PBY Catalina Seaplane Composite 1800mm (ARF)

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Customer Rated

Aug 04, 2014

Very nice plane, with a lot of small problem but amazing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z2Cmi9mZTw&feature=youtu.be

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Customer Rated

Jan 16, 2014

Beautiful kit, lovelly flying model. A little heavy and sits low in the water. Get over the initial spray and water resistance and open the throttle, she sits up on the step and is stable and graceful on take off. Landings a bit more problematic. You need to stay dead level and keep those floats out of the water.
One of the wingtips doesn't fit quite, leaving a small gap, larger at the back than the front. I found it easy enough to fit the pull/pull rudder cables which operate really well. The instructions tell you to leave the wing float struts far too long. I reduced mine by at least 2 cm to avoid the floats digging in. The canopy hatch attatchment is a bit naff. Fiddly to attatch the watertight hatch cover, the carbon outer canopy DOES NOT FLOAT! Sadly mine got water underneath, pulled it off and it sank......lost for ever!! H.K. don't carry spares so goodness knows how I'll resolve this. H.K. staff.... if you read this ....take pity on an old man and help me out.....PLEASE!!
Anyway, a flight of this aeroplane can be seen on my You Tube channel titled ' H.K. 1800mm r.c. 'Catalina', Maiden & sinking '. Don't be cruel and laugh too much!!
Hoots tae ye a' !!

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Customer Rated

Nov 21, 2013

Just received a huge parcel with this model and unpacked it.
Whow - what a excellent quality ARF !
I am deeply impressed about the excellent finish and great details of this model.
The fuselage is already finished with a two color painting and all decals already are applied.
Even the canopy isnt a cheap deep drawn plastic peace but high quality composite material with 2 color painting.
The wings are perfectly covered with Oracover without any dents or damages - I could not do this in this quality :).
Needless to say, that also all small parts are included -even a plywood stand for the model :).
I will post an update after the first flight.

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Customer Rated

May 13, 2013

continuation.....
10 minutes. No bad tendencies noted during the maiden. I shortened the sponson rods from 80 and 87mm to 60 and 67mm due to concerns noted by the flyer in the HK video. No digging in of the sponsons noted during landing with these modifications. This is a solid product and in my opinion the best Catalina on the market. Thanks HK.

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Customer Rated

May 12, 2013

Just maidened the PBY Catalina 1800mm by HobbyKing. What a great plane! The fiberglass fuselage is gorgeous and all things fit together well. I outfitted my Cat with two Turnigy D3548/4 1100kv BL motors. These motors fit the mounts perfectly without any need for modifications. Two Turnigy Plush 60 amp ESCs are connected to a Turnigy 3600mAh 4S 30C Lipo via a EC5 Battery Harness 12 AWG in parallel supplied by HK (just need to switch the female and the male connectors around). The receiver is an OrangeRX R615 Spektrum. The propellers are Mater Airscrew 9x7, a regular and a pusher. It is probably not necessary to have counter rotating props but this set up seems to work fine. One modification I made is to the rear of the battery hatch. Instead of using a tapered screw to secure the hatch per instruction, I used a 4-40 hex screw with blind nut for easier access. The hook/latch apparatus does keep the front of the hatch down, I just reinforced the latch portion with a small piece of wood. Installation of the pull-pull wires for the rudder control arm do require some patience :) Ailerons and elevator set ups are straight forward.
The plane does plow through the water with plenty of prop wash before getting on step, but amazingly no water entered the hatch. This is even without installing the water tight cover included in the kit! Plane flew very well at 1/2 throttle for

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Customer Rated

Feb 22, 2013

ho collaudato il mio Catalina vola benissimo secondo m i flap sono inutili il set motorizzazione consigliato azzeccato!! consiglio di montare i para-spruzzi trasparenti sulle gondole,ci per evitare di danneggiare i motori con l'acqua risucchiata dalle eliche durante la fase del decollo

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Customer Rated

Feb 17, 2013

This is a sweet model ,goes together easy and instructions are good.bought The NTM Prop Drive 35-42 Series 1000KV / 700W motor's they suggest on the website but the motors are front mount ,this application needs rear mount motor's.