Long-Distance Floatplane Flying From a Motorboat

Bird’s eye view of the local scenery. Endless free space to fly. 

The tiny little boat (at the bottom) is where I am flying from.

Touching down to change a battery.

This is the seal colony we visited, where we often see seals or sea lions. They slide into the water if you get to close in a boat, but were not bothered by the plane. (they are on the lower right)

Chasing the boat.

I spent a lot of time low to the water chasing the boat. The plane was quite a lot faster than the boat, so you can see the flaps often activated to slow down. Low passes beside the boat were fun and also challenging with the cross wind, and at low power the wind often pushed me out over the bow of the boat. A few passes got really close. 

The final stop of our flight was Whaletown, Cortes Island, but the trip also took in took Subtle Islands, Plunger Pass, and Centre Islet, where the seals were. 

My FunCub Setup. 

The Multiplex FunCub is a classic, and really does almost anything you want. Mine is set up with a Turnigy Aerodrive SK3 - 3536-1050kv motor and 12X6 APC prop. I usually fly with a smaller 2200mAh battery since I have lots of them. I painted it the same ‘school bus yellow’ used by a lot of search and rescue and trainers, which is and absolutely amazing colour for visibility and orientation. It has two broad black stripes on either wing (2X width black packing tape), which are also very good for orientation. I can fly this plane pretty high line-of-sight without loosing orientation. The only modification from the stock I made is an addition to make the tail removable with a nylon thumb-screw (see pictures). 

Wide black stripes are great for orientation.

The tail was modified to allow it to break down. I made a M5 threaded T-shaped piece of UHMW plastic and glued it onto the vertical stabilizer, then drilled a corresponding hole inthe horizontal stabilizer and fuselage. 

The front of the horizontal stabilizer also has a popcicle stick that slides into a slot in the fuselage. 

The hole in the fuselage is reinforced with a bit of tube to allow the thumbscrew to be tightened. 

Slide the whole thing onto the fuselage, and then just tighten with a single M5 thumbscrew (and hook up the pushrods). Plane goes back into the box disassembled. 

The camera is mounted on the wing, which actually gives what I think is a nice side view. I made a simple mount using two nylon bolts and it can be swapped to either side.  The camera gets some splash on take off and landing (the 12” prop kicks up some water), so I hand-launch when I want to do a movie, otherwise you end up with salty water drops in front of the lens. You also have to remember to clean this after each landing. Hand-launching from a boat means lots of throttle since you have no room for mistakes, but the FunCub basically flies out of your hand without any effort. 

Side-mounted GoPro. At the widest angle you get a bit of wingtip but no floats or wheels. 

The floats are Hyperion. They are not quite big enough for a FunCub with a GoPro (it lists badly), but are adequate for the job, and have a great mounting system. Not only do they come on and off very quickly (when you want them too), but the attachment between struts and floats is very sturdy compared with all the others I have used. I use them on snow a lot, which can be hard on the attachments, but these are tough. For modifications, I use bicycle inner tube rather than elastic bands, I put some piano wire under the attachment site to hook the elastics on to (stronger than the plastic tube it comes with). I recently added 6mm depron to the underside to improve the buoyancy. 

Hyperion floats. Not pretty, but they take a beating and break down easily. 

The simple connection system is very strong. I use bike inner tubes as elastics and reinforced the connection with a bit of piano wire. 

The floats friction-fit into two wooden blocks. It is tight but easy. I re-inforced around the blocks.

Don't forget you NEED a water-rudder. This easy one attaches by inserting a skewer into the rudder, and wrapping a bit of bent piano wire around the wheel. Then tape around the wire/wheel with duct tape. Without a rudder you will have trouble taxiing, especially in wind. 

Saltwater is hard on planes, there is no way around that. I keep the pushrods oiled and try to rinse it a bit after flying. My ESC and receiver were soaked in Rust-EZ, a chemical boaters use to preserve metal and electronics from salt. The pushrods are going though, so I will have to find stainless replacements. Even the aluminum pushrod connectors are unhappy, so you need to keep up on the maintenance. 

Overall, I HIGHLY recommend trying this for the sheer fun of it. Flying gliders in the mountains is also really fun for the adrenalin rush, but this is really one of the best experiences I have had, and is a lot less likely to end with a missing or ruined plane. I never tried this with FPV (because I did not want to get the gear wet), but if you protected the electronics this would be a fantastic experience too.