Found FBA-2A (oz13654)

About this Plan

Found FBA-2A. Peanut scale rubber model floatplane.

Quote: "Another 2-in-1 design from the King of the Peanut Gallery. Considering his ability to dig up unusual and rare aircraft, it is only natural that he should, er, find the Found. Found FBA-2A, by Walt Mooney.

In Canada there is an aircraft company by the name of Found Brothers Aviation. Over the years they have produced some very fine utility aircraft. They are true 'Bush' airplanes, and as such, have been convertible to both skis and floats.

This model is particularly suitable for a seaplane - capable of taking off from the water unassisted, and putting up good duration flights. The model in the photo was drawn up on a Monday, and flown in the Flightmasters seaplane contest on the following Sunday. It flies as well as any other rubber powered seaplane I have seen, but in a single week of evenings, the scale details were rather stark and the model only made it to second place.

The Model was purposely designed with a wing span of 26 inches so that Bill Northrop of MB could shrink it down to Peanut size for the magazine. Because it is difficult to come up with Peanut Scale ripples, I suspect the larger model will be the more successful seaplane, so details have been added to the plans for a landplane peanut version.

With the exception of the floats, which are round topped, the only other area of the model needing countouring is the fuselage forward of the windshield. The engine cowling and nose block is carved from block balsa. Except for landing gear or float struts, there are no struts on the Found, which makes for minimum aerodynamic drag. The real airplane has a propeller spinner, shown in the top view, but not included on my model for simplicity (some of the scale points were lost this way, no doubt).

There is nothing new or revolutionary in the design or building of the Found, so other than describing the structure of the various components, we won't go into a step by step how-to-build-it article, but will put more of the article into a let's-try-to-fly-seaplane effort.

The wing is a conventional stick-and-tissue structure, using notched ribs, three spars, a leading edge, trailing edge, and tips. The real airplane has dihedral breaks about half way out the semi-span, and so does the model.

The tail is also conventional and similar to the wing, except that both the vertical and horizontal tails are built Fiat over the plan, without the spars, and the spars and rib pieces are added after the flat surfaces are removed from the plans. A spar on both sides tends to reduce warping tendencies. Sandpaper is used to obtain the cross section desired.

The fuselage is a simple, built-up box structure. Sheet balsa is used at the tail cone area to support the tails. Four blocks of balsa provide the nose contours. Remember to hollow out the top block to allow clearance for the propeller hook and rubber motor. Use thin sheet balsa to fill in around the windows.

The floats have a single top keel, ten formers, and are covered with sheet balsa. A single sheet of three inch wide balsa will just cover the top of the floats. The floats have block balsa noses and sheet metal water rudders.

We used a seven inch diameter Peck Polymers plastic prop, a ballbearing thrust washer, and two of their nylon thrust buttons ... the last items to be sure of a consistently aligned prop shaft. For the large model, drill out the thrust buttons to accommodate the shaft wire.

All parts of the model are covered with tissue and doped until they are water proof. I suggest several coats of dope all over the uncovered fuselage structure to prevent it soaking up water when it gets dunked and the nose plug comes out.

The floats are held parallel to each other by hardwood spreader bars. These penetrate the skin of the floats and butt against the keel. This must be a watertight joint.

The landing gear wires are cemented to the fuselage structure at their upper ends, and are attached to the spreader bars by wrapping with thread and cementing. Add strut fairings and the diagonal struts..."

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