Floats for SR Cutie (oz15396)
About this Plan
Floats for SR Cutie. 23 inch long floats, to fit the SR Cutie (oz15359) model.
Note this plan is available online as a free download from the (now defunct) Ezone site at: http://web.archive.org/web/2003021101... where it appears along with a detailed construction article and some great build pics.
Note the 'original' drawing here is the CAD zip download (in dxf format). That's the file that Paul Bradley posted online, and that is his design, in full. The PDF file you see here is really just a two page (A4 sized) taster, a PDF file in this slot for Oz users who don't have a CAD viewer.
Quote: "I am fortunate to have access to a body of water that is great for electric powered model aircraft operations. After building my SR Batteries Cutie, I kept feeling the need to see how it would perform as a floatplane. About the time that the bug really hit home, I attempted to locate a Herr float kit. The word on the street was that the Herr kit was well done and would be a perfect match for the Cutie. My local hobby shop did not stock the kit. Actually, I was only half heartedly looking for the kit. Having been bit with the scratch building bug many moons ago, I really wanted to do a set of floats of my own design. I'm sure the Herr kit would be a great match for the Cutie, but I just could not resist the temptation to roll my own.
The results of this effort are covered in this construction article.
My goal was to keep the added flying weight to no more than four ounces. I also wanted to keep the overall look and feel of the Cutie construction, so I chose to use a built up balsa design rather than foam. The latter would be quite easy using the basic outlines of the balsa design, and should easily hit the target weight limit of four ounces.
One other design goal was to make the floats easy to exchange with the wheeled model configuration. This allows either flying mode to be chosen depending on one's interest and opportunity at the time.
Each of the design goals was achieved, and I am happy to report that the Cutie flying qualities were not changed at all by carrying around the weight and drag of the added floats. The Cutie continues to be a favorite model, and giving it water operation capability only enhances the total enjoyment.
A project like this is pretty straight forward, but a few construction notes might help anyone along that may be considering building a set of floats from the plan.
The plan in the AutoCAD DXF format along with a dimensioned letter size drawing in the Adobe PDF format (for anyone wanting to do foam rather than built up balsa) is available for free download by clicking on the link provided with the reduce scale plan image. If you think a set of scratch built floats are just what your Cutie needs, then let's get started.
Construction: Like most scratch building projects, it is usually best to start the project by cutting out a complete set of parts. There aren't that many parts for the floats.
The plywood keel for each float is easiest to cut out by using a powered scroll saw, or a hand held fret or coping saw. The keel and plywood mounting lugs are the most time consuming parts to create.
Please note that the float sides have the wood grain running vertical. This means that you will need to glue 8 pieces together (assuming you are using three inch wide balsa sheet stock) before cutting each side to the final shape. This was done to eliminate the tendency of balsa to cup when run along an unsupported span. This allowed a minimum number of interior bulkheads to be used.
Once you have all the parts cut out for two sets of floats, construction begins. The plywood keel not only provides the main strength for each float, but it also serves to align and register the main parts.
Begin the assembly by gluing the bulkheads to the keel. Be sure to add the 1/8 square balsa stock to the joints as called out on the plan.
After the bulkheads are in place, each side is prepared by gluing 1/8 strip stock around the edges. This stiffens the sides and provides a nice joint face for the top and bottom planking. After the sides have been edged, they can be glued to the bulkheads. The flat top of the float design makes this step easy..."
Quote: "Hi Mary and Steve,
Paul Bradley has drawn float plans for the Cutie (oz15359):
http://web.archive.org/web/2003021101...
Thanks for publishing!
Best regards from Austria
Johann"
CAD file
This plan is available for download in CAD format.
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(oz15396)
Floats for SR Cutie
by Paul Bradley
April 2002
23in span
Extra
clean :)
all formers complete :)
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Found online 17/06/2024 at:
http://web.archive.org/web/20030211010754/http://www.e...
Filesize: 524KB
Format: • PDFbitmap • CADfile
Credit*: Johann, PaulBradley
Downloads: 233
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- Floats for SR Cutie (oz15396)
- Plan File Filesize: 524KB Filename: Floats_for_SR_Cutie_oz15396.pdf
- CAD Zip Filesize: 67KB Filename: Floats_for_SR_Cutie_oz15396_cad.zip
- help with downloads
Notes
* Credit field
The Credit field in the Outerzone database is designed to recognise and credit the hard work done in scanning and digitally cleaning these vintage and old timer model aircraft plans to get them into a usable format. Currently, it is also used to credit people simply for uploading the plan to a forum on the internet. Which is not quite the same thing. This will change soon. Probably.
Scaling
This model plan (like all plans on Outerzone) is supposedly scaled correctly and supposedly will print out nicely at the right size. But that doesn't always happen. If you are about to start building a model plane using this free plan, you are strongly advised to check the scaling very, very carefully before cutting any balsa wood.
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