I recently finished a Hanger 9 1/4 scale cub on floats. Last weekend, I went to my first float fly. The plane flew great. Take offs and landings were a breeze. It is a very nice airplane to fly off of the water. BUT, I have a problem. When cleaning up the model, I noticed that there is a broken spot on both floats about 8" forward of the step. One float had taken on water. The bottom of the floats are very thin and probably too weak. I contacted another flyer that was there with H-9 floats and he has the same thing. I was wondering if anyone else with these floats is having this happen. I have contacted Horizon, but have had no reply as of yet.

I'd go ahead and fiberglass them. I bought Sea Commanders for my 80" KMP Husky.

Having Horizon make things good would be best, But you'd even want to make sure the new set of floats doesn't have the same weak spot.

I would be very tempted to sheet from the step forward about 4" (Being sure to cover the weak spot, back to the step) with 1/16 ply. (sand the bottom and epoxy the ply in place, with a lot of masking tape to hold it while it sets. With V-bottom floats cover one side at the time, then dress the joint for a good overlap.

After the ply, wrap on a layer of 3/4 oz glass cloth and go around the edge 3/4" or so. Epoxy this, and the masking tape trick will probably help here, too. My glass cloth jobs always seem to want to bubble at the corners. Automotive spot putty will help fair in the edges. Put on a thin coat of epoxy to shine it up, then spray-paint to match.

Whenever possible, I recommend that flyers use foam-core floats just for this reason. They >Can't< leak-well, not enough to affect your flying. I smashed into a rock with mine one day-put packing tape over the dinks, and kept flying. I did a proper repair when I got home, but with hollow floats it would have been the end of flying for the day.

Horizon has replied to my friend's phone call saying to send them back for credit to his account. This may be fine, but he won't have any floats. I am going to repair mine. I am going to strip off the bottom forward of the step all the way to the chine and add some stringers. Then cover with ply, epoxying the whole inside while applying. Then glassing the outside. I will add foam too just in case. I found some foam for sealing windows that comes in an aerosol can. It doesn't expand to the point of making pressure and won't hurt the floats. Probably won't add 2 oz. While repairing the bottom, I might as well go through the entire float to clean up the detail. These are really nice looking floats, almost as good as Sea Commanders, so spending the extra time will be worth it.

J.

I just picked up a pair of H9 quarter scale floats and was wondering the same thing...the stainless steel hardware is fabulous, but the fibreglass on the hull is very thin...I was wondering how they would stand up under use...I guess I have my answer......

JGrav, did you remove the fiberglass skin from the bottom of the floats, or just build up on top of them?

I am building an 8 foot Telemaster that I would like to put on floats. Can anyone direct me to a company that has plans or floats large enough for this model?? Thanks guys. Mark.

Sig, Great Planes, Balsa USA come to mind...

Wayne, thanks. As I read through more of these thread listings I came across this web site. It offers lots of ideas and more reading then I have time for tonight. Sounds interesting: http://www.smilesandwags.com/Floats.html

46Marcus: I flew a SrTele for years on floats. I Used floats extremely similar to those from PlaneFunFloats.
The ones from Seaplane Supply are also good.
I used floats that were 45" long. My tele weighed 10 pounds with floats and an empty tank. OS.91 four-stroke.

Both the sources mentioned supply floats with a solid styrofoam core. Very light, very strong, very efficient, and they CAN'T leak.

Other post mentioned several suppliers of floats and all those were hollow, plywood floats. They tend to be at least twice as heavy and when they leak (not IF!) they can hold a lot of water. If the water sloshes around your CG will change with it. If only a teaspoon or 2, then it'll be just enough water to feed a science project inside the floats. (Ick!)

anybody have the paint color for these floats?