Canadair CL-415 1390mm. Scenic Outing at the Little Lake

...a bit more successful

Following on from my rather unsuccessful previous expedition to the lake, I returned a week later with the Canadair again for another attempt.
I find flying off water to be rather stressful, due mainly to the inconvenience of failure, namely having to the boat out to rescue the plane and then pack it all up again. As a consequence I am much more nervous and therefore tend to fly much worse than otherwise.

The Canadair is easy to fly and I can generally fly it off the grass, not dissimilar in nature to taking off from water, with little issue. The takeoffs on this occasion were, happily, more successful although most were still a little nervy and one, which didn't make it into the video, was absolutely awful.

One contributing factor is that you don't always get to stand near the plane like you do at the field, and as a result you are literally distanced. I probably should've just gone to the large lake where I could have launched from right next to the jetty. However the little lake looked so scenic with the clouds in the afternoon sun..

HMS Rescue

...first retrieval of the floatplane

Today the planets finally aligned, with it being calm, the rain remaining in abeyance and access to the lake being open. Things hadn't gone smoothly on the way, however, having to dodge a police roadblock and then having to hunt for the secret access point.

Finally, however, with all missions successfully completed, I arrived at the launching point ready for the Trainstar floaplane's second flight. There was just the slightest suggestion of a breeze, the lake calm and reflecting the tranquil palette of the surroundings.

The Trainstar was equipped with the new larger battery, which I hoped would provide the extra flying time to avoid awkward situations (plane marooned in the middle of the lake with a flat battery) and also provide a little extra grunt when necessary.

The takeoff runs I'm still finding problematic, with the Trainstar being quite skittish at speed and having a tendency to veer. Nevertheless I did manage a few launches and some pleasant flying across the lake.

The one issue I have encountered, twice in this session, is turning; sometimes the Trainstar will get into a tightening turn, whilst other times it won't turn tight enough. It was the latter cases which proved problematic, with the Trainstar ending up stalling and flopping nose-first into the lake.

In a testament to the unsinkability of the floats, both times the Trainstar settled back down onto the floats however, by the second occasion, the ESC had a little too much to drink and went for a lie-down. As a consequence I had to break out HMS Rescue for the first retrieval attempt.

Due to the inflatable being nicely packaged up I hadn't bothered doing a test run beforehand, however I found that, in conjunction with the electric pump, the boat was ready to go in a few minutes and, once I'd figured how to install the oars into the oarlocks, I was on my way out onto the lake.

The inflatable did surprisingly well, although my rowing skills left something to be desired. For the future I think I'll get some sort of tow rope for returning the plane, as trying to shepherd the untethered plane back to shore was rather taxing.

So all ended well, except to see whether the ESC can be resuscitated or needs replacing...

Trainstar Seaplane Water Test

...and still floating at the end

This morning I did my first on-water test of my Trainstar fitted with 0.40 size floats, conducted at the local duck pond and home of the local model boat club.

I had no intentions of getting the Trainstar into the air here, simply because there are too many tree surrounding the pond, combined with the fact that I'm not sure how well the Trainstar will fly with carrying additional 300g of floats.

The floats will provide a little lift, given their curved shape at the front, however there will be a lot of drag, so the slow Trainstar will become very slow. I am going to increase the flap angle, and I'm also thinking of dropping the ailerons by half a turn of the clevis to make the wings higher-lift as an initial precaution.

The other concern regarding the flying capability is the need for a long pond or lake; while the local duck pond was fine for this first test (although I even managed to overshoot once into the bushes), I'd like somewhere to land straight ahead as part of the flight evaluation. It would also give the choice to opt out it things didn't look good, without having to go round when you might not make it.

Anyway, the water test went well with the Trainstar happily buzzing around the pond. The water rudder worked well with just the single cable operating it off the rudder control horn, and on a couple of occasions I got the Trainstar to the point of lift-off, which was encouraging. It is a little tricky to keep it on a straight take-off run, something I've experienced with it on wheels as well.

Anyway, now just to find a larger venue to get the Trainstar into the air...

Trainstar Floatplane Assembled

...almost there

I have assembled the seaplane floats to my Trainstar, and this afternoon finished connecting the tail rudder to the float rudder using the supplied cable and sleeve.

The rudder operation is better than I expected, although it will need to be tested in the water to check whether operation with more force involved still works OK.

However, before then, I need to seal all the mounts for the struts, rudder and cable to make sure the floats stay floating.

Then we can take the Trainstar out for some water testing at the local duck pond...