem again.

Once cooled - in with a Zippy Blue 3S 2200 25C lipo ..... and away we go again ... this time a little bit better take off ... still a bit zig-zaggy ... but better.
Wife comes out on shore to watch ...
I fly her about and then decide to land .... level out - line up ... nice one ...

Decided to motor around a bit to see how hull performs - taking advantage of the now calm water .... she rises easily on step as power goes up ... showing air under at 3/4 throttle ready to fly ...

Motor it back to my old Soviet boat .... feeling really pleased with it.

Flight and water action is literally so close to Polaris that really I cannot understand some peoples comments about water use of this model on other sites... She's a peach ...

Video 2 :



Very happy with it ... certainly proved better than some of the comments made about her I read on other sites !!

Nigel

solentlife

Fabulous ..... 3 batterys with really good water and air performance ......

The one factor that is really in need of sorting - the colour scheme. At distance - there is difficulty distinguishing those washed out colours to orientate. Close in is fine but as soon as you go for those 'Jet Fighter' sweeping moves - you need keep careful check on which way up etc. !!

I am seriously thinking to get out the gloss paint pots and brighten up the TOP scheme - make it more visible...... The same scheme will work but the paint needs to be bolder.

The FG tape hinges are actually not showing any signs of lifting .... I think possibly the overall spray of varnish has given the tape a surface to stick to more effectively.

Today I tried Zippy Compact 2200 3S (lighter) ...... good but flight time was just over 5 mins and battery came out at 3.85V average cell ..... OK its a tired battery but shows its good enough.



then back to my old tired Blue TGY LiPo's !!



and another ...



To those who claim this model is questionable (on another forum of course full of self appointed experts !) on water with stock fences etc - I think the above videos prove the model is fine on water .... in fact I say it is on par with Polaris ................. which I have extensive experience of.

Nigel

Don Sims

Nigel,
How are you keeping the Carbon-fiber on the wings and spars? I've tried hotglue and CA and mine keep peeling off.

solentlife

Yep - I had to come up with a solution and I am still expecting them to come unstuck.

I used UHU-POR glue ... but also added FG hinge tape .... the tape sold by Hobby King and LHS that has the glass fibres in and sticks like crazy ! I took strips and folded over forcing CF to stay in place. Particular points being where maximum curvature and the ends of course.

I have found that the foamboard used in these G&G is not so kind to tape and it lifts very easily .... bit like EPP.

My hinges fell apart lifting the parts out of the box. So I used the FG hinge tape both sides ..... but later after giving the model an overall spray of clear Varnish I added hinge tape and that is adhering well to the varnished surface.

One item I could not figure out ... there was a white piece of foam sheet - similar shape to the forward section of fuselage ... I could not find any mention of it in manual as to where / what to do with it ... so it sits in the box unused !!


Nigel

dahawk

Good news for Europeans ! Motion RC is coming to serve you.

https://www.hobbysquawk.com/forum/rc...rc-goes-abroad

More choices , better gear, better service

solentlife

Loving this model ... cheap fun ... here on a 6x4 3 blader MAS prop ..



Nigel

Panther

It looks to be a very docile smooth flying model mate.

solentlife

It really is a good model ... and for the price - hard to beat.

Nigel