Carolina Raptor

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Looking at some floats for my ARF. One of the guys at our field is using what appears to be the floats from www.espritmodel.com.

Anyone else use using these floats? Comments?

I'm wanting to put them on a GP C182.

Carolina Raptor

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one pic

JimCasey

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They appear to be ZeeDoo floats. These wer once offered by HobbyLobby. Fiberglass, Very slick. Good floats if you can keep the water out.

Not that there is a particular leakage problem, just all "empty" floats tend to become "full". That's why I use foam floats, but it's a matter of personal preference.

If they're not ZeeDoos they mayt be the new Sig smooth floats.

Carolina Raptor

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What about filling them with some of the "Stuff" foam you can by that expands??? Just an idea.. You know, the stuff you buy at home depot or lowes for filling cracks etc around your home..

JimCasey

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I tried using "Great Stuff" foam with an R/C boat once, and it expanded enough to distort the (plastic) hull.

Don't worry about the floats. You'll be fine. Fly 'em until you notice water in them.

You might want to put a drain hole and plug in them, like boats have. My friend Ray had some zeedoo floats and put the drain hole in the nose. he glued a nut over the drain hole, and soldered a ring to the screw he used for a plug. They looked like mooring rings.

Carolina Raptor

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I think they are suppose to have different versions of "stuff" to prevent damage, or so I thought.

viper21

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Hi Carolina, how do those Esprit floats work out. Do the come up on step pretty easy and how about getting them unstuck? Do they fly off the water without any problems? I have an EZ Super Decathlon that I want to put on floats and it will have a new OS 91 Surpass in it so I will have plenty of power. I did buy a set of the Great Planes 40 size floats for it or I was considering building some sullivan foam floats but they are allot of work to make them look good. I used to sheet them with 1/16 balsa and glass them with 3/4 ounce cloth on top and 2 ounce on the bottom. But I would rather get some arf floats. I would love a set of the old EZ 40 size floats but I cant find them. They where very nice and came with all the hardware to install them.
Thanks Joe

Carolina Raptor

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I don't have a pair yet, but I have heard no complaints from the guy that has them.

racer-RCU

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I live in charlotte to. Do you fly at the huntersville field. If you do are you talking about Terry who has them on his sig Rascal 40. Great Great floats. didn't even need a water rudder. took off from grass better than it did on wheels.

Carolina Raptor

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yep those are the ones.. and yes I fly there too.

racer-RCU

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What's your name and what planes do you have? I might know who you are. I am the teenager that hangs out with Terry.

racer-RCU

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By the way those floats can be purchased from Horizon Hobby. Right now they are out of stock, and they only cost 55 dollars unlike the 70 or 80 like esprit wants. I'm going to get a set for my rascal too!

Carolina Raptor

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Thanks for that tip, $55 sounds much more better

Carolina Raptor

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Was looking at these, it appears that they have a water rudder. The esprit ones do not..

Sound like this might be the way to go at least for the 40 size crowd..

flatfour

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I have the Horizon set on my LT 40. They are very nice fiberglass floats. The kit comes with 2 wooden blocks to mount to the plane.
The instructions say to cut away your covering and glue the blocks to the fuse. Not wanting to do that, I put 2 hardwood blocks insde the fuse at the proper locations with the hammer in type nuts. I can now attach the floats with 4 screws.

The rudder is built in to one of the floats. The kit comes with a flex pushrod to connect to the planes rudder. Again, not wanting to glue anything to the plane for linkage, I used a ty wrap to attach a servo to the float struts. I used a PMIX in my 6XAS to control this servo from the rudder channel with reduced throw so it wasn't too sensitive while on the takeoff run.

I was a bit concerned when I first put the plane in the water as the floats were 3/4 submerged. After gaining just a bit of speed they came up on plane just fine. Here are some pics of my mods.

This pic is the complete flaot set, unbolted from the plane

flatfour

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Here is a pic of the mounting block and nuts inside the fuse. This is aft of the servo tray. The battery is right behind that. There is a matching mounting block up front under the fuel tank area.

The 4 balsa squares along the bottom are patches from a mid-air with a TF Contender. I won!!!!

flatfour

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Last one. This is a close up of the water rudder servo. I just used an extension and fed it between the wing and fuse.

DAN MOFFETT

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I USE THEM AND THEY ARE GREAT
40 IN SIZE HANDLES MY KADET SR
THE 36 HANDLES MY RCM TRAINER