viper21

My Feedback: (9)

Crewchief, I have the G&P Sales Albatross and will be installing twin OS 52 Surpass II's in her. Its a nice kit and should fly very well I am looking forward to starting it. As I stated before I am going to paint both of my planes electric and glow in the same Coast Guard color scheme. It should be cool having a little brother to my big glow powered version.
Retracts for the Albatross have gone down in price and are now about 200:00 dollars making them tempting to buy. Although Bill Price the owner of G&P had told me when I bought my plane that the retracts where quite difficult to maintain and very hard to keep the hull dry with them. I am sure it could be done and if my home lake had a shore that I could deploy the landing gear and motor up I would buy them. But my clubs lake is man made and has a steep edge for a shore so the plane needs to be lowered into the water. But I am thinking about it though
Viper

abdr-crewchief

Viper,
Mabe you can help me, I know that Precision Cuts offers a Grumman F2F Duck and you have to purchase the plans from Louis Pancoast, do you know of anyone or company that offers a kit say in the 1/4 scale size (not including just plans from Cleveland)?
The Power comapny built lake is 120 feet from my back deck. This plane is definitely on my to do list and only seems fitting to piss the bass fisherman off with a early a.m. launch on Saturdays and Sundays.

viper21

My Feedback: (9)

Chief, I am sorry I didnt even know that a kit for the Duck was available. I would really like to build one also but not as large as 1/4 scale. How large is the Precision Cuts kit? I don't know of any kits or plans for the airplane but you might try and contact Bob Hollman planes and plans I dont have his url but a Google.com search should find him and he sells alot of plans and some kits. I dont know of anywhere else too look but try the search\
Viper

viper21

My Feedback: (9)

Chief, here is Bob's URL http://www.bhplans.com/index.htm even though he charges for his catalogs if you ask him if he has a specific plane he will tell you what he has its worth an email to him too see what he may have I will keep looking and let you know if I see anything. I did do a short Google search but only came up with plastic models or those non flying desk models but I will try again.
Viper

CGCOMM3RET

http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-cp/history/HU_16.html

Everyone

Above is a link to the Coast Guard Historians site about the Goats. Viper has already seen the link. There is lots of good pictures of various different paint schemes for these aircraft.

Have fun with the site.

Larry

And yes, I am a retired Coastie.

viper21

My Feedback: (9)

Hi Larry, I forgot and should have posted the URL to the CG website its a very good one they have several good color shots including an inflight shot of the color scheme I am doing.
Thanks Much For It
Joe

smileybeaver

Hi,
Interestd to know about these plans and the magazine article. Was it about the plans or the planes?
What were the the bigger planes mentioned previously built from?
Cheers
Ron
Oz

viper21

My Feedback: (9)

Bigguy and Tex, I went out to my shop this afternoon and unwrapped the wood parts and formers for my G&P Sales Albatross. Because I had watched the building video that Bill sent with the kit to me. And I could see Bigguy where his original plane did have doorskins for plywood. However I can say that all the plywood that is in the new kits is cut from 7 ply Aircraft plywood and the balsa is also nice he did a good job picking out the wood. I tell you though had I reveived and airplane that cost what my kit did and had Mahagony door skins I would have sent it back. But I can say that Bill made a nice kit, the glasswork is nice and tough and light. There is amost no ABS plastic in the kit as they made all the nacelles and cowls from glass. I am getting ready to start on both my Albatross the glow and tne electric. I am still not siure about motors, they will be fourstrokes just not sure which ones. I have one new OS 52 Surpass II so its in first place as I only need to buy one more engine. The second is the new Surpass 70 http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXEXP5&P=0 or a pair of new YS 63"s http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXXA20&P=7 A newer model is due out this month late that is supposed to be stronger with a bigger super charger. I dp need to keep the weight over the step as low as possible but with the extra power its worth it for our clubs pomd to have the power on takeoff but I have plenty of room for that.
I am also starting my electric Albatross at the same time I build the glow version. Stay tuned for pictures soon.
Joe

retransit

My Feedback: (18)

viper21
Any pictures of your Albatross construction or completion yet? I was giving the G&P version some consideration and it is a good thing I got down to your post about quality. If I just read the first part I would have dropped it from consideration. I was over at Universal at Orlando, Fl this morning and at Margaritaville is the full sized Albatross of Jimmie Buffet. Boy, did that plant a seed. Great looking aircraft. One of my fellow club members is building a Grumman Duck. Should be pretty good looking aircraft. I think the wingspan is about 60 inches. Here are a few pictures.
Bob

viper21

My Feedback: (9)

Hi Bob, I am sorry to say that due to health problems I haven't been building much of anything except a couple of small speed 400 planes and an ARF EDF Jet. I am getting ready to go in for surgery in the next month. While I am recovering my shop in the garage is being rebuilt I am getting a full lenght 12 foot bench so I plan to build the Albatross this winter after I recover I should be just fine.
Well I am glad you didn't nix the idea of getting an Albatross, I can safely and honestly say there is no door skin wood for anything in my kit all my wood is aircraft grade balsa and ply. I am really looking forward to building the plane I think I am still not sure on which four strokes I am going with probably two new OS 52 Surpasses as I already own one NIB and it seems to fly well on the four strokes in the tape I got from Bill.
All I can say is stay tuned I will post a thread as soon as I start construction on my plane. I am also doing the HVP electric Alb at the same time but am doing it in a Navy scheme I think it will twin Mega 5 turn brushless motors and two Phoenix 25 ESC's off one Thunder Power 3S2P 3800 pack giving me several nice 10 minute flights. I will post when I can build in my new shop That Duck is a real nice airplane do you know if its built from plans and where I could find them.
Thanks Viper

retransit

My Feedback: (18)

I'll check with the builder. Actually he is not the originator of the build. He obtained it from someone else partially through construction. I'll see if he has a set of plans and let you know. He said it should fly sometime in the fall.
Good luck on your operation.

I hope everything goes well and I guess the new workbench is a good recovery incentive.

Good Luck!

Bob

retransit

My Feedback: (18)

Viper,
Sorry for the delay. The plans are Cleveland, enlarged 10%. The gentleman who has them said that another source is available for that particular aircraft but the source escapes him.
By the way, rivets, panel lines and detailing are being applied. It should be completed by the fall.
I've been sidetracked from the Albatross. I'm building a PBM Mariner from Keith Sparks Plans.

Bob

Geoffinpdx

My Feedback: (5)

An aero engineer friend and I both have these kits, and we've been discussing them a bit lately. The first thing that comes to mind regarding your problem is whether you added the spray shields on the chines (the upper hull at the nose). Without them spray will hit the props and efficiency will be nil. Next, how about moving the motor nacelles outward by the width of the motor mount inner wing slot so you can fit an 8" prop? Run a motor calc program and get your motor/prop/battery combo at its most efficient. How does it fly when you hand launch it?

John Hawkins

My Feedback: (2)

Note on power for the G&P Albatross: OS52s should be fine. Attempting to complete an almost finished kit gotten from another modeller the wing was found too badly botched to continue. Instead I made a new model blown up 10% from the G&Ps dimensions. It weighs 15 pounds and flies fine on OS52s. History of the project here: [link=http://groups.msn.com/FlightLine/johnsalbatross1.msnw]Albatross Construction[/link]

Flying Elvis

My Feedback: (13)

RE: Grumman Albatross Hu-16B - 11/9/2003 1:03:33 AM
"This is a 14' wingspan (50-odd lbs) - one of three that have been built so far. This one is strictly a boat - there is no landing gear. "

Any info about this kit?

viper21

My Feedback: (9)

John, that's a real sharp looking Albatross. Its good thing to know that my Surpass 52's will fly the airplane I will pick a second one up. I am also installing electronic onboard glow I don't want a flame out on a long approach and then have to go swimming(If I am lucky)[]
John, did you just stretch the wing and tail feathers. I will post some as soo as I start the plane this wimter.
Thanks Viper

Wayne22

My Feedback: (2)

It is not a kit, it is custom built. 5 have been built so far. 4 have flown, the other is hanging in a hobby shop.

I found a pic of three of them at the same time...

viper21

My Feedback: (9)

Thats a big sucker, you fly that on two OS 52 Surpasses? My G&P Albatross is much smaller so I should have plenty of power. I wont be able to start on my plane till next year sometime. I have a ton of projects to complete and I am going to be down for a surgery in less than 3 weeks so I hope tp get to it in the spring.
Viper

Flying Elvis

My Feedback: (13)

SWEET PIC!

I used to work for Chalks. We were called Pan Am Airbridge and were flying the Mallard then. I would like to build a giant Mallard or a Albatross with the turboprop mod. PT-6 in the Mallard and a PW-100 in the Albatross. We had the plans for the PW-100 conversion, but they were never used. However, they did get titanium spar caps in preparation of the mod.

If you know of the source of the plans, please let me know.

John Hawkins

My Feedback: (2)

Yes, I drew it up the same size as the G&P one and then enlarged it 10%, giving something in the order of 21% more wing and tail area. The 14' span model looks like it has more than scale fin area which would IMHO be a good thing if so. I find yaw control on takeoff tricky and that should help. I also found one engine out performance to be nasty, although my experience with twins is limited to this plane. Again greater vertical tail moment should help that situation.

Initially one engine conked out because of new tank trimming debris and the fact that I had forgotten the fuel filters I "always" use. Later the muffler pressure fitting in the older engine clogged with carbon giving more single engine experience tan I really wanted until I discovered what was going on. The plane flies very nicely though, cruising along scale like at little more than half power. The stall is soft and straight ahead and slow speed control with full flaps remains positive. I changed the aileron and flap areas considerably from the G&P example after watching the video and listening to Bill Price's commentary. IIRC correctly he had all he could do to get a right turn with flaps extended after a missed approach. My hunch was that the small control surfaces were acting primarily in drag. While I am stretching memory I think I added differential aileron as well. The plane has a strong tendency to porpoise on landing and I find that I have to fly it onto the water to avoid this. While the nature of the hull likely has more to do with this it seems to me that the wing incidence is overly aggressive and adds to the problem. It requires considerable down trim for normal flight. All in all it is great fun though and the plane is very realistic looking in the air.

After the experience with the Albatross I set out to draw and build an Emily from scratch. The Emily is a four engine WWII Japanese flying boat. The span is 124" and power will be from OS52's. Construction is well along but has been stalled since the spring due to lack of time. I hope to get back at it after Christmas. Construction is documented on my site, logically enough under 'construction'. [link=http://rcalbum.rchomepage.com/Home.html]web site here[/link]

John Hawkins

My Feedback: (2)

It would be an r/c experience of a lifetime to see these in the air at the same time. They are beauties.

Wayne22

My Feedback: (2)

Hey John... haven't seen you around for awhile.

These big Alberts are strictly specialty planes..they fly maybe twice a year and it takes a full size van to haul them around and you need a few friends to help with engine starting. launch and retreival. However, they are attention getting! I've seen 2 of them in the air at once and it is pretty awe inspiring.

They do bounce on landing...

John Hawkins

My Feedback: (2)

The grinch stole all my time. I see that my often clumsy landings are not unique. There's a comfort.

Wayne22

My Feedback: (2)

...don't look now, but he is coming back in a couple of months !!!

Tsutomu Mabuchi

My Feedback: (1)

So may be my Albatross a original production. I bought mine 12 years
ago from G&P sales. When I received the kit I was disappointed that
the fuselage was made so thick that overall weight of the plane seemed
very heavy.
Although I bought 2 of ENYA 53 four stroke and the retract for HU-16
at that time, I have not started the project yet.
Yes, the engine nacelle is not from fiberglass but ABS.
I am worrying about this amphibian if it will fly without problem.

Tsutomu Mabuchi