Hi guys,

I am a beginner in « floats airplanes » and would like to have your recommendations before buying a pair of floats for my alpha 40 trainer.

The floats that i am looking at right now are:

http://www.greathobbies.com/producti...od_id=GPMQ1882

Was also considering the Hangar 9 40 size floats...

Does anyone tried them yet ? Is 38" too long for my type of plane ?

Also, if anyone could upload pics of their mounting gear for the floats on their alpha 40, that would be much appreciated.

Thanks a lot

I have a set of the Horizon Hobby Hanger 9 .40 size floats on my Saratoga.






http://www.horizonhobby.com/products...40-arf-HAN4000 Flat bottom wings have lots of lift and you will be OK with those floats.

They work great but the covering is getting tired after five or six years of soakings and they are showing their age. I'm going to have to recover them or come up with an alternative. To the credit of the Saratoga I took off one day and it was flying poorly (trims were off and I was afraid I had lost one aileron servo), so I brought it back in and landed. The floats are sealed but I could hear water in it. At home I drilled a 3/8" hole in on end . . . and poured 12 oz of water into a measuring cup! With that sloshing front to back it's a miracle I got down in control.

I recommend you add an access draip and plug to the side without a servo access lid.


On my Mentor-G I put together a set of the foam core, ply undersides & fiberglass covered floats from Sea Plane Supply. These are VERY rugged yet light.
http://www.seaplanesupply.com/ I may strip the Horizon Hobby floats and cover with .75 oz fiberglass. Probably any future floats I buy for non-foam models will be this style. A good winter project. The aluminum struts are DuBro landing gear and the cross-braces are Lowes aluminum "L" stock.

This is a shot of a plane during the float set up, getting the incidence set up correctly and seeing how the plane set on the water. I looked at the store bought offering and I'm still in sticker shock at the prices they get for floats. I made a couple sets for the two swoose planes I built and it took a couple days with glassing at a cost of about $10.00. Once I got the plane and floats set up correctly the plane lifted from the water as quick as it does from land. I also did my own wire bending and soldering to make the legs but the way Charlie did his is a much better idea. Floats are really easy to make either from plans or if you make a foam cutter just as easy. A buddy borrowed my foam cutter and made a simple set for his plane that worked great. Took me a lot longer to finally get the plane and floats set up correctly then it did to make them. In this case the plans I built the planes from had the plans for the floats too but you can find plans at most plans services. If you go into the float plane forum there are even sites mentioned where you can download them.

Nice Swoose!

The down-side of the set-up I made is weight. But I had a HORRIBLE landing today and spun the model, bending the forward gear strut on one side . . . and it was ready to go again within 20 minutes of my getting home.

You'd have to scale it down for a .40 size - I used 1" aluminum tubing for the bases and cut then out with a hacksaw.

Try this ones, I have a 60 size pair.

http://www.maxfordusa.com/hz-40-fiber-floats.aspx

Had a set. Would probably work well for a .40 size but Maxford paired the .60 size with the 83" WS Mentor-G and they were a little short of the mark . . . and when you stopped the tail empennage gradually sank.

I ran mine up on the shore under the Mentor-G after a dead-stick I had stretched out so I wouldn't have to get the boat and about 1/8" of the center chine went away. Split right down the center. But that was float abuse. I should have just landed in the water and rowed.

They are heavy for their length but will work and are water-tight if kept to the water.