Fred Damm is RMM's Float Flying champion. I found that
out last week when Fred called to tell me he had a new recovery vehicle.
The Rescue Boat was built from Martin Fallandy's plans found in the August
98 RCModeler magazine. The air boat is used to retrieve
dead-in-the-water float fly airplanes, those that have caught a wing and
done a water version of a ground loop. Once the plane's propeller
hits the water, the engine stops and the recovery process gets
underway. Fred uses a backup fishing line and pole connected to the
boat for two reasons: 1) to circle the float plane and pull it back to
shore and 2) to retrieve the boat if its motor stops. 
The circle method is an alternative to
pushing the plane because it keeps the spinning propeller of the boat
away from the extremities of the float plane. The problem is that the
rescue boat does not have a reverse and it may shift its position while
pushing the float plane, thus causing damage.
Saturday, June
11th arrived as a good day -- very little wind and a cool morning.
Six Float flyers came to help Fred launch the rescue boat for its maiden
voyage and test run. John Cowie was the boat handler, Ed Russell managed
the fishing pole, and Fred was the boat driver as Tom Keller and Bob
Wildgen looked on. The trip went well except for some underwater
vegetation that snagged the fishing line. This caused little concern as Ed
let out more line while the boat returned to shore. Then it was a matter
of pulling back the line and vegetation. I enjoyed capturing a
perfect diamond shape wake created by the boat's dual pontoons as it
glided through extremely calm water.
Normal float flying got underway as the rescue boat was
deemed successful. Fred flew his Ace Seamaster first. The
Seamaster's Power Plant is a 70 sized four-stroke. This setup gave
it adequate power to do loops and rolls nicely. Dave Hudson and his son
brought a plane built by Bob Wildgen. They call the seaplane a
"smoothie". I do not know much about this, but it has some nice
lines. Unfortunately, the "smoothie" did one of those ground loops
and all flying stopped while the recovery process got underway. Fred
circled the "smoothie" with the rescue boat, snagged the plane with the
fishing line and headed for shore.
Video taping stopped as my batteries ran down. Check back for
more float flying pictures.
Revision date: 01/05/04
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