I've been wanting to do a re-paint like this as well.
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There is one "C" painted in desert camo like that:
I've been wanting to do a re-paint like this as well. -
I fixed it long ago, but the nose cone was a little crooked. Ordered a new one from RC-Castle since it was on backorder at Motion. It arrived a while ago and it fits perfect!
....except that the magnets are mounted wrong way, so it goes PHUMP and ejects itself as soon as i let go
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Not much action here for a while, so ...............................
I needed a winter jet. Modified some floats from a HobbyKing Tundra. These floats are just a bit bigger than the stock Mirage wing tanks, so I thought it might be able to carry the floats OK. I even installed the wing tank's rear fins on the floats. I picked the Mirage purely because it had those giant wing tanks to begin with. Tried to fly it a few days ago but the snow was drifted badly and the poor Mirage was bouncing all over the "dunes" and couldn't get a long enough flat stretch to take off. Will wait for another day when the field with the runway opens again. It doesn't drift nearly as bad, so I should have better luck getting it off the ground.
Also, removed all retracts to lessen weight.
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That’s cool!Comment
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xviper Nice! Give us a flight report please! I'm repainting my Mirage now, its been snowing here and I would love to fly mine. I was thinking skis and having doubts about how well that would work. But floats, that will work!
Do you mind showing me how you're mounting them?Comment
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I'll include 2 photos below. The first shows the stock wing tank. I cut out a section that included the slot, with the magnets at the bottom. Then, after determining where the floats would balance the same as where the tank balances, I cut out the same size hunk of foam from the float. Then I grafted the tank piece into the float space using a combination of expoxy, FoamTac and hot glue to fill in the spaces. On the plane's wing pylons, after the floats were installed, I used some clear hockey tape to hold the floats firm so they wouldn't come loose when bouncing on the snow. The 2nd photo shows a float installed on the pylon with the hockey tape as reinforcement. You can see the hump where the stock tank piece is grafted onto the top of the float. When I tried to take off, the drifts and ridges were so severe, that the plane just went up one side of a ridge and down the other side. The last one was so fast that the nose cone and tip of one float just embedded themselves into the front of the next ridge. However, it did prove to me that on a smoother snow/ice surface (like on our field with the runway), it'll have plenty of juice to get up to take off speed very quickly. It slides over ice much easier than it does rolling on its wheels on dry ground. I turned the "Tiger" into the "Blue footed Boobie".
Our closed field should open about the middle of January (pandemic lock down).
Next spring, the floats come off, the retracts go back on and I'll fly it (assuming I don't crash the heck out of it) the way it's supposed to be flown.
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Thanks for the pics! Do you feel like its balanced correctly to keep the nose off of the snow? I think I'm pretty much going to copy what you've done, once I get done with the repaint.Comment
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Hard to say since it never got off the ground. Based on the times it was sliding on flat bits of snow/ice, it "taxied" really well. I also balanced it with the floats at the same CG as suggested by the manual. The only thing to witness is whether or not the slightly bigger floats will cause any aerodynamic weirdness more so than the stock tanks do. I've only ever flown the Mirage (V1) with and without tanks. It didn't seem to make any difference to the way it flew.Comment
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Yeah, I would worry about drag too but those drop tanks are huge. And the weight of the floats probably isn't all that different from the tanks. And without the gear, it's probably all up lighter.
We get into a cycle of new snow and then cold temperatures here that most of the winter its light density and then light density with crust on top. I think I'll need to find a hard pack road to fly from. I'm eager to hear how it goes!Comment
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That's one reason why I didn't go for skis. I've flown planes with skis and on anything except really hard snow/ice, the skis tend to submarine. When it snows here, we get a good depth that stays around for a long time. Powder snow is the worst for skis but floats are good for all kinds of surfaces.Comment
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Floats on snow are picky because you have to have a way for the plane to rotate and take off. On the water the float aft ends can sink in the water giving you the AOA to take off. On snow you need to have that angle or shorten the aft section of the floats...Comment
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Ah, thanks Evan! Yeah that makes sense, I wouldn't have caught that. It's leveraging against the aft point of the floats instead of pivoting near the CG. As you say, angling/tapering the rear of the floats seems the way to go, keeping the surface area but allowing rotation.Comment
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Have you used skis for any of your planes? It seems.like the conditions have to be just right for them to work, but they would mount to a wider selection of planes, edfs in particular, better than floats I think. Though I'm glad xviper has jumped on this. It was just coincidence that I am painting my Mirage and itching to fly it.Comment
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I tried and determined, as XViper has, that the snow has to be perfect for skis. And snow skis are different than you would use for water skis if you would do that... They have to be wide and long to skim the snow.Comment
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Yeah, I think I forsee making a bungee launcher in my future. It would solve some flying site issues for me.Comment
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The ability to rotate is a very good point. I'm hoping that this won't be too much of a problem. If you look at the floats on my Mirage, you can see that the bottom of the floats are 2 tiered - there's the front, bigger part and then there's the rear, smaller part which is "stepped" higher. As it sits on the table, the CG is just in front of the step and in that position, there is a slight nose up attitude. On snow and under power, it settles down onto the rear of the floats, giving it an even more nose up attitude. I'm hoping it'll lift off once it gets up to speed. This is the inrunner version, so it should have plenty of zip to get going on a slippery surface.Comment
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Great project!
If the snowfloats aren't working for take off, it is very easy to hand-launch. Just underhand with a 45 deg angle and happy flying. Great protection for landing though. Maybe modify the cheater-hole so it doesn't turn into a snow-scoop. It sucks up quite a lot of grass during summer so I imagine a lot of loose snow and ice pellets will go through the EDF during take off.Comment
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My hand launch technique for this jet is quite lacking. My last Mirage was launched underhanded and it befell total destruction in the first 5 seconds. The only success I've ever had hand launching a Mirage was if someone else did it for me and he was standing on top of one of the set up tables and overhand threw it in the direction of a slight terrain decline.Comment
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I have the outrunner version, with the landing gear removed it has at least1-1 thrust. Slight overhand toss and it's gone. That said, I do have someone launch it for me. Need two hands to launch.Comment
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