ORIGINAL: PulseXT40
42etus: The floats are parallel not perpendicular. My mistake. If they were perpendicular I would have serious issues.
Also I did have about 2 degrees of incidence between the wing and floats.
Over Christmas break my family went to Phoenix, AZ and we flew it on wheels. The plane did not experience the same issues as it did on floats. But as MinnFlyer said the floats added weight will magnify the problem.
Thanks, Josh
Well, if the plane was fine on wheels and the take off issue returned when the floats were put back on, the problem is with the floats. It sounds like you have them set up correctly, incidence, CG,
parallel etc. About the only thing left is weight. Foam core floats will add a fair amount of weight and will require a higher take off speed. I have one plane that has foam floats (an Ultrastick 60) and the difference taking it off with wheels compared to floats is very noticable. It needs quite a bit more speed on water to lift off. All my float planes will lift off with just a touch of elevator. If you have to give it a lot of elevator to lift off, you either don't have the incidence right or the plane doesn't have enough speed yet. You said initially that it drops a wing after lift off. That is a classic example of a plane lifting off before it has enough speed to really fly. Try keeping it on the water a little longer to allow it to get more speed up. When it has reached sufficient speed, it should lift off with either no elevator or perhaps just a touch.
Paul