ElectriFly Widgeon
At ⁵⁄₈ inch diameter, the original center section hole (above left) is pretty tight for all the cables going through it. It was enlarged to about ⁷⁄₈ inch diameter. To keep the motor leads together when pulled through the wing center section, they can be kept secured with some heat shrink tubing (above center). Both motor mounts (above right) are prebuilt, accurate and sealed to prevent water
absorption. Two screws (below left) fasten the motor mounts to plates in the wing center section. Motor and mount need to be in place when aligning and installing the nacelles. Painters blue masking tape secures all cables on the bottom of the wing (below center). A 4–40 tap (below right) will help if the screw hole in the top nacelle is tapped before installing the bolt.
which ones to use. My choices seemed to dress the model up pretty nicely. At the end of the manual there are specs
for the control throws and the c.g. point. Since I used the Tactic 6 radio I had to rely more on mechanical adjustments to pushrod settings in servo arms and control surface horns. I used the pictures in the manual to initially set the throws up, and found that that was a pretty reliable guide. The Tactic 6 does have low rates but they’re not indi- vidual. There’s one switch that sets all rates to low or to high. The low rate seems to be a percentage—70%, I think—of the high rates. The c.g. came out right on the money with
the plane set up just as the manual indi- cates. The balance point was right at the 2- inch mark specified, with the 3350 mAh bat-
tery in a forward position. There’s room to shift it around. Placing it to the rear put the c.g. in a slightly tail heavy position. So it was time to commit the Widgeon to
the waves. First order of business was taxi testing to see how the plane manuevered on the water and how it would plane when pow- er was applied. Have to say the Widgeon had very little tendency to drop a wing in turns or roll back and forth. Quite a pleasant plane to taxi, though the wind made turns one way quite wide. When power was applied there was a ten-
dency for the nose to dig in a little and the spray from the forward motion kicked up into the prop arcs. The solution to minimize spray in the props was to start the taxi slow- ly with full up elevator (high rate).
Same technique applies to the start of the takeoff: full up elevator, and steady push to full throttle. The Widgeon will pick up speed nose high. It was time to release up elevator steadily—not abruptly—when the plane started to bounce on the water. The nose came down so it could plane and pick up more speed. This isn’t a model to horse off the water. Because it has a decently high wing loading, too slow a liftoff with a lot of back stick can risk a stall, possibly a snap into the drink. There’s a cautionary tale to relate here
that provided the 100% hindsight of experi- ence. First, definitely seal the hatch. On my first flight, with the hatch secured only by its four magnets, it came off in flight. That wouldn’t have been too bad, except that I
An outline of the proper orientation of the servo mount plate (above left) is laser etched on the inside of the hatch. Futaba’s small 3114 servos fit quite well in the mounting plate. The servo hatches (above center) come taped in place.
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Part of the servo arm needs to be cut off, and is indicated by the red mark. The instructions specify a ³⁄₈-inch distance from center hole to pushrod hole. This is the correct orientation of the rudder (above right).
JUNE 2012
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