With some advice and encouragement from Ralph (Seaplane) I have finished a set of floats and have them mostly ready to go. I originally planned to mount them on a new UltraStick arf, but decided it may be wiser to use an airplane I have flown many times, has a nice broken-in engine, and that I really do not have much of an emotional attachment to anymore. I will not cry if it slams the lake at speed. Things left to do:

1. Balance. Made the plane a bit tail-heavy from the original CG. Won't need much, I will add a bit to the 2 float noses.

2. Fuel/water proof the wooden spreaders and the plywood mounts that I epoxied into the foam cores. Still bare wood.

3. I have one of those Ernst water rudders, still need to attach and rig it to the rudder servo.

4. Hope for beautiful weather and some luck when our club holds it's next float fly in about 3 weeks.

Airplane is a Sig Mid-Star, kinda bashed into a Mid-Stick. Bearing .46 2 stroke. 11X5 MA prop. Clown for a pilot (in more ways than one!)

Float step is exactly 1/2" behind original (and future) CG. With float tops level, have just a bit of positive incidence. Can't measure in degrees, but a level placed on stab shows it to be positive. I left my inclinometer at work, but I am guessing maybe 2 degrees?

Possible problem: Floats are a bit close together, 13" on center, 17.5 measured at the widest outside points. Will need to see how it works, as that is the aluminum gear supplied stock with this airplane, and they are as attached and tweaked as they are going to get for now. They will either work or not.

Any comments / suggestions of course welcomed.

Love the Seaplane forum! Craig - N7OR

Just another view.

This Mid-Star works.

I think I've seen that one on here before. Pretty cool, Jim.

A fellow club member, whose opinion I respect, said my float noses need to be made pointy, to reduce drag. I built these from a Niagara kit, and I thought I shaped the nose blocks how I was supposed to? Too late now. They are exactly the same as a picture on the Niagara web page. The example floats are on a Sig Fazer, and they are pictured in the water, so I reckon they work ok.

Any of you guys think my noses are too blocky? I just want to try float flying at least once, and I really don't want to rebuild these floats again. Or build any more of them, ever again :-)

Thanks.

Pretty similar?

The instructions don't show any example. They just say: "Sand it to shape".

What the heck do I know?

I think they are too blocky. The nose cones were designed to reduce drag as well as keep the spray of the water off the prop. My concern would be that the floats would "dig in" and flip the plane over. With that much drag up front I think the plane will have a tendency to nose forward on take off. That's just my opinion, I've been float flying for about two years and have built two sets of floats.

Now that I think of it. If I were you I would go down to the local hobby shop and buy a couple of balsa blocks and sand them into a shape that would glue to the front of your floats. You could sand the paint off the front of your floats and glue the new nose cones directly on to that. That's a simple fix that would keep you happy.

You have done your homework N7OR....That set up on that plane should fly beautifully...That is if a pilot error doesn't occur....
OK now about the nose block..rsdonomoore is right, just get a couple of balsa blocks, epoxy them to the nose of the floats, sand to shape, and voila... The flat nose probably won't effect the take off, but if have nose down landing it could grab...(that's a big maybe)....

I'll think about it for a week. Thanks for the replies.

I must say that I do not recommend these Niagara/Prentice kits for anyone who has not scratch-built a few pairs of floats already. The instructions leave alot out for you to interpret, and I had no idea what to do. A picture or even a cartoon of the tips would have been helpful. There were other problems along the way. I saw that they were a "kit", and mistakenly bought them. Of course, if you were able to scratch build your own floats from plans in your head, why would you buy these? If you were in an extreme hurry, and did not want to cut the foam, or buy the sheeting yourself at the hobby shop, I guess. It is possible that an inexperienced builder who is smarter than me could build these, I reckon.

Always learn the hard way, that's my motto!

Thanks all, Craig.

Ironsides out of Canada has a real good primer on float flying. Heres the link. webhome.idirect.com/~ironsidez/floats.htm Check it out. Dennis

Sorry, leave the "e" out of "ironsidez". Dennis

Your floats are flyable. As long as the noses of the floats don't get into the water, they won't cause a problem. If they DO go into the water, they will act like a popping lure and throw up the biggest bow wave you ever saw. They should have been rounded up from the bottom of the nose block. Not pointy-but rounded.Other suggestion about adding a block to the front was a good one, too. Certainly you don't have to scrap them and start over.

Taxi with up elevator and judge your height on landing by how far your plane is from its reflection in the water. Flare when landing just like if you were landing on wheels. Keep the nose up.

There is the problem!

I just can not picture in my mind how they will look and then just start sanding them into said shape. The nose blocks were only 1" extensions, so the curve would need to start no more than 1" from the tip, or else I would be sanding through the sheeting on into the foam. Seems like that would cause a radical upswept angle on the bottoms at the tips. I can still re-shape and re-paint the existing blocks, I guess, but I am no artist. I cant whittle or sculpt anything either, my brain just does not function that way.

Hmmmmmmmm........

Here. it should look something like this.

Thank You, Jim.

I could not make that smooth of a transition, exactly. I did re-shape and am in the process of re-painting. I'll post an "AFTER" picture in a little while. I think they will be much better, not perfect, but as good as they are going to get. I'll toss them in the lake and see what happens!

Thanks again for help.

Craig.

P.S.

I COULD have made them like that, IF I had re-shaped the foamcores BEFORE I sheeted them. I only had 1 inch of balsa to work with. I'll get a picture up soon.

Craig, looks like you have all the bases covered, good work! Hope that first flight, and all the rest, goes well............Seaplane

Hi Ralph.
Well, here are the float noses version 2.0
This is the shallowest angle I could get into 1" of length.

These are gonna' have to work, or not!

Thanks everyone.

Last view. Hope next pics are on the water.

Great job N7OR. That looks like fun.

N70R,

Those will work just fine!

Cheers!

Jollidude

Thanks, guys!

I'll post after the club float-fly, and a pic. or 2.

And, as I am the official photo guy for the club, I'll post the link to ALL the pics from the event.

Craig.