I am thinking of building the hostetler J-3 and putting his floats on it. He also offers a set of retracts for the floats. Has anyone had any experience with these.

http://www.aero-sports.com/whplans/floats.html

Racer,
I am at the same point. I have received the plans and found a good local laser cutter who also is a well known scale builder.

I tried to e-mail to the address given on Wendell's website for details of the scale retracts but the e-mail bounced.

Wendell sent me these details to try:
"wdeverna@buckeye-express and darrellcnc for the gear."

I haven't tried to contact them yet. Maybe you could post here if you find out details

Wow! thanks for the posts! perfect timing.

I am in the process of trying to build a set-up similar to this, from scratch. To fit my 8 ft. Unionville turbo Beaver.
So I can fly it half the time off of water and 1/2 time off of land, without having to change landing gear all the time.

I plan on using a pulley and cable setup to flip my front wheels up over the top, (220 deg.)and lay em on top the floats when not in use. (like the real things).

the rear wheels will do a swing down 95 degrees and lock.

When the wheels are lowered a small cable should pull the retractable water rudders, up out of the way.

However. I am still a little puzzled in trying to figure out exactly where to place the rear wheels. and maximum size (wheel
and pocket), I can use?

I don't want em too heavy and I don't want to upset the balance too much either.

I can move the servo's ahead as far as possible to help with the balance.

I'm open to ANY and ALL ideas, links and info to anything related to this adventure.

thanks.
Smoky.

The nose gear units puzzle me a little bit. I studied a full size Piper Cub at Oskhosh (wipline floats) one year with retractable wheels. It seems the nosegear unit rotates forward approximately 90 degrees and then slides back into the float. I couldn't see the device that locked the gear down on the nose and they appear to fully caster. The steering on the plane would then the done by brakes.

Making the floats and retracts water proof and being able to fly off the water and land with the same float will be a challenge but worth doing.

Fred,

I admit I haven't studied the drawings all that carefully but it's hard to see how exactly this is supposed to work.
I guess it will all come clear when I start cutting the pieces and putting together.

My dad worked at the Whipline float factory... just thought i'd mention that...

Some pictures that may or may not help you out: Front gear