I put SEA COMMANDER 46" floats under the HANGAR 9 1/5 Piper Cub, with the SAITO 60FS Twin and have flown it for only about 15 minutes TOTAL.
The advise I require concerns WHERE ? does one fly these float planes....
First and only flight was done from a water runway in one of the local clubs. This is not a good location, since there is no real space over which to operate ; tall trees too close, and building and parking lot also too close. Besides, $200 for membership is way too steep to use just one plane.
I do not own a boat, nor do I know of anyone who does. This prevents me from just showing up at a lake and trying to fly, considering the I may wind up dead in the water and unable to retrieve. I choose not to ask any bystander with a boat to help if needing to retrieve, for obvious and numerous reasons.
All of this has put me in a strange position. HOW DO YOU GENTLEMAN SOLVE THE FLYING ON WATER QUESTIONS ?
Rick

Generally, the first three rules of float flying are: (1) you need a boat. (2), (3), See rule 1

You are right. If the engine quits, you need a boat to go get it.
You don't need a BIG boat. A canoe or a jon-boat is adequate. Even an inflatable will do. But just like whenever you drop a piece of toast it will invariably land jelly-side down: Even on a small pond the plane will drift to an inaccessible part of the shoreline.

The only exceptions are small ponds with brush-free banks.
These would either be stock tanks dug by farmers to provide water for the cattle, or water hazards on golf courses. Golf-courses have their own hazards: Strategically planted trees, and Dilettantes with funny shoes and nasty tempers. Pastures only have murderous 3000# bulls. I can deal with cattle, but golfers are beyond my abilities to reason with. My club's former field was adjacent to a golf course, and there was no end to the whining and crying whenever anybody let his plane get a little over the line.

Jim is right - you must have a boat - and safety jacket - the only thing better than a boat is a boat with a 'go-fer' in it ! Definitely, do not fly alone - do you have crocs in Houston, Tx ?
Enjoy ! MalcolmL

Just getting back in to float flying after not doing it for 15 years,
I agree, never go it alone!!!! Had a friend in the past even try swimming out for a dead plane that he thought was closer than it really was. (against the advise of others). we had to go in after him cause he couldnt make it back under his own steam. NEVER swim for it!!
In answer to your question, Back then, we flew in a cove where the water was smoother and used an RC electric boat of good size, rigged with spring loaded hooks on the back end as a retreaval boat. we would pull the RC boat along side of the airplane hooking it as the boat past and just tow it back to shore.
If the plane was way out there, then we used real boat...The RC boat was much more fun than using the paddles

P.S. I was Kinda Having the same problem not knowing anyone who flies on floats in my area (Las Vegas)or where exactly...
I started a new thread asking if anyone was flying in my area... it took a little while but Got two responces so far. Hoping to get together with these guys soon, Start a new thread, a city that big has got to have others with your same interest....

As I live in florida there is an abundance of water all around. Every time a new store is built or a new developement is put in there are all kinds of retention ponds of all good sizes dug.... As for our club, we have a nice manicured 150' x 650' (mostly burmuda grass) grass strip for our runway and 25' from the north edge of the strip is another runway of water of the same exact size. you can't get much luckier than that (no TREES). I guess what I'm sayin is that it all about location..
Sorry if I made ya feel bad. As a floridian we do like too gloat about the easy way of life in paradise....

Yep, here in FL, we have lots of water....and it's a liquid even in January. 'Bout half the time when we look into the lake there's something looking back-so swimming for a downed plane is WAY down on the list of possible options. My club keeps a long hooked pole on hand, and a spinning rod with a weighted streamlined float that we can cast WAAY out. We sometimes keep an R/C boat around so we can pull out the line from the spinning reel and loop around the plane even farther out. But about half the time, the plane winds up in a place that requires manipulation or brute force to retrieve it. The moral of this story: Always have a man-carrying boat on hand. It'll work EVERY time. ANything else is a maybe.

FLOATS ARE A BIG HASSLE ! ( at least for me)......so the float PiperCub with the gorgeous SeaCommanders under it is UP FOR SALE in a local Hobby Shop. I tried it, and it didn't work for me.
RICK

Aww Barrick! I'm sad to lose you.
It's important to find the right place to fly.
I can't think of a good site in Houston, Either. All the ponds I know of in the area were made with a bulldozer, and had a fountain in the middle.

Barrrick - quitting - that's a shame ! You're the first I've heard of in 25 years of float flying who has quit. What's the big hassle ?

Is it lugging around a model with those extra appendages hanging down below ? Or some problems at the pond / lake / water site ?

Yes, it IS a bit different from wheely flying - and that difference is what seems to attract - the bow waves off the floats when taxiing, the takeoffs into winds of any direction, the low flyby's with water streaming off the floats, the kiss sound of the floats as they touch down on the surface ............... where's the hassle ? Oh yes, the deadsticks, the nose-ins, the holed floats (those danged alligators again !), the water turns in cross winds, the flip-overs .......... but don't you ever have any problems with wheelies too ?

Come on, keep at it - maybe you need to start again with something non-scale and not too big so you can have FUN !

BOL MalcolmL

Hi plane loco

Where do you fly floats in the LV area ? I'm planning to be there again later this year and have a Flyin' King with floats which flew at Lake Havasu 2/3 years ago. Before going to Havasu with it, I test flew it at a site on Lake Mead which has a big, sloping car park right by the shore.

Best MalcolmL

Malcolm
Ray Smith is trying to arrange for Mike to come to our April 19 fly-in. Will you be coming, too? We timed it to be sandwiched between Sun&Fun (full-size fly-in) and Top Gun (Model scale meet)

You don't necessarily need a boat. They sell these wading floats in fishing catalogs. They are an inner tube type float with waders and fins built in. It will fold up and fit anywhere. They work great.

Jim - sorry - no, I won't be able to come to your float fly as I have family visiting at that time. Have fun though. MalcolmL

Ilike2fly:
No, you don't always need a boat. As I said in previous posts, sometimes we use lots of other tricks to keep from having to load the gear in the boat. But a boat will always get to a plane that can be gotten to, even when we have to stand in the bow with a chainsaw. All the other stuff is much more limited.

Your floating waders are another tool to have handy.

To summarize my philosophy: Be sure you have a boat. Then you can supplement it with all sorts of clever alternates.