Flite Test Sea Duck Electric Airplane Kit (1422mm)

This airplane is a blast to fly - very well behaved but agile, and the differential thrust adds capabilities not easily found elsewhere. I have a lot of float planes and only fly off the water - the Sea Duck is a near perfect seaplane. That said, there are a couple of things that should be improved from the stock build.

First, the hull is structurally weak. An inadvertent hard landing on water will crush the bow. When you build yours double up the foamboard up front and/or add cross braces. Or reinforce with spray foam. I also glue a sheet plastic skid plate on the bottom. I may try building another Sea Duck with a shaped solid foam hull, similar to the foam floats I build from Seaplane Supply. I'm not worried about weight, btw - this plane has plenty of power.

In the hull, I built up a slot at the front of the battery compartment that the battery slides into - in the CG balanced position - and a ledge at the rear to keep the battery from sliding backwards. When the velcro strap is secured, the battery cannot slide in any direction. It's the easiest battery mounting system of any of my airplanes. Use a 3300 mAH 3S LiPo.

Second, the water resistant foam board is not waterproof. It will absorb water and delaminate if it isn't fully sealed - surfaces and edges. If you're not flying off the water, no big deal, but this a fantastic water plane. For all the time spent building the Sea Duck, plus the time painting and waterproofing and edge sealing every surface, I wish that I had a waterproof board to build it with. This is a good enough design that I want it to be a permanent build - not your prototypical FliteTest throwaway. I love to fly this airplane and I'd like it to last.

[Follow up 3/2020] I scratch built a second Sea Duck this winter from plans (not the kit) and with a few modifications. I doubled up the sides and bottom of the hull section and added cross bracing as well. I enlarged the battery section to accomodate a 5000mah 4S battery (slides into a cavity with a single velcro strap tie down). Finally, I simplified and enlarged the air vents behind the motor nacelles, with a larger vent hole below. Before painting, I sealed all edges with hot glue. After painting I sealed the entire plane with clear acrylic. The whole thing is much stronger and water resistant now, if not waterproof. With a pair of Rimfire .10 motors and a 4S battery, it'll climb straight up as far as I dare and my 10 minute flights are only using 50% of the 5000mah battery. This second one is built to last awhile and still flies beautifully.

amazing airplane ! I am converting it into a bomber :)
Huge room for batery, or fpv stuff

This might my favorite plane I don't (quite) own. I've flown my neighbor's quite a few times (off water and grass), and built one with my dad (haven't maidened it yet though). It's decently aerobatic and has a ton of thrust On the other hand, it's not fast, so despite it's large size you can have a lot of fun with it in a small area. We've gotten 10-15 minute flights on a 3s 2200 mAh, but it could clearly handle a much heavier battery without breaking a sweat.

Flying it off the water is a blast, especially with FPV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2C24sdPkmY

This is a wonderful plane. I was inspired by the red bull episodes. So I looked up a little bit about the red bull air races and about some of the first air races and was inspired to make a red bull style twin engine ft sea duck. I have built more than 60 foam board airplanes since hearing about flite test 6 years ago. And so far, this has been one of the funniest builds I have done to this date. Great job flite test, you guys crushed it!

Collin Gardiner, from utah

This plane brings back everythimg about my childhood. Until its first maiden flight, in which one of the esc's from power pack c die on me mid air and the plane crashed. Power pack c is cheap crap. Do yourself a favor and save yourself the headache of having to fix ypir plane on top of cutting an access hole on the rear hatch to barely access the electronics. Do not buy power pak c

What channel transmitter do I need for the sea duck?