Official Skynetic 700mm Dragonfly Seaplane V2 Thread

[Mike Nadler]

Flew mine for the first time today. I had the elevator set at 80%. This was not enough to pull out of a dive. Made an unscheduled landing, but all OK. I did have a lot of water inside of the plane. The lake (Folsom Lake) had 4" to 6" chop. Has anybody found a way to seal up the plane?
I have bumped up the elevator range to 120%. Ailerons are at 75%. Rudder is 100%. The motor seems to have plenty of power.

[xviper]

Before Motion sold this plane, it was called the "Skipper", sold by HobbyKing. It was never really meant to be fully waterproof out of the box. It is primarily a calm water seaplane where the water is like glass. Back in those days, the Skipper came with a small balloon that you were supposed to put the receiver into and tie it up. The ESC and motor was another story. I believe they were mounted high in the tail section to avoid water intrusion. The ESC and motor needs to have airflow for cooling and should not be sealed completely. You could use silicone seal to seal up where the wires go in and out. The motor is another problem. It has to be able to spin freely, so you can't wrap it in anything. As for the elevator not having enough throw, that may not have been the entire problem. In a fast, steep dive and possible under power, the servo may not have enough strength to deflect the elevator. Even if it does, if it's going down with enough speed, the servo rod is too thin and is likely to bend, not being able to push against the elevator horn effectively. This plane was not meant to be a "performance" model. High speed diving is not recommended for such a plane. If all you want is to prevent water from getting inside, seal up any seams in the hull with silicone seal. For the canopy, try electrical tape around the edges. You'd have to do it every time you fly it. Best option is to fly it on very calm days, if you must fly it as a water craft. We used to fly these things purely off grass, snow/ice and never from water. Even the bigger seaplanes are never water tight without some prep work.
For the electronics - Many years ago, FliteTest did an experiment where they used some kind of water repellent spray and sprayed all electronic parts (RX, ESC, motors) of a tiny quad copter. It was actually able to function fairly normally in a fish tank. Maybe do a search at the FliteTest forum or a Google search to find out what that spray was.

[Mike Nadler]

My friends and I used to float fly at the O'Neil Forebay off of the San Andres Reservoir in central California, so I have some float flying experience. We used to soak our electronics with Corrosion X to protect them.
The Dragonfly has an ESC that is "waterproof" and mounted in the bottom of the hull. Hopefully a little water will keep it cooler. The receiver is mounted higher up in the hull and wrapped in Seran wrap.
I hate to have to seal the plane with tape to fly it off water but may have to. Blenderm is what I will use.
We used to fly Polaris planes off the water and when we would pull up, the water would come pouring out of them.
This is definitely a calm water sea plane.
I love float flying.