jgswartout(at)gmail.com
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 Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 9:17 am Post subject: Float Update? |
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Dear Bill,
You have some more float time on your Full Lotus floats now, and I have a few questions. I've got my new 10 ft. horizontal tail about done, and so I'm back to looking at the firewall/cabin area to make sure there will be a good strut attach arrangement before I hang the engine for (hopefully) the last time.
Regarding the way the struts are attached to the floats, it looks like you attached the struts at the center stiffener tube. The CZAW plans show the Zenair floats cantilevered outboard of the strut fittings, with the float centers spaced 2.00m apart. Did you keep that same spacing between floats?, which would either splay the angle of the struts to the fuselage centerline, or require longer struts. Or did you keep the strut lengths and angles the same, thus moving the floats closer together? (I know you initially set the reference line/float top angle at around 7 degrees, which would lengthen the forward struts about 4", all else being equal.)
What is the diameter of the stiffener tubes? I couldn't find it on the Full Lotus website, and don't know if it's greater than the diameter of the tubes in the 1450 or 1650 floats. A guy who has mounted over 40 airplanes on floats, including some Full Lotus installations, told me that these bigger planes on longer Full Lotus floats should really use an "M" strut pattern rather than an "N" pattern, to get the forward strut farther forward and the aft strut farther aft on the float, minimizing the unsupported fore- and aft sections of the floats and thereby minimizing flexing of the stiffener tubes. There is a picture of a Murphy Rebel using this arrangement at www.lightsportaircraft.ca/murphy-rebel-pilotreport.html. Have you found a lack of stiffness in the floats to be a problem using the "N" pattern?
Finally, have you found a satisfactory fix for the forward top strut attachment issue?
Thanks.
John
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