Just a quick pic of the paint scheme on my PT. I started with a flat olive green and flat green, but they were a little too close in shade, so I took the flat green, added a bit of bright green and yellow, and shot some of the camo in that. I’ll add some black and details next.
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Just a quick pic of the paint scheme on my PT. I started with a flat olive green and flat green, but they were a little too close in shade, so I took the flat green, added a bit of bright green and yellow, and shot some of the camo in that. I’ll add some black and details next.
Hi y’all. Paints done, guns are up and radios installed. She’s ready to run as is. I have a few more details to do but I’m going to wait till the maidens done and I have her sorted out. Might be this coming Sunday, or the next. She’s at 4 pounds 2 ounces, a little light but I’ll take some extra ballast with me.
Cash
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Hi y’all. Paints done, guns are up and radios installed. She’s ready to run as is. I have a few more details to do but I’m going to wait till the maidens done and I have her sorted out. Might be this coming Sunday, or the next. She’s at 4 pounds 2 ounces, a little light but I’ll take some extra ballast with me.
Cash
Hi y’all. I’ve been a bit busy with inventory so I’ll keep this brief. I maidened the Higgins this past Sunday, ran into 2 issues. One, she was way too light, which resulted in a hard to handle and trim boat. She weighed in at 4 pounds 2 ounces, thought I could run her at that weight but she was squirrelly, would turn to port okay, but right was shaky, and at one point instead of turning right she dug her bow in and and continued straight with a 40 degree list🤔. What little water that got in the hull was from one of those escapades, and that she’d light on another problem. I had the receiver in the right rear corner of the hull, but low, as I wanted to make sure the servo wiring wouldn’t be fouled by the rudder tiller. Sure enough, when she rolled hard right that tablespoon of water would collect there and get the receiver just wet enough to be intermittent. By the time I would get pushed in the receiver would dry out enough to regain control. My buddy Fred used his Vacuboat Vacutow and pushed me in 3 times!! I thinks he’s sending me a bill for salvage🤣🤣 Anyway, I’ve made a few changes in the servo/esc leads routing, moved the rx higher up in the hull and sprayed it down with corrosionX. I’ve also ballasted her to 5 pounds. We’ll see how she does.
Cash
Hi y’all. I’ve been a bit busy with inventory so I’ll keep this brief. I maidened the Higgins this past Sunday, ran into 2 issues. One, she was way too light, which resulted in a hard to handle and trim boat. She weighed in at 4 pounds 2 ounces, thought I could run her at that weight but she was squirrelly, would turn to port okay, but right was shaky, and at one point instead of turning right she dug her bow in and and continued straight with a 40 degree list🤔. What little water that got in the hull was from one of those escapades, and that she’d light on another problem. I had the receiver in the right rear corner of the hull, but low, as I wanted to make sure the servo wiring wouldn’t be fouled by the rudder tiller. Sure enough, when she rolled hard right that tablespoon of water would collect there and get the receiver just wet enough to be intermittent. By the time I would get pushed in the receiver would dry out enough to regain control. My buddy Fred used his Vacuboat Vacutow and pushed me in 3 times!! I thinks he’s sending me a bill for salvage🤣🤣 Anyway, I’ve made a few changes in the servo/esc leads routing, moved the rx higher up in the hull and sprayed it down with corrosionX. I’ve also ballasted her to 5 pounds. We’ll see how she does.
Cash
Well done!
two comments. 1)PT's had a notoriously large turning radius, even the Higgins which had a tighter one than the ELCO. If too much rudder is applied, they lift their sterns and dig in the bow. My ELCO is notorious for that when I try to turn sharply. Solution is to reduce the rudder throw. 2) as a general rule, do not put the receiver in the lowest or low point of the hull, for the exact reason that you ran into, ie, shorting out the receiver. Rather, mount it high and safe( better radio reception as well there). To accomplish your needed routing of the servo lead, add an extension to it. Very inexpensive insurance.
Hi Toradog. I usually mount my rx’s high, but in this case I had it a bit too low because I didn’t want to use an extension..🤔. It wasn’t on the floor, but the extreme roll helped it take a bath. I’ve fitted an extension and have it much higher up now...plus it’s had a bath in CorrosionX.
Cash
Oh..forgot to add that I can throw the rudder side to side, and she’ll rock side to side never changing course. Think I’m too light...( the boat, not me🤣)
Oh..forgot to add that I can throw the rudder side to side, and she’ll rock side to side never changing course. Think I’m too light...( the boat, not me🤣)
Hi Jonathan. Just reread your post about rudder area and possibly changing to twin rudders, I think your on to something. When I used to fly rc, I noticed that a plane with a larger rudder with less throw would turn tight with less drama than a plane with a small rudder at larger throws. I was thinking along the same lines as you..but one question. Should the rudder be deeper or wider?
Cash
Hi!! So...this morning I took the PT to my local test pond, conveniently located on our Church’s property. I looks as if I have the ballast about right, although with a 7 cell pack she rides a bit too bow high, but perfect on a 6 cell. Turns sharply to port, not quite so much to starboard, you have to be a little more careful with rudder and power than to port...but, quite acceptable😀 However, I could only do tests close in for a short period of time as I lost all range about 70 feet from the bank...and to make matters worse, the wind took her under the fountain 😱. She stayed dry enough for me to walk around the pond and picker back up in range and “walk” her back. I decided I had enough, upon inspection the receiver was relatively dry in spit if the fountain bath. I concluded that I was just going to try another receiver, as I uninstalled the rx I tugged on the antenna slightly and it came right out!! I’ve concluded that I had a sketchy intermittent signal the whole time. The receiver in question is a FlySky GR3C bound to a Radiomaster 16S multi-protocol transmitter. I’ve had no problems with another of these receivers mounted in my PBR. Anyway, I have other receivers to use, but I found a waterproof version of the same receiver for 14.00 shipped from Amazon, so that’s what’s going back in the PT. I will get that installed and do a proper range check and another pond test, once I’m satisfied with the range I can finalize my trim, but in spite of all the drama Saturday I fell that I have made progress in that regard. I’ll update as soon as I can.
Thanks for all the help and comments, especially concerning PT boats turning radius both full size and scale. It’s been a big help👍
Cash
Hi!! So...this morning I took the PT to my local test pond, conveniently located on our Church’s property. I looks as if I have the ballast about right, although with a 7 cell pack she rides a bit too bow high, but perfect on a 6 cell. Turns sharply to port, not quite so much to starboard, you have to be a little more careful with rudder and power than to port...but, quite acceptable😀 However, I could only do tests close in for a short period of time as I lost all range about 70 feet from the bank...and to make matters worse, the wind took her under the fountain 😱. She stayed dry enough for me to walk around the pond and picker back up in range and “walk” her back. I decided I had enough, upon inspection the receiver was relatively dry in spit if the fountain bath. I concluded that I was just going to try another receiver, as I uninstalled the rx I tugged on the antenna slightly and it came right out!! I’ve concluded that I had a sketchy intermittent signal the whole time. The receiver in question is a FlySky GR3C bound to a Radiomaster 16S multi-protocol transmitter. I’ve had no problems with another of these receivers mounted in my PBR. Anyway, I have other receivers to use, but I found a waterproof version of the same receiver for 14.00 shipped from Amazon, so that’s what’s going back in the PT. I will get that installed and do a proper range check and another pond test, once I’m satisfied with the range I can finalize my trim, but in spite of all the drama Saturday I fell that I have made progress in that regard. I’ll update as soon as I can.
Thanks for all the help and comments, especially concerning PT boats turning radius both full size and scale. It’s been a big help👍
Cash
Sorry it took so long to respond Larry. I’m running a 3 blade at this time. Now that I have my range issue fixed I’m going to play with battery weight and placement plus take a range of props with me. The plan is try to get her dialed in Sunday.
"Is it an aircraft carrier that will be big enough for Errol ?"
Will it be big enough for Errol 🐱 to do press-ups on the flight deck? 😁😂
Or is he down below on the propulsion treadmill? 😮
😎
Hi y’all. I had decided that after work today I’d go down to the Cottonwood Creek Baptist test pond (to be known hereafter as CCBTP) and run the PT. Sometime before I left for home, it started to rain..!!?##$$!!
It let up as I pulled in the driveway, so I ran in, said hi and bye to wife and daughter, grabbed said boat and TX and headed to the pond. I didn’t have the battery centered, but it’s started to rain again so I made a few passes, and she’s a lot better. I would lose signal about halfway to the fountain, this time it was good all the way there and back. It turns left well, turns right ok, I still have a hard roll to right at full power and hard rudder, but it’s manageable now. The wind was up and it was sprinkling heading to rain so I called it quits after 5 minutes but I’m on the right track. Now it’s a question of trim and balance, and I’m pretty sure I’ll have to adopt my handling of this boat to its idiosyncrasies. But, for now, I’m good. If we don’t get rained out I hope to have more progress made this Sunday at Josey Ranch.
Cash
Hi y’all. I had decided that after work today I’d go down to the Cottonwood Creek Baptist test pond (to be known hereafter as CCBTP) and run the PT. Sometime before I left for home, it started to rain..!!?##$$!!
It let up as I pulled in the driveway, so I ran in, said hi and bye to wife and daughter, grabbed said boat and TX and headed to the pond. I didn’t have the battery centered, but it’s started to rain again so I made a few passes, and she’s a lot better. I would lose signal about halfway to the fountain, this time it was good all the way there and back. It turns left well, turns right ok, I still have a hard roll to right at full power and hard rudder, but it’s manageable now. The wind was up and it was sprinkling heading to rain so I called it quits after 5 minutes but I’m on the right track. Now it’s a question of trim and balance, and I’m pretty sure I’ll have to adopt my handling of this boat to its idiosyncrasies. But, for now, I’m good. If we don’t get rained out I hope to have more progress made this Sunday at Josey Ranch.
Cash
Hi y’all. I’m posting a video from this weekend, first half is Larry’s big 50 inc KnK Jupiter, the second half is the PT212. I’m happy to say that even though she turns better port than starboard, I’m quite pleased with her. Now, I can have a bit of fun with her and concentrate on tweaking ballast/power/handling😊
Hi y’all. I’m posting a video from this weekend, first half is Larry’s big 50 inc KnK Jupiter, the second half is the PT212. I’m happy to say that even though she turns better port than starboard, I’m quite pleased with her. Now, I can have a bit of fun with her and concentrate on tweaking ballast/power/handling😊
That’s on the table for the 212. Next outing I plan to play with different props to see what she does and how that affects handling. Going to tweak the fore-aft trim also, and play with OpenTX and see if I can make up a throttle controlled rate mix on starboard only. I like PT’s, but if I build another it’ll be 2 motors and counter rotation props.
Easy enough to observe in the video (or in person) that at speed this boat does turn much better to port than to starboard. Back off a bit from full power and things get much better, but at or near full power starboard rudder basically causes the boat to heel well to starboard but she hardly turns (or will even continue straight ahead while heeled over about 45 deg.).
Slower her down a little Cash, it looks much better and sails better too.
I can definitely help with OpenTX programming. We could do a multi-stage stepped rate change with throttle or a continuous rate change with throttle. Either one can have different rates port and starboard as you see fit.
A little more tuning of the boat and a lot of tuning of her skipper and she'll be running just fine. 😀
JB