HI I have a pair of FLOATS that are 10 ft, 6 inches long and want to make my Quicksilver MX Sprint into a float plane. Will it work or are the floats too short? Thanks
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HI I have a pair of FLOATS that are 10 ft, 6 inches long and want to make my Quicksilver MX Sprint into a float plane. Will it work or are the floats too short? Thanks
The Fly Baby community says, "Go for it!"Quote:
Originally Posted by Pineries Air
http://www.bowersflybaby.com/pix/pete_floats.jpg
Kidding aside, what you need to find out is the rated displacement for those floats...the actual sizes come into it later. The displacement is how much weight the float is designed to support; it should be on a data label somewhere.
A good guide is 14CFR 23.751, the FAA Airworthiness Standard for main float buoyancy for certified airplanes. The FAA requires that each float have an excess capacity of 80 percent. So if your plane has a gross weight of 500 pounds, each float must be rated for 500/2+ (500/2)*0.80, or 450 pounds.
This is the requirement for certified airplanes; Part 23 doesn't apply to your Quicksilver, but it's still probably a pretty good engineering guideline.
I looked through my old copy of the ASTM standards for Light Sport and didn't see any mention of float displacement.
The other aspect is the positioning of the center of flotation for the pair of floats. That's what happened in the above photo; the floats in use were properly sized, but were installed a bit too far aft.
Best bet would be to find some other Quicksilvers with float installation and copy their geometry.
Ron Wanttaja
Thanks Ron: I guess I will do allot of research on this,,thanks for you help
Call Bever Borne at Air-Tech. Has more float experience with Quicksilvers (all models) than anybody. He'll be able to tell you both if they will work and how to mount them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pineries Air
(I suspect they will work. There is nothing lighter than an MX Sprint. So they were either made for it or something larger.). Can you post some pictures of them. Especially the mounting points and the tops of the floats. May be able to tell you what they are by looking at them if they were made for an ultralight. (Fun Floats, Sealords, Key West floats, ect.)
-Buzz
HI Buzz. I sent an email to Bever and he said they might be too small. Think I will sell them and come up with a better idea.
THANK