A larger Catalina Flying boat needed!

[TripleW]

I have owned a Dynam Catalina I did enjoyed it but found that it swamped to easily.
I would prefer a Grumman Albatross or Grumman Mallard. But a Martin Mars would be cool also!.
Something with a taller fuselage.

[AirHead]

HK used to sell a larger balsa Catalina, but it went the way of the Dodo. A big foam Cat with improvements, would be the bomb. I remove the heat shrink from my ESC's and coat them with "Silicone Conformal Coating" which allows the Cat to go "Submarine" if she ends up that way. You have to treat her right, or she can be a handful...

[rifleman_btx]

Here's a video.

[Jhnybgd]

^YES, you have a work of art there!

Thank you sir.

[rifleman_btx]

Yeah, the quality of the PBY isn't the best. Mine has never flown off the water after seeing so many failures and problems with trying to deal with the water spray getting into the electronics. Mine flies off of the grass instead. Funny to have a flying boat that never sees the water.

This is as much water as it ever sees:
Dynam PBY-5A Catalina by Bryan Redeker, on Flickr
Since this picture was taken, the nose art has been added, a .50cal in the nose turret (should be a smaller .30cal instead), counter-rotating props, landing lights, Robart wheels and tires, and counter-rotating props installed. I have a good size pond behind my house that I use for float-plane operation, but the PBY is just too big to safely fly it around behind the house. Trees and neighbors make it hard to fly off the pond with anything bigger than the UMX Timber and J3.

A slightly larger PBY with removable outer wings, retractable floats, higher quality construction, and suitable design for water operation (water-proofing electronics) would be nice.

Get you some Corrosion X and spray the escs and aileron servo internals with it. I use it with great effectiveness. Even saved the esc in my seawind once that I didnt spray before hand.

[Woodcock]

Yeah, the quality of the PBY isn't the best. Mine has never flown off the water after seeing so many failures and problems with trying to deal with the water spray getting into the electronics. Mine flies off of the grass instead. Funny to have a flying boat that never sees the water.

This is as much water as it ever sees:
Dynam PBY-5A Catalina by Bryan Redeker, on Flickr
Since this picture was taken, the nose art has been added, a .50cal in the nose turret (should be a smaller .30cal instead), counter-rotating props, landing lights, Robart wheels and tires, and counter-rotating props installed. I have a good size pond behind my house that I use for float-plane operation, but the PBY is just too big to safely fly it around behind the house. Trees and neighbors make it hard to fly off the pond with anything bigger than the UMX Timber and J3.

A slightly larger PBY with removable outer wings, retractable floats, higher quality construction, and suitable design for water operation (water-proofing electronics) would be nice.

Love the pict.

Woody

[BRGT350]

I have the Dyynam cat. It flies pretty decently. However today after several very nice flights at the lake, the motor mount failed and some water got in the esc and let the magic smoke out. Easy repair, but the flaws in the Dynam really make me wish for a beautiful Flightline Catalina.

Yeah, the quality of the PBY isn't the best. Mine has never flown off the water after seeing so many failures and problems with trying to deal with the water spray getting into the electronics. Mine flies off of the grass instead. Funny to have a flying boat that never sees the water.

This is as much water as it ever sees:
Dynam PBY-5A Catalina by Bryan Redeker, on Flickr
Since this picture was taken, the nose art has been added, a .50cal in the nose turret (should be a smaller .30cal instead), counter-rotating props, landing lights, Robart wheels and tires, and counter-rotating props installed. I have a good size pond behind my house that I use for float-plane operation, but the PBY is just too big to safely fly it around behind the house. Trees and neighbors make it hard to fly off the pond with anything bigger than the UMX Timber and J3.

A slightly larger PBY with removable outer wings, retractable floats, higher quality construction, and suitable design for water operation (water-proofing electronics) would be nice.

[rifleman_btx]

Much agreed!

[Gilatrout]

I have the Dyynam cat. It flies pretty decently. However today after several very nice flights at the lake, the motor mount failed and some water got in the esc and let the magic smoke out. Easy repair, but the flaws in the Dynam really make me wish for a beautiful Flightline Catalina.

[rifleman_btx]

^YES, you have a work of art there!

[Jhnybgd]

Here is mine

[Jhnybgd]

I know with the added weight of retractable tip floats and custom paint and ordanance mine is a tip stalling wing dropping fool!
but it is fun and a great looking plane.

[TiredIronGRB]

I bought mine early in my career thinking a slow flying boat with a fat wing would be easy. I decided to wait and I am glad I did! It was more squirrely that I would have thought! Much respect that you learned on one of those!

I didn't even know any difference.

[BRGT350]

I taught myself how to fly on one of these, I still have it and it still flys...it's just not very pretty:Straight-Face:

I bought mine early in my career thinking a slow flying boat with a fat wing would be easy. I decided to wait and I am glad I did! It was more squirrely that I would have thought! Much respect that you learned on one of those!

[TiredIronGRB]

The Dynam one always had a good following.

I taught myself how to fly on one of these, I still have it and it still flys...it's just not very pretty:Straight-Face:

[BRGT350]

Agreed, something bigger than the Dynam one would be great. Although this one will just fit in my SUV now.

I am in the final stages of my Dynam "Black Cat" conversion. Its all painted up black and I am making my VPF71 cat logos today and hope to put them on if they turn out ok. or ill get better ones from Callies.
Im also gluing on some bombs from a FMS Henschel 123 that I never used them on. If anyone knows what color our bombs were it would help. My photos I have are all black and white.

Even my wife saw it this morning and said that it looks sinister now!

All the general purpose bombs were olive drab. I think torpedoes were grey.

I thought about doing a Black Cat scheme with mine, but worried about the paint getting too hot or it would be hard to orientate in the sky. I went with a faded tri-color scheme with some custom nose art from Callie. I named the PBY after my black cat that passed away due to cancer. After seeing SNAFU Snatcher a few weeks ago, I am thinking of going with "fresh out of the factory" scheme. A big Catalina would be nice, but I am already running into problems with transporting planes. The Dynam PBY just fits in my car. I do think the market would react well to a larger and higher quality PBY. The Dynam one always had a good following.

[Bluebird]

Nicely done ScottMe262

I'm happy to see this topic still has some interest. Maybe if we keep it up long enough MRC will deliver. Yes a FLRC version would really be a step up from the Dynam. Here it is summer and our water flying options are limited. How many planes on floats can you really use? A new twin engine flying boat would do the trick.

Cheers, Bluebird

[Woodcock]

Here is my Black Cat. Still need to fit the bombs, a torpedo and 4 50’s in the nose.
but its turning out pretty cool. I am making it one from VPB71

Looks really nice mate.

Woody

[Gilatrout]

Yes please

[dkalwishky]

I'd be in for a FLRC Catalina.