After nearly four years (3000 hours!) of building, Australian RC pilot Stephen Thomas had the thrill of seeing his giant-scale project take off at the Darling Downs Soaring Club in Queensland. This 1/5-scale plane is powered by two Desert Aircraft 150s spinning 28×12 Metz props and it has 25kg-rated Hitec servos and custom Century Jet retracts with hydraulic main gear and air nose gear. With a flying weight of 248 pounds, this monster flying boat is an impressive sight on the ground and in the air. We congratulate Stephen on a job well done and thank him for posting his video to YouTube.
20-foot Catalina Takes Off
Would love to see a water takeoff! 🙂
Great project, outstanding effort! Should be an inspiration to modelers everywhere!
248 pounds?? Is that a misprint?
Debra, thanks for your work. Was the flying weight of the Catalina correct? 248 pounds?
Believe so … I got that from the first video. Seemed heavy to me, too.
Hi all, I am one of the inspectors for this aircraft and after lifting it many times I can assure all that the weight is correct. 113 kg.
Beautiful Job and appears to fly great! Is it really 248lbs?
Wow! That is an impressive float plane, and a beautiful job of building and flying. I hope to see it take off and land from water in the next video – that would be the ultimate test Great job!
It’s a beautiful plane. If the wing tip floats were down it would be perfect
Beautiful model ,, luv it ,,all the best,,,Paul Rosenberg , New Zealand .
One of my favorite planes. Great job to all! I have a plan that I want to enlarge to .90 4S size and I think this video got me going