left seat

I am currantly putting floats on my 1/4 scale Taylorcraft. The way I understand the plans for the floats ( Sig floats ) I have followed the instructions but these floats were intended for a 1/4 scale cub and the cub is narrower than the Taylorcraft. So I have had to make my own wire supports. However, the floats, if I install them this way, look too far apart. I have a Piper cub on floats, which I built, and has only a 72 in wing span and from this plane, even thoe smaller, by comparison, the float distance apart doesn't look right. What should the correct distance be? Should I base it on a percentage of the fusalage at its widest point? Any ideas?

Desertlakesflying

My Feedback: (28)

The floats should be 18% to 25% of the wingspan wide. 18% is scale, 25% is sport. Take your pick of anything in between. The floats should be 75% of the length from prop washer to rearmost part of rudder. The step should be on or not more than a 1/4 inch behind the CG. The floats should be dead level to the horizontal stabilizer, not the wing. Follow these tips and you will have great success.

jrf

My Feedback: (551)

"desertlakesflying" is 100% correct, particularly about the incidence of the floats. And you will find that the 25% spacing makes the model a lot less likely to turn turtle in a cross wind taxi.

On a model with significant downthrust in the engine (2* or more), in order to prevent the floats from "plowing", I have had best results with the step slightly ahead of the CG.