ORIGINAL: paul33507
I just bought a GP .40 Cub kit for my birthday 2 weeks ago with floats. I want to clip the wings and occasionally fly with floats. Am I crazy to consider adding flaps to help with flying with floats? This will be my first kit build and I want to not screw it up too bad. I am not concerned too much with scale but I would eventually like it to be a Clipped Super Cub with wheel pants (if there was ever such a thing).
thoughts or advice welcomed..
-Paul
Paul-
I have that kit on floats and have flown it for over 10 years just about every 2 weeks. It's a great flying plane. Mine is full wing, no flaps.
That being said, I'd advise against flaps for a float Cub. I can't see why you would need them. Landing speed is certainly not a problem and as for takeoff, it's best to let a float Cub come up to it's flying speed on it's own before you try and lift off. Now with a clipped wing they might come in handy due to the lower wing area. Just remember that trying to force a Cub off the water usually results in a problem.
I don't know how much float fly experience you have but just let me make a couple of comments. Make sure your floats are the right size for the plane. The standard is 75-80% of the length from your prop to the vertical post on the rudder. Shorter floats will give you problems with running straight for takeoff. Slightly longer is ok but you get a lot of extra weight. Make sure to install a water rudder. Make sure you have adequate power...size your engine for the top of the recommended range to compensate for the float weight. And lastly, make sure you have positive incidence between the wing and the floats (that is the wing should be + 1 1/2 degrees relative to the floats).
The GP Cub is a great first build with plenty of tips in the manual. Enjoy the experience.
Augie