This may not be the correct forum for my question, but I'll start here. Our club is in the process of developing a new field. In addition to grass and concrete runways, we are going to begin digging a pond for float planes. Our present plan is 400' X 50' by 1'deep. I would appreciate any input on whether or not this will be adequate.

Make it deeper wider and longer.

Yup, you might get by chincing on the deep part but unless you are the National Spot Landing Champion, you can never have enough surface area. The consequences of overshooting or missing the bull's-eye are breakage. Plus, float planes are notorious for hooking on either take-off or landing and you will quickly find yourself pointing in a different direction than you started.

It would be easier to build a runway next to a lake rather than the other way around.

400' long is not overly generous, but will work in many cases. However, 400' wide would be a much better idea.

When you get a crosswind, 50 feet would be challenging for landing. Every time I was in Houston, it was windy. 1' deep means that you'll expose the bottom whenever there's a dry spell.

Taking off is not the problem. you can start really close to the bank. Landing takes some space. Some airplanes just like to sail along forever in surface effect.

ALL the REAL pilots put a epoxy coating or clear adhesive plasticsheet on the bottom for those times when you HAVE to land in a lot stronger wind than you took off in.

Land on the GRASS area ANYTIME. Different but it works. For my China Clipper flying boat.

High legged float plane.? Not to sure even with fast flat landing.

>>Real<< Pilots can land where they intend to land.
(insert sound of Tim Allen making macho grunting noise)

I would think 300X75 would be better in most cases, Depends a lot on what you are planning on flying. Asuming your club can stand the thought, it might make $$ sense to make it big enough for some boat races and increase the membership, and or rend the pond to another club. At least around here, it's getting hard to find a place that will allow loud boats.

Thanks for your input. We have modified plan to increase the length to 500' long and 75' wide. However increasing the water depth beyond 1' isn't fesable.

thanks

Just curious. Is the pond going to be concrete or is it going to be lined with a plastic of sorts?

Lupy,

loud boats wouldn't be a problem. The site is a 20 acre dry bottom retention basin and the nearest residential area is more than 2 miles away. It is also adjacent to a light industrial area and a drinking water resivoir. No chance of any residential areas ever be built any closer than about 1 1/2 miles.

Interesting though, even though the Houston area has a lot water around there soes not seem to be a lot of model boating. Maybe I'm just not aware of it.

Sebo,

Initially the pond will just have a clay bottom. when we have finished the development of the "land based" field, we'll see how much money we have left. Concrete is out of the question $$$$ so we will probably go with a 35 mil polyethylene liner. That will have to wait a while probably.

wvarn1957,

wvarn1957,

What side of Houston will y'all be building your pond?

H5487
Houston - West side

5487,

The field is located near the intersection of Red Bluff Road and Genoa-Red Bluff Road in Pasadena.

That's close to where I work (LaPorte.)

why cant you go deeper than 1foot?