Rufcut

I am going to hot-wire cut some foam floats for my Tiger Trainer 60 this weekend and I was wondering if it's worth the trouble to cut a V-hull or just leave the bottom flat. Is one or the other better in terms of take-off and landing characteristics? Also, can I just apply fiberglass over the foam? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Rufcut

Chip_Mull

My Feedback: (1)

There are no flat bottom full scale floats. For sport they work great! It's just like the Seamaster hull.

cf-drg

My Feedback: (1)

Flat bottoms are fine.. Most of the foam pre-cuts kits are flat bottom.. As far as glassing, use a .5 or .75oz and epoxy for resin.. Polyester resin loves eating most kinds of foam.. The one I use is West Systems Epoxy, nice stuff....

Rufcut

Thanks Chip.
My plan was to cut the bottom flat and apply glass to the float, sand, paint, and install. I've never flown off water but it looks like such a kick, I just have to try it.

siddus74

IMO the V shaped floats tend to work better, I had flat bottom floats on a cub and a mono float flat bottom float on a fun fly and they tended to wander on take off and fast taxi on step . . . When I then added the V bottom every thing improved with regards the traking. On solid foam I would use contact adhesive such as Copydex to glue 1/16 or 3/32 balsa to the bottom V, sides and top after inlaying some ply for the wire mounts to screw to, then cover the entire assembly with a good quality film ensuring that any joins are painted with Prymol or better still very light weight wing skinning cloth and resin, then prime and piant with a light coat of enamel . . .

Better still build a float plane as they handle on the water better still and are the correct shape by default . . . I tried various land planes on floats and while they seemed to fly ok the extra setting up the lake and having to compromise on the amount of models I can take because floats take up so much room pushed me towards boat planes . . . Catalina's and Seamaster's look better in the air IMO and also floats can make a great land plane feel spongy and heavy in flight . . . Just my thoughts.

Good luck!

Rufcut

Thanks cf-drg,
I have some automotive glass cloth that I was going to use and apply it with water base polyurethane. Weighs about 6 oz. per square yard. Think that will be too heavy? What weight should I shoot for on a pair of 40" long x 4" wide floats?

Thanks again
Rufcut

goirish

I would use the 1/2 or 3/4 with the H2O Poly. I did a set of floats for my Dehavilland Beaver using this method and it turned out great. After you wet the cloth be sure to scrape off the excess. I use a old credit card. I also used the 3/4oz.

evan-RCU

Cut them flat and sand a slight V into the front. It'll be worth it.