Attached below is a picture of my StickLikeThing (SLT for short) floatplane.

The plane began life 15 years ago as a highly modified Midwest 20 size 'Stick' kit. I began by clipping the wing and adding different tip and aileron shapes. It is also flat with no dihedral.
The original fuse was a scratch built fuse with a standard configuration tail. I built the floats in the picture to match the plane.

Forward 13 years later (2 years ago), all the water and crashes through the years (it sees most of its duty on wheels and a grass runway), and the tail and landing gear mounts were starting to get ragged. I built the new red t-tailed fuse for it to eliminate the water logging problem in the tail. I also increased the rudder area, and the elevator area. The new plane was much lighter than the original.

It flies on standard size radio gear, an OS .28 engine, and really rips. With the floats on it, it will climb vertically, does prop hangs and is extremly aerobatic (spins are fun to watch too).

The floats have been rebuilt and recovered twice. It readly pops up on the floats with any application of power.

Now the bad news..... On my recent trip to the lake, I scattered the floats across the lake when I tried a prop hang too close to the water surface. The airplane was unhurt.....

I am currently cad'ing out the floats so I can build a new set before our club's potential upcoming float fly.

I hope ya'll like it...

Here is a pic from the side.....

Thats a lovely little ship Matchless. Noticed you used a rather deep step and probably a good idea. Did you really 'feel the need' for the extra vertical fin area or is that to just see if we are awake?

John

When and where is the potential upcoming float fly??

Yeah, actually I did.

The original standard config tail needed the extra fins on the floats to keep it stable on landing (it would wallow some), and it had a huge vertical/rudder.

When I made the new fuse, I left the fins on the floats, and built the new one as a t-tail (which increases vertical effectiveness) and I increased the area once again by about 25%. The plane really flies like it is on rails and will do the full pattern(despite its pilot ) even on floats.

This float set-up was refined over time. I definitely like the deep step, as it allows a good rotation off the water.

We don't have a location nailed down yet (thats all that is holding us back) for the float fly, but it is looking like it will be in northern Shelby County(we are talking with a landowner that allows an RC boat club to run on his lake fairly often). I am hopeful that the event will be in early October/late September. I would love to fly my MudBug off water in front of my fellow clubmembers.

Please post the event when it's firmed up. I've been itching to try floats. We're landlocked and there's only 1 float flier in my club. I'm a little afraid to try it without some coaching. I bought a 2nd Pizzaz to put on logs for the experiment.

Do you have any "ARF" float recommendations?? I've read up on proper sizing and placement of the floats. I don't know which brand or type of floats are good.

I think I said "float/s" too many times....

Would an ARF float mean it's A-lmost R-eady to F-loat???