Just a quick update with thoughts after float flying the FlyZone Beaver.
The plane does fly well off of water and looks great in the air with the floats attached. But I continue to find shortcomings that make me wish for a bit more refinement from FlyZone.
In this case its the water rudders that have me irritated. No two ways about it, the linkage mechanism with the rubber bands to return them to center is just a bad design from square one. They are impossible to get to center well and especially to do so repeatedly. The rudders will turn sideways and drag in the water (of course only one at a time) causing uneven drag and unexpected turns. I usually say a water rudder is a necessity for float planes but I’m tempted to disconnect these permanently. Maybe I can rig a pull-pull cable system for one and remove the other…. its worth a try because the system as is… is just crap.
The plane is not particularly overpowered either so taking off does require some time using the water rudders. It’s not terribly underpowered either, unless your dragging a sideways rudder through the water on takeoff!
In case you are wondering, while at the Nall recently I was camped next to two guys who both had them and they had the same issue with the water rudders… it isn’t just me!
I will continue to fight this problem so if I come up with an acceptable solution I will post again. With the money invested and the space it takes to haul this plane around with the wings attached permanently (for all intents) I have to at least make it into a good float flyer so it won’t become a total hangar queen!
Hey, came across this and I too have the same problem…. Argh.. Have you had any success with a new way of setting it up? If so would you mind letting me know!
Thanks for any advise!!
Hey Scott, I submitted a couple of further updates (2 and 3) showing how I set up a new pull-pull type system and commenting on it’s effectiveness when I flew it recently. Check those out but the short answer is the new setup works fine and I think you will like it if you do something similar. Feel free to post more comments if you need clarification and I’ll post any additional info you need if what I did is in any way unclear. Good luck with your Beaver. As you can see, I’m not thrilled with mine but it is a beautiful little hunk of foam and it does fly well. – Jack