budpro

I have a Pica Rapier e/w a Fox .50, 3.5 lbs, a tail dragger, no dihedral, ws=57.5”, bow to stern..hehe = 48”, 753 sqin. , chord 11”, and a……
Royal Air 40T e/w an OS .40FP,5lbs, trike gear, 1.6% dihedral, ws = 63.5”, bow to stern = 48.5”, 803 sqin., chord=11.5”

I guess, I need size of floats, waterproof all electronics, decide if I want rudders on both floats, (could utilize 40T nose gear control with same servo as rudder, that is the setup now) ???

I have a question on floats, could they be mounted under wings, instead of attached to bottom of fuselage?

Both planes of course, would weigh less with the gear removed, then added back with the floats. How much, I don’t know yet.

Anyway, appreciate anyone’s help making my choice, etc. Thank You in advance.

Fly high be safe….bud

PIcs Pica Rapier color, Royal Air 40T b/w

JimCasey

My Feedback: (1)

I actually put some primitive homemade floats on a Royal 40T with an OS.40FP. It flew well. For a plane that size you'd need floats between 32 and 36 inches.

Other question: yes -you can mount floats under the wings. It is done mostly on low wing models. Imagine a GeeBee racer with floats instead of those big wheel pants. On high-wing models like you have, The struts would be long and either heavy or fragile (or both) and probably goofy. On the 40T, mount the floats to the main gear wires (two wheel collars will secure each float) and make a T-shaped piece of music wire to install in the nose-gear mount for the front float mount. You'll probably need a wire between the floats at the rear mount...it can be pushrod stuff-does not need to be heavy. On the Pica, get an identical aluminum set of gear legs and mount them at the rear of the cabin floor. You'll probably have to add a ply hardpoint to accept the load, but that's pretty easy.

The float steps go just a little behind the plane's balance point. example: If the 40T has a wing with 10" chord, the step would go at 4", or 40% of the chord.

budpro

Hey Jim,

Thanks for the info, I have picked the 40T.

I have made my choice based on the fact
that you placed floats on a 40T, with the same
OS .40FP, that was remarkable. Someone actually
did it. I like my PICA the way it flies now, so I will
now consider all the other good info you left me.

I "scraped the under the wing thing", and I know
they have to be big floats, 36" is 75% of 48.5" so
I guess that's my size.

I scanned for hours on this forum, and will just
continue doing that, see what I can find, if
anything.....

You have a great day Jim, fly high be safe, later bud

JimCasey

My Feedback: (1)

Since you are scanning on the forum, look for the Chuck Cunningham article and also look for Plane Fun Floats.
The Cunningham article boils all the stuff you need to select and mount floats all into one place. Plane Fun floats are the benchmark by which other floats are measured.

budpro

Thanks Jim,

....for the Chuck Cunningham suggestion, and BTW: It was your post about this time 5 years ago where I found it, and I must add, “you are the man” when it comes to seaplanes, as far as I’m concerned.

Anyway, I copied the articles to word, and they supplied so much information, interesting, but only details about side views, end view design information was not there. I will continue my search later and wish RCU had a search engine that would just search a specific forum. It seems right now it goes out to all forums....that is unless I didn't find it...yet?????
Tried to find Plane Fun Floats...must be on a page I didn't get to yet.

Question on this: Should I build my own floats out of foam, experimenting and testing as I go? If I do, I need the end view designs, 36” floats are big, or, just buy a set of commercial 36” floats that come with the mounting hardware, etc., all in a kit?

I have no problems with building them myself, always enjoyed that stuff, and arf and rtf is not my "cup of tea", I guess I like to get glue, wood dust, etc. on me, and I do have the shop and equipment for that.

So...back to checking my plane, against all that info, later Jim....bud

seaplane

Bud, go to geocities.com/planefunfloats . Although it makes finding the web site a little more difficult, I used the free web site service to keep the costs of the floats down. For your 40-T I'd suggest the 34" slim floats which would be a little lighter than the full size 34".

Seaplane

evan-RCU

The nice thing about making your own is they are custom made to the application. They are easy to build, simple to design and the reward is great....

JimCasey

My Feedback: (1)

The Cunningham article outlines floats that have a rectangular cross section. There is a table in the article that shows width vs weight.

Seaplane's floats have a v-bottom/tapered sides That makes the planing area wider and floatation closer to the bottom. So for a given size, they float higher and plane more easily. The slight V-Bottom adds stability and serves to cushion the plane in choppy water. The general consensus is that V-bottoms don't skip as much when landing.

I make my own floats. They look almost like Seaplane's. For the time I spend making a set of floats, and considering what Seaplane charges, Seaplane would make a lot more money working at McDonalds for minimum wage. I'm glad he does it. Foam floats are superior to other constructions, and there are precious few vendors offering them any more. I believe his are the best design offered.

budpro

Hello Seaplane,

Thanks for your helpful response. I found the planefunfloats ad, and interested
in your "slim" design, wondering about the demisions of them? The ones in the
web picture really look great!!!!

I have decided on the 34", you mentioned slim, because they are lighter. So I
need the weights of your 34" slim & reg, and why do you call them slim?. How
much difference is there, between them. Both 34", but I guess not as deep and
wide. My 40T has trike gear now and weighs in at about 5lbs w/o fuel.

Fly high be safe....later bud

budpro

Jim,

Okay, I found that info in the Cunningham article on depth
and width, and the table, also how to use the advance
search engine here, so I have found loads of good stuff.

Not decided yet on builing my own, but would like to give
er a try...found someone who uses blue styrofoam, says
it sands baby butt smooth and he paints it with vinyl
....then I read, the less you finish, the lighter they are,
makes sense, right.....

The rudder setup, is now a done deal for me, also....
I will just drop one down from the rudder and adjust it,
(it's in the water when taxi), and (out on step).

34" floats so far, I find are between 54 and 99, and
more, most of these come with rudder kits, so that's
kind of a waste of money for me. Building my own
would be rewarding like Evan-RCU stated and custom
to my config, and so I still have time to ponder that.


Thanks again Jim, you fly high be safe..later bud