H.K. 1800mm Catalina maiden flight & sinking...

Morning all...... finally got out with the PBY.... beautiful! Faultless flight... a bit quick maybe... but looks great!

Now don't laugh too hard you might do yourselves a mischief!! @plane came in safely in the end. All systems ok..... bar the broken prop!
Cpl.Jones

Looks lovely in the air,landed didnt look to bad ,but a broken prop doesnt help retriving does it,well done lovely looking model.like the way you do your videos ,very impressive

shame, it was flying well too.
hopefully it will be back in the air soon.

Hi Tony, looked good. As you said, a bit quick but only in the landing really. Hope you don't mind advice. Keep it just off the water for a bit longer to allow it to slow down.

Hi Guys... thanks.... yeah, I watched a really good film about the PBY, one of the featured pilots advice was to just keep the boat level on the water....landings and take-offs.... so what did I do on final approach???...in spit of repeating the mantra 'Level on the water....level on the water....what do I do but.tip a float in......what a Wazerk, what a Corey....what a Reed....I dunno......tsk!!

Cpl Jones

Must say I have never flown off water, but as FTB states it does look as if you came in a tad too fast. However its a brave pilot who admits to his own mistakes. Well done for the attempt, and thanks for the video .

Garry

Okay dokay, I did not make you too unhappy The bit where you comment on level on the water means a little bit more than wings level. Nose up a bit too A good start though at waterplane activity If you want something a little "softer" to try on water or just in the air then touching on another thread,, Radio Queen or something similar, fits in with your enjoyment of building too.

If you look at videos of full size float or sea planes they 'fly off' and 'fly on'. No 'rotation' on take off or 'flair' on landing.
Water is much too unforgiving to 'drop' onto you have to just 'kiss' the surface and let the water drag and the hydrodynamic lift build up as slowly as possible whilst you still have some aerodynamic control.
In fact the water drag builds up pretty fast so the landing run is quite short but the touch down itself has to be much more careful with a long run in.
Now this is 'proper' sea plane but note how gently it is set down - absolutely no bounce!

And a bit of reverse thrust helps when manoeuvring!

Lovelly vid... I've watched many, many vids about sea planes recently...and I hear all your advice and will try to heed it!! Here's another one of my water vids from last summer. DHC-2 Beaver from ST models.... I love it.... here shown flying at my regular spot which has much easier approach and far fewer trees... trouble is I can't fly there during the shooting season.. so my season on this pond starts mid-Feb... I finally get a good landing right at the end..