PBY Catalina Flying Boat 1380mm (PNF)

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Customer Rated

Sep 17, 2016

Adding to previous : The model is basically well powered and suffers looping on water when taking off .. this can be controlled better by Differential throttles. Simply divide throttle on your Rx and add program line mixing in rudder. This can in fact benefit more than the water rudder.
The props used are 8x5 two bladers and provide more than enough thrust. I am seriously thinking to reduce props down to smaller and use 3 bladers. At present I have 6x4 Gemfans fitted ready to test once water smooths out. I would expect 7x4 3 blade props to be about right. If staying with 2 blades - I would recc'd 7x5 instead of the 8x5. The 8x5 do catch water at times and exaggerate the looping on water.
The ESC's have now been moved into fuselage to avoid the usual wetting out they get up in the nacelles. I have already swapped out 3 ESC's for this reason.

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Customer Rated

Sep 16, 2016

As others have found ... the ESC's are not the best. I have replaced both now with 30A units and also slightly modified one motor mount which was poorly aligned.
I have had two grub screws fall out of motor mounts even though checked fully tight. They now have blue loctite.
Prop spinners are useless and after one decided to screw up into a ball - removed both and now fly without.
I fly with 1800 to 2250 3s packs and CoG change is only slight.
The tip floats are weak and do not mount securely - so I have pushed cocktail sticks without glue down through wing into the legs to secure upright but not so too much damage will occur.
Water rudder needs sorting to get to work. Initially I accepted this was fixed straight ahead as rudder did not move it ... but then realised that screw thread is not tight enough and top of water rudder binds on fuselage. I partly filled the threaded hole of water rudder and added blue loctite ... wound it back onto the threaded pin so no binding when tight on thread. NOW it turns with rudder fine. Without water rudder this model pirouettes on water too easily.
Motor power is more than enough for flight ... she cruises on 60 - 65pcnt throttle. I have separated throttles so now have differential on motors to give better steerage on water. Any little breeze and she refuses to turn without diff.
Do I like it - yes in the air it is an attention puller. People st

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Customer Rated

Aug 23, 2016

Um Gottes Willen,Hände weg von diesem Modell. So ein grotten schlechtes Modell hatte ich noch nie. Material minder wertig. Servos, eines davon ging erst gar nicht. Die Aufnahme für die Motoren auf einer Seite komplett verzogen. Da streift der Motor fast an der Gondel. Dann wohin mit den Kabeln, die vom Regler ins Modell führen. Kein Platz dafür vorgesehen. Servoabdeckungen passen überhaupt nicht. Die Aufnahme der Tragfläche bekam bei der ersten Landung in hohem Gras einen Riß. Das war eine ganz normale Landung. Ach ja, beim ersten Start ist gleich mal nach ca. 50m ein Motor raus geflogen, usw. usw......

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Certified Buyer Rated

Mar 26, 2016

This plane is far from a PNF. There is a lot to do till it would be able to fly! Unfortunately one ESC and one Servo was broken, so lets see if Hobbyking will send some replacement.

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Customer Rated

Jan 01, 2016

Excellent bi moteur. Un peu de retouche faire quand on montage. Il faut pas hsiter retoucher les pices fournies afin de prserver la symtrie de l'avion.
Avion extrmement lger (faire attention au bourrasque de vent), trs bonne puissance de moteur. Peut tre lancer la main et atterrir sur le ventre. Si vous choisissez cette option, il faudra renforcer le dessous avec un revtement blanc.
N'hsitez pas non plus changer les hlices pour des Tri pales pour un meilleur effet.

Pour : Trs beau modle, bien quilibr, bonne puissance, lancement la main sans risque

Contre : Beaucoup de peaufinage afin d'avoir un appareil symtrique et bien rgler pour viter les mauvaise surprise / Trs lger.

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Customer Rated

Oct 21, 2015

Just took it out for maiden flight, flying around ok until the wing snapped and crashed.
Lasted about 5 mins, if you buy one of these strengthen the wing or it will go the same way as mine, in the dustbin, I would not buy another.

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Customer Rated

Oct 14, 2015

veramente pessimo! il materiale si sbriciola solo a guardarlo! la prima volta che sono atterrato non proprio dolcemente si distrutta la fusoliera! Ripeto nessun crash ma atterraggio brusco sull'acqua e il modello si distrutto. Non PNF infatti devi montare servi, motori ed esc che non hanno una sede nemmeno per i cablaggi e nemmeno compaiono nelle istruzioni.
Sconsigliato

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Certified Buyer Rated

Sep 30, 2015

Nice plane, Your getting what you pay for so just be aware that you will need to beef up and make some minor modifications to ensure many flights. WATERPROOFING, SEALING, I'm not a fan of the type of foam being used on this plane. ITs of a more brittle type of foam.

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Customer Rated

Aug 17, 2015

Recived this last Tuesday have been dying it all weekend about twenty flights
Great no problem flying it of a grass strip.really enjoyable so easy to fly lands like a dream .
Loks good in the air and does not mind a bit of wind .Value for money.
Loved it

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Customer Rated

Aug 06, 2015

Esc:s are BAD mine where DOA.
I put new escs on place and it worked wery nicely.
It tends to fall on its wing but swims great and gets to air very easily.