In case any of the three guys who have said they still have a Foameron are interested here's my written description of how I turned a foameron into a Floateron. I wrote this around late '96, I was pretty green so forgive my ignorance. Hey les you want to sell your Foameron kit? I just found some spare arrow shafts from my old Foameron.
----------Floateron------------- I built my "Floateron" because my stock Foameron is heavy. With the lead in the nose and the vinyl covering and the standard servos the stocker weighs quite a bit. The weight is 30oz. This puts the wing loading at 11. Higher than I would like. It takes good wind to fly. I feel that lightness is very important. Perhaps too much but every one needs a hangup. I thus decided to make one light. Here's what I did: 1. Called Joe and asked for a longer nose fuselage. He had to cut it in two pieces because of the limits of his cutter but was able to make a fuse with a roughly 4" longer nose. It was as long as he could make it with his cutter I believe. Damn nice guy that Joe. 1a. The longer nose will wrinkle badly without extra support. Ask for some longer fuse doublers. Then add some extra wood infront of the doublers so that wood extends to within about 2" of the nose. 2. Get some rudder material from Joe and cut a larger rudder. I have yet to do this so it's not real important but my feeling is that a rudder roughly 10-20% larger would be useful. 3. Use micro servo for elevator. 3a. Move the elevator servo as far forward possible. I didn't but should have. The elev push rod seems heavy consider replacing it. I didn't. 4. MAYBE consider using micro for wing. It's a durability issue but a micro saves about a half ounce (I think) and reduces wingloading about 0.18oz. 5. DON'T use the vinyl. It's heavy. Supremely cool stuff and great for visibility at distance or when your really carving tight, ugly aerobatics (am I the only guy who does this?). Also helpful in the durability department. Also, it's fully UV resistant while the tape isn't. But it's heavy so don't use it. 6. Move the anchor point of the ball joint on the wings rearward by 1/4". Be sure to maintain the same distance from the wing spar. The reason is to add some differential. I am NOT done experimenting with this so start with 1/4" and go from there. A little goes a long way. 7. CG on the LE of the wing spar maybe a 1/16" in front of it. Put the battery (270mAH assumed) as far forward as possible. Put the receiver a quarter inch behind it, then the switch. More than a quarter inch would provide much better crash protection. So it's your choice. Remember adding tail weight is easy and requires little actual weight so shoot for a little nose heavy. I tried for perfect and ended up needing two quarters on the nose (damn). (seems like all my planes have a coin taped somewhere) 8. Reduce the throws. Especially the wings. Use about 60% for the wings and oh 70% or so for the elev. USE DUAL RATE RADIO and switch back and forth Frequently. The reduced rate is to make it easier to fly smoothly. Not really necessary but because of reduced weight the roll rate is poor until you get some airspeed. 9. Tape the wings with the tape edges touching not overlapping. Tape weight seems to add up. I have two sets of wings that should be the same but one set is actually 1oz heavier. The only thing I can guess is the tape.?. 10. Glue the root caps on to the wings. The tape allows rotational movement which can worsen with use. 11. I don't remember the incidence I use in the wings (4.3 degrees, perhaps) but it looks like a lot (huge!) to the eye so keep this in mind when setting up. The goal is to slow it down. With this plane, min sink occurs just above stall. 12. I increased the incidence of the horizontal stab about 1-2 degrees. This is a personal preference issue and makes no difference in flight but I think is esthetically(how is this spelled?) important with larger fuse and bigger nose. 13. The plane is short coupled when stock. I get the feeling Joe flys like his hair is on fire. ;-) I don't know if my mods make it even more so but it seems so. I like it! 14. The RG14 wing does great. The 7037 isn't bad when it's in its element. For all out floating the 7037 is better but RARELY is it worth it. For ANYTHING other than all out floating the RG14 is my choice. Rolls are rough with the 7037 and inverted flight is even harder. IF you want all out floating get a different plane. 15. By lessening the wing incidence the plane will fly in surprisingly strong winds and has Very wide flyability window. Bottomline: The floateron weighs(these numbers ARE accurate) 22.1oz with the RG14 and 23.1oz with the 7037. A micro wing servo would shave about a half oz easily. Micro receiver may be helpful I don't have one. It floats with most any sloper. Then when the wind picks up it will do good aerobatics and be a bunch of fun. If the wind is good, I add the 4oz rod and it rocks. Bill Swingle RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off. Email sent from web based email such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format
