Well were having a float fly sunday, and I pulled out the old aircore floats that were on my us aircore plane (only flew once, crashed in water, basically what ended me from flying for a while)
so here is the deal......

I can't find the instructions and don't know exactly how to mount them...

Heres what I've done
In the aircore instructions (when I had them) I rem them saying for quick attach you can use rubber bands from the wingdowels to hold them on so here is what i"ve done on my xtra easy arf...

I've aligned the "gear" to where it is even under the wing saddle, I then used the 2 screws holding the "regular" main gear on to go through the aircore material and into thier original mounting holes.....
I then took 5 rubber bands each and did this, I took two and opened them up and put the gear through and then stretched it up to the wing dowels (some tention but not alot) I then took 3 and hooked onto the wing dowels, pulled them down, around/over the gear then back up the same wing dowel (good amount of tention but not enough to break the bands if force is applied) these 3 are put on the same as a wing would...
I did this for each holdown/gear so thier is a total of 20 rubber bands holding them on....

Now for mounting the floats to the gear, I have the parallel with some slight toe in but heres the catch, the step is about two inches behind the CG? Is this correct? The model balances perfectly level with them like this, but when you set it down on the ground it tends to rest on the front of the float..
is this right?

Thanks!
Jeremy

Jeremy The floats should be parallel to the center line of the aircraft without toe-in this can cause water looping problems.

Your CG is to far forward on that airplane the cg needs to be from at and more preferably no more than a quarter inch forward of the step (cg should never be positioned behind the step). Two inchs forward will make it extremely difficult to get of the water and if you do succeed it will pop off in a near stall attitude, not good.

When converting always check known cg on wheels that works well then mount floats with step where it needs to be in relationship to that known cg and last rebalence after the floats are installed back to that original CG.

John

do you think this is suffiecient for holding them on?
I'm wanting to just be able to take off fly and land, no areobatics...

(kind of a grudge match against this lake)
last time when attemting to fly of water I flipped it before takeoff it nosed over straight into the water (prob. because of the toe in wich if I rem correctly I did on the advice of another)..

The servos got some water in them and once I finally did take of the thing went nuts and full powered into the water, this is what took me out of flying...
I haven't "preped" the plane any (sealed the electronics, sho goed the wing saddle or anything) what should I do?
Also I don't even know if on my arf if the firewall is fuel proofed..??
here are some pics..

couple more q's
what do you mean "known cq at wheels"?
its a tricycle gear setup..
plus any tips for takeoff landing, etc?
also I've heard about setting the incidence of the floats but with these there is really no way to adjust it

as you can see from the previous picture I can move the landing gear back on the floats some more..

in the previous picture those are the only two bolts going through the floats, not really there to "hold" them on but kinda align them better and keep them aligned...
here is a side show,
comment/advise away...

oops forgot the pic

Without being there it's hard to know if the attachment is adequate. Large washers under the screws might help.

Having just recently begun flying off floats I can say it is quite easy but even if it's calm and things are done right the floats still take some beating. Water does provide some resistance even if you just touch it initally on landing. I was surprised though at how relaxing it can be when you have a LARGE runway and no trees to avoid on final.

The step, up to 1 inch behind the CG, is OK but the 1/4 inch mentioned is probably ideal. I know I stirred up a little water on my initial run ups and having the step more forward would have eliminated some of it.

You still have to keep the CG in the right region relative to leading edge of the wing, so that has to be checked. It changed- you put floats on.

Jeremy, John is right on with the CG and Step. You're mounting looks like it might work. Like 4*60 said, it's hard to tell without being there. If your there on Saturday we can take a look or Pat or any of the guys can help you out.

Are you coming only on Sunday? I'll be there Saturday with my Schweizer 300 on Helimax floats. I've never balanced it on the floats on water so I'll have to tinker a little.

I get off work at 4:00 sat. so I might stop by...
I live right above the lake. : )
takes me approz 60 seconds to get there...
I'll bring my plane down but I doubt I will fly it then, I will be there early sunday to fly though!

Jeremy, I may have misphrased a bit. All I meant was your goal should be to have the CG in the same place as it is when flown on wheels after you have installed the floats and the step needs to be that 1/4 inch behind the CG. Many installations require lead forward when floats are installed and for a quick one time outing you can just hammer some lead flat and glue it to the bows of the floats on top.

Your installation I know is what aircore uses but the airplane does not appear to be an aircore and the front rubbers look as though they angle in. What can happen here is the struts if they are not keyed in some way side load on landing which can and will happen will slide the front one sideways and cause those angled in rubbers to pop off and the result will be another wet airplane. If you use the rubber bands do key the struts so they are not free to slide sideways or fore and aft.

Another easy way to do it that is not difficult and much better is to simply cut some eighth inch ply about and inch wide and the length of the inside of the fuse to just snugg up aginst the sides. Epoxy that thing in there to the bottom and just epoxy some tristock from that to the fuse sides then just bolt those struts on with bolts and blind nuts and use a big old washer made of wood or smething where the bolt goes through the corroplast. This is important for another reason and that is there is another important factor that you have not mentioned. It is neccessary to have the wing incidence in relationship to the top deck of the floats about +2 to +4 degrees. In other words the bottom of the wing should not be parallel to the top deck of the floats, the leading edge should up a little compared to the top deck. When the airplane is floating in the hot tub or the kids wadding pool the tail should be slightly low. Now for the best part of bolting those struts on if you use long bolts and do not cut them you can very easily adjust this angle even at the lake if need be buy cutting some thin ply spacers that you install between the fuse and the struts front or rear what ever the case may be. I always carry stacks of these spacers for my airplanes when I attend a float fly.

Jeremy float flying is not hard and can be quite euphoric do attend your event and get Joss Stick and others to help you and you won,t regreat it. When its all over and everybody is on a high you and Joss Stick go out and have a pizza on me (please no anchovies).



John

K thanks for the info!

as right now with the float mounted to far rearward the cg is dead on where it should be (on the wing)
the plane balances perfectly level with the floats as they are on now...

so when I move them forward they should automatically make the plane nose heavy..

As far as the bolts, thats what I was trying to prevent, this is only a "temp" float plane, didn't really want to put holes in this plane thats why I used the two factory landing gear bolts in the bottom...
I've got a pt40 that needs finishing and before its done were gonna put some ply along the bottom so I can use it as my float plane from now on!

After looking at the aircore floats more the incidence is pre set, the rear gear are slightly longer than the front automatically adding in positive incidence!
thanks guy! and wish me luck!
Jeremy

Well its done, I moved the floats forward a little...
Probably still a little to far back...
WHen I measured before moving the step was about 1/4" behind the CG after mounting it looks more like 1/2" to an inch...
I'm gonna re-check tomorrow!

As far as the toe in and toe out, they are 18" apart all the way back from tip to tail!
so hopefull it will work.....
I took 2 surgical gloves and put the battery in one and rubber banded the glove around the lead....
for the reciever I poked holes in the fingers and ran ther servos leads/battery leads through it...
Then the ant and the aileron extensin comes out the base of the hand..
WIll it hurt anything the ant being that close to the aileron ext.??

Also the powder in the gloves kinda got on the servo plugs a little.. Think this will hurt anything either?? I thought they were plain latex but I guess they were powdered...

Wish me luck sunday guys!!

You have now done more than I have done. I figure if they're going to get wet, so be it.

Let us know how it goes.

I met Jeremy today (Saturday) at the float fly and saw his plane. It looked good. I think it will be OK but I reckon the proof is in the puddin. He shold post something tomorrow afternoon.

Good to meet you, Jeremy. To bad you missed the pizza! It was deeee-lish!!

Jeremy,
I have an article from Sept 2000 MAN I will e-mail if you would like to have a copy.
Let me know ..e-mail in profile.
GEF


The sweetest words I can hear at the end of a beautiful approach just prior to touch down....HEY STUPID YOUR UPSIDE DOWN.....Damn Dyslexia!!

On second thought the darn thing is 6 pages, how about I xerox and snail mail to you? let me know.
BTW how did Sunday go?

Well the float fly went absolutely perfect!

I LOVED IT!!!

the plane flew perfect off the water!

I've got some video from my camera I could put on the web if someone will tell me how I can get them hosted!
I'm gonna take some "pics" of the video and post them!

here is some pics from the float fly of me flying and my plane

me taking off

just so you know thats not me in the phots, there were some kids there watching us fly..

and the final take off picture

I think I might have had the step just a tad to far back still...
on the ground it wanted to set on the front of the floats but in the water it set level (slightly nose down with a full tank)

I had to keep up elevator on it cause if I didn't it would "nose in" the water..

my landings were great!
The guys said I was extremly smooth on my landings, all I can say is I LOVE IT!
I did touch and goes all day, I think from now on out I'm gonna setup every plane to be flown of floats too!