I was wondering if the pair of water floats I have will work on snow for my alpha 40? Also will it affect the flight characteristics alot from the extra weight? There not that heavy but will add about a pound or less.

Floats on the Alpha will: 1) Make takeoffs longer (unless there's a nice wind) 2) Landings will be faster 3) It will want to fly level.

Happy Landings!

Floats work great on snow. Rolls and loops are slower, but it's great to be able to get out and fly in the winter.

Floats work very well for flying off snow and floats will work nicely on your trainer for water as well however floats always have an effect on how the airplane flys but the question here is what floats do you have? Exactly how long are they? and how are they mounted or will you be doing that? The installation and orientation is critical to how successful they are flying both off water and just snow pack.

When using floats for snow flying its best you remove the existing water rudder if any. Snow flying can be very rewarding except around here we get the chance rarely perhaps only every few years. Interesting looking out the window this morning its snowing first time in three years, Oh man I gotta get those floats set up now where did I hide them.

John

Floats work well on fresh soft snow, but take quite a beating if the snow has a frozen crust on it. For that kind of snow I much prefer skis. If you haven't already, be sure to balance your plane with the floats on, as the CG will have changed.
Paul

Ok great fellas, I am not sure what kind of floats they are but a friend of mine on this board sent them to me for free, I know they mount where the landing gear mounts, not by replacing the wheel like a snow ski does. Snow and water, floats are the best of both worlds. LOL. I did notice on the RF sim with the J3 cub the floats do make it slower in rolls and land alot faster. Also I noticed it tends to bounce, does that happen in real life?

Sometimes they don't bounce they just straight in. Ask me how I know.

Hi
You do have to be a little careful with mounting the floats. CG has to be kept the same with floats on or off. I think the step should be just a bit forward of he cg but it has been a LONG time since I fooled with floats.

Correct. The step should be just a hair in front of the CG. Also you should have the float at about 1 deg. down from the horizontal stab incident. I fly my kadet 40 on snow and water. Dont forget to take off the rudder for the snow.

Skip thank you for the photos, that really helped me out, I also really like the idea of what you did, how you put fuel line from the exhaust and ran it to the side of the plane to minimize extra fuel all over your plane, VERY good idea, I am going to do that to my alpha 40 as I gets sprayed the hell out of and I am always cleaning it everyday with alcahol and a rag. Also I would assume from the set up that you will not be able to turn on the ground with floats on the snow since I am taking off the rudder, correct?

You get a little turn out of the Vertical Stab, but not enough to taxi much. The rudder will dig into the snow if you leave it on. You won't be able to get the speed to get off the snow. The tubing is vinyl tubing from Home Depot. No sharp corners or it will kink and mess with the engine performance.

Skippy, what floats are those? I won an LT40 ARF last year and have been looking for floats for it. Yours look great!

I picked them up from SigMfg.com

They needed sanding and painting and I had to build the mounting gear. The link below should get you there. If not, go to Sigmfg.com, aircraft accessories, floats. They are the fiberglass set @ $50.00
They do have a rudder with them, but no other hardware.

Mike

http://sigmfg.com/cgi-bin/dpsmart.ex...FV4.html?E+Sig

I put AirCore floats on my trainer and she flew great. They gave it more lift, I had to give more down trim with floats. Takeoffs are EZ and she floats in on landings.