Disney Nautilus has her maiden voyage!

Collapse
X
 
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
  • RCSubGuy
    Welcome to my underwater realm!
    • Aug 2009
    • 1768

    Disney Nautilus has her maiden voyage!

    The maiden voyage has occurred! We chose the man-made lake at the Quarry here in Naples for her first trials. The water was bathtub warm and fairly clear. There was a substantial bank of weeds about thirty feet out, however the bottom up to that point was sandy, soft and clear!

    Al Nucifora, the owner of the boat, and I had prepped the sub for operations back at my shop, so when we got there, we just needed to drop it in the water and have some fun!

    She performed beautifully! There was a small issue with my emergency buoy system not being set properly, and it popped after only a few minutes of operation. The good news is that it worked (just too quickly!). It will be just a matter of adjusting the potentiometers to properly set the delay time in order to get that rectified. With just a turn of the skiff, we locked it down, electing to continue running rather than take the model out of the water and reset everything.

    Speed was not quite as fast as I had anticipated, however in retrospect the Nautilus' hull is not conducive to speed at all, with tremendous drag induced by the salon pushouts and the thousands of rivets on the hull. She did put up a huge bow wake, though, and was very impressive on the water. That is really the advantage of having a substantial-sized hull! You WILL notice it on the water!

    The turning radius I would estimate as being 18' in open water. I think that could be reduced with the addition of a clear rudder estension, however for lakes or other larger open water it is just fine! Diving was perfectly flat and very predictable.

    We did have one "incident" however!

    Both Al and I were having so much fun and concentrating so much on taking photos that we neglected to count the blow cycles, and the model ended up out of gas for the ballast system! What ended up happening was that when Al noticed the lack of gas for ballast, he let off the throttle as a precaution. The model settled onto the weedy bottom of the lake and became entrapped to the point that it could not force its way through the weedy forest and back to shore. Al and I bit the bullet and elected to wade in after it immediately. Fortunately the water was very warm and fairly clear. After only five minutes of searching, we came across the Nautilus resting peacefully and waiting for us to find her. The very bright LED lights (especially the tail light behind the skiff) made finding her a lot easier. We brought her to shore, checked out the systems and popped her back in the water for a few final shots before we packed up for home!

    All in all, a very successful first voyage! Both I and Al were really happy with her performance, and she will no doubt be a huge head turner both in and out of the water at the pond wherever its taken!

    Onto the video, of course!:

    Full R/C Disney Nautilus in 1/32 scale (66.5" long). Video taken in Naples, FL.


    And the photos!:



















  • He Who Shall Not Be Named
    Moderator
    • Aug 2008
    • 12255

    #2
    WELL DONE, sir!

    Wow!

    Gotta get off my ass and keep up my end of the deal (ask Bob). You gotta put this up at rcgroups.

    David,
    Who is John Galt?

    Comment

    • redboat219
      Admiral
      • Dec 2008
      • 2735

      #3
      Great boat! Can you tell us more about your emergency buoy system.
      Make it simple, make strong, make it work!

      Comment

      • Anuci
        Banned
        • Aug 2008
        • 165

        #4
        Ahead All Engines, collision speed, Full!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtjjLgiGgx8
        Last edited by Anuci; 09-06-2009, 12:34 AM.

        Comment

        • VanguardUK
          Lieutenant
          • Feb 2009
          • 58

          #5
          Superb, te footage makes it look living! - You ever been to Scotland??

          Comment

          • Anuci
            Banned
            • Aug 2008
            • 165

            #6
            No Sir, I'm afraid I haven't had an opportunity to visit that lovely part of the world, and Yes, I agree it almost looks like a prehistoric serpent. Regards, Al,

            Comment

            • Anuci
              Banned
              • Aug 2008
              • 165

              #7
              Originally posted by redboat219
              Great boat! Can you tell us more about your emergency buoy system.
              Re Emergency Buoy System,
              Bob Martin,(Subhuman ) the builder and designer of the system would be in a better position to point out specifics, but in general the system consistis of an electronic timer module that is set at a pre-determined time frame from 2-minutes up to approx. 1-hour. This unit connected to a solenoid switch which inturn released the skiff in this case hollowed out and filled with floatation foam. The skiff is tethered to a spool of fishing line and upon release by the solenoid the skiff is released, to hopefully make it's way to the surface. Hopefully this helps better understand, Regards,
              Last edited by Anuci; 09-06-2009, 12:22 PM.

              Comment

              • pjdog
                Commander
                • Apr 2009
                • 302

                #8
                I live in Louisiana and there's just to many alligators around here to use any of the fresh water ponds I know of. I'm sure it's got to be worse in southern Florida. I've been down there and alligators where every where. Unless your equipped with weapons on your sub I'd beware. Given the fact that you had to wade out to retrieve the boat. It was the first thing I thought of when I saw where you live. In Florida I use the pool.

                Jack

                Comment

                • Subculture
                  Admiral
                  • Feb 2009
                  • 2119

                  #9
                  There is always something to spoil the fun isn't there?

                  At least we don't have alligators to contend with here in the UK. The odd swan or protective coot, and that's about as far as it goes.

                  Comment

                  Working...