chistech

I have the older fabric covered 1/4 scale super cub. It's powered with a Saito 1.50 and has plenty of power. I justed picked up a set of Balsa USA floats (45" ) that seem to scale out right by the formula for this plane. I am curious if anyone has this plane on floats and what was used for the struts and attachments. My cub has Dural type aluminum gear with the wing strut mounted to it. I want to remove the stock landing gear which would neccessitate the making of a aluminum bracket for the wing strut mounts as I would like to put a scale looking float mount on it. I do not want pay crazy money for struts and mounts though. I have thought about buying the complete mounting system for the H9 fibreglass floats. Total would be less than $100. I think that would be the cheapest and best looking option.

JimCasey

My Feedback: (1)

Take a look at the Seacommander Floats website. http://www.seacommander.com/index.asp
There is reference material there.

Also Google "Brown's Seaplane Base" and hit the picture gallery. They have a squadron of cubs on floats and the pics are nice documentation.

Grab an armload of K&S airfoiled tubing and some sheet aluminum, and start fabricating.

Wayne22

My Feedback: (2)

The H9 super cub flies very very nicely on floats....

The Balsa USA floats come with struts and mounting hardware...or did you get an incomplete set...

chistech

I bought an old set off Ebay. They are not the new "EDO" foats that they now sell. I have not recieved them yet. They should be here sometime this coming week. They are still in unbuilt kit form. Here is the link: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...3AIT&viewitem=
It appears they use a dowel inserted in brass bushings to space the floats apart.

Wayne22

My Feedback: (2)

Hmmmm... never heard of those ones....

The H9 float hardware is all stainless steel and aluminum, very nice stuff. If you can get it for $100 it is a good deal..their floats, however, need some serious work....

The Super cub I saw had a G-26 or possibly a G-38. On floats it was really stable and could fly quite slowly. The guy would do real tight circles and touch and goes in right in front of himself all at an incredibly slow speed.... I had one, but sold it unbuilt as I ended up with 3 quarter scale cubs at that time....

chistech

Thanks for all the info. I ordered the H9 hardware. I get good pricing from my LHS and all of it is going to cost me about $90 total! I agree on the H9 floats. I had a chance to buy them for a lot less than list and wouldn't. Paper thin and they crack from the slightest thing. I will built the Balsa USA floats with all the new hardware so I can do the proper reinforcements for the mounts. My SC has the Saito 1.50 and it will fly with just 1/4 throttle. I can slow it down with flaps so that you can literally slow jog alongside it. I couple ailerons and rudder of course and it's just a joy to fly. If I use full throttle for take off it does in about 12-15' so I don't think I'll have any problem with the floats. I have a few old timers in my club that have been flying float planes for years and the have access to a private pond used for cranberry bog irrigation. One flyer is Walter Witkos and the other is John Nicolaci. John is famous for his all hand made, foam, PBM Mariner. He has been flying it for about 30+ years now! They are glad some of us "younger" guys are going to keep up the water flying in our area. It is great to be able to fly with guys like this.

chistech

I recieved my Balsa USA floats from eBay. Well the ad said might be something missing. It appears all the die cut bulk heads including the 1/8 ply ones are among the missing. The guy I bought them from was cool though and I got everything else to complete the floats for $21.00, half the original price paid. The amount of balsa in the box was definetly worth it. I called Balsa USA to inquire if they had any info on these floats. They told me that these floats are from the 70's and they had no drawings of the missing bulk heads. Working with the plans I was able to measure up each bulk head and I drew them out. My buddy and I took the drawings, put them to 1/8th balsa and ply, and cut them out. We have started assembly and the floats are coming out really nice. We have them framed out and have started building the strut boxes. I will take some pictures and post. The H9 hardware is really nicely made and cost me less than $80.00! I ordered only one water rudder and they goofed and put two units in the package. That saved me about $12.00 I have really been enjoying putting these together. I have been putting so many ARF's together for customers, I forgot how rewarding stick building is. I've got a few old kits of my own that I might start putting together. I do however, own a couple ARF warbirds to put together also. Decisions, Decisions!

Wayne22

My Feedback: (2)

I just inspected a pair of H9 floats today, and they have improved drastically from the set I got..the fg is much thicker now.....

teryn1

My Feedback: (77)

For the H9 Floats, I put Gorilla tape on the bottom to hold things together and protect the bottom (thin and breaks/cracks easily). Does any know a paint match for these? The closest I can find is X-O Rust (XO-10 Aluminum). It is pretty close but is a high gloss ....need satin.

Thanks,
Teryn