Odyssey, true flying boat

[rahulchoudhary73]

Hi Mark,

How about a truly amphibious odyssey? There are two old water bombers of six still flying that operate only from water. were any experimental light planes ever designed like that? do you think it's possible to fly coast2coast like that?

Thanks,
Rahul (like Raul with a shorter 'u and an 'h) Choudhary (like Chowder)

[yhbobg]

I always thought it would be cool to add a water hull to a Thundergull or Odyssey, make it kinda like a mini Icon A5 :), the tail boom is the only issue there, but WHEN I get mine (someday :) ) I am thinking of doing it.

[rahulchoudhary73]

without the wheels, like this one below; wonder how they're maintained living on water for life

wonder how much do the gull's wheels and their joinery weigh?
rc

http://www.eaa.org/en/airventure/eaa-ai ... hkosh-2016

[mkoxxy]

Before I decided to go electric, I had seriously considered building a
Coot. But, it is rather heavy, and needs at least 150HP to get off the
water. The Seareys come closest to a viable LSA 2-seat flying boat, but
even it needs at least 100HP, more if you build it heavy. Not much hope to
get one on the water under $100k, though.

I had also asked Mark to provide hard points on my eGull cage for floats.
This will have to wait until batteries have much better power densities.

[rahulchoudhary73]

seriusly, only Mark can pull out a true flying dolphin from his hat, one of these years, i can wait; nothing matches his wings&value
rc

[rahulchoudhary73]

Martin, would you like to take this 13#, 6kW genset onboard your eGull?

[rahulchoudhary73]

Martin, would you like to take this 13#, 6kW genset onboard your eGull?

[mkoxxy]

Not bad, considering stationary generators in this power range weigh 150 to
300 lbs. But one would have to add a tank + fuel, and some way to bolt it
to the cage. This would make more sense for something heavier than an
Ultralight, but then 6kW would not even provide enough power for straight
and level flight. No free lunch.

[rahulchoudhary73]

come on, am sure Volta does ~55mph @ 4.3kW
(ref. Mark's email, thread "Wing Tanks", 2 May 2011)

what would you guesstimate this genset's fuel to kW efficiency?