FAQ8: Don't I need a lot more power to fly from water?
It depends:
If you install a nice set of lightweight floats, and rig them properly,
you won't need any more power to fly than with wheels.
There have been a jillion full-size 65hp cubs modified to carry floats and people- and they seem to do all right.
Floats have more frontal area than tires, but they are a lot more
streamlined. They don't cause THAT much more drag. And
remember you are taking the wheels off to add floats, so any increased
weight is only the DIFFERENCE between the wheels and the floats.
If you use a heavy set of floats your plane will be a pig. If you
use a heavy set of floats and a bigger motor, your plane will be a fast
pig. If you use a nice light set of floats and you rig them
improperly, you might have trouble getting airborne. Some goober will
tell you that you need more power. Thank him. He means
well.
Use a light-set of foam-core floats and rig them like in FAQ2, and
you'll be hard pressed to notice a difference in the way the plane
flies.
This
was the Florida Float Flyers' club trainer. A Midwest trainer 60-
with 60-size ply floats. With the ply floats and even with hours
of dremel-tool work it came out at 12 pounds dry weight. We
called it the uranium trainer. 50% denser than lead. Oink.
It did fly but at Wide-open almost always.
Meanwhile this Telemaster came out at
10 pounds, and it was a bigger plane. A floater. Another
floater was this Kadet Senior with a .45.
Either would take off in a few feet, and cruise around at just over idle.
