Shark Floats

[trav5384]

They currently have all the rigging for a Rans S7. they have two water rudders and air actuated gear with hyd brakes.

[SkyPirate]

when downwind had the rights building the shark floats ..kitfox was on the list of aircraft they had riggings for,so puma should have the set up for at least up to the model 4,..I think I see the list was dated for 1999 ,.

..the rans 7 being a tandem.. I wonder if the cross braces would be too short, narrow,. for a side by side set up,..but the legs would be long enough,..possibly too long,..so you could use them and shorten them

[DesertFox4]

Here is Downwind floats on a model 5 with Jabiru 3300 engine.


Foster's fly-in 2010 004.jpg

[SkyPirate]

That looks pretty good Steve thanks for the photo, almost makes me think i should put mine on floats

[trav5384]

They look good on that V, and gives me a good picture of how they should look rigged on the plane. I'm in the final stages of my IV project, are there any modifications to the plane to make it a better seaplane or more stable on floats? Once it is finished I will fly it on wheels for a short while to get used to the plane and make sure the flight controls are rigged properly. Then I hope to put it right on floats hopefully before the end of summer.

[SkyPirate]

I've seen some put the tail fin under the vertical stab, it connects to the towbar points , but i wouldnt do it, the floats alone are going to add allot of drag as it is, make your plane as clean as possible and aerodynamical as possible, as light as possible,..

Are you using the 912ULS? HP will be the advantage

[SkyPirate]

You havent mentioned the type of trim your using on the tail, that , if your not too far along on your build, could make a difference

[trav5384]

Unfortunately I bought this plane out of Sikeston off of Barnstormers. It is about 90% built and I just have to do the finishing touches. At the time I thought it would work out great, I could still customize a plane to look and be exactly how I want it without spending 2 years building one. The workmanship on the plane is great and by the book no issues there. The problem is it has a brand new NSI Subaru Engine installed on it that I thought would be fine since it was supported by Kitfox and it is rated at 100HP. After reading many forums, I have learned I got the worst possible engine I could get, for reliablity and for floats. From what I have learned there is no resale on the engine so my current plan is to finish the project keeping it as light as possible and use the NSI for a couple years until I can get enough money saved up to swap it out for a Rotax 912ULS. I think I can still do something with the trim I will have to study it a bit and see what my options are.

[SkyPirate]

Ok I think I remember the plane from Barn Dreamers,..it has the aerodynamic tail surfaces if I remember right,..the differences on your plane is how the counter balance for the added weight on the nose was addressed,..either the wing gets swept forward or a counter weight in the tail somewhere,..if it's the plane that I think it is,. it has the BRS in it mounted way back behind the cargo pod,..most likely that is the counter weight ,.. I think it was mentioned in a previous post when that plane was listed,..the question came up,..not sure if it was answered by the seller,..

this doesn't make it a bad plane all kitfox aircraft are awesome ,.I'm on my 2nd now,..

down the road when you /if you change out for a 912ULS ..you will either have to move the BRS forward or remove it completely or add weight to the nose..,..that's 27 lbs to 32 lbs of weight depending on the model of the BRS..my first kitfox model 2 had a 750 model..BRS ..my model 5 doesn't have one,..if it did,,I wouldn't hesitate to remove it

[trav5384]

Yes it has the BRS but I was going to remove it, I think it is due to be repacked anyway. You mentioned moving the wings vs adding weight is that a big undertaking . I planned on moving the battery to the tail but was not sure on how much more would be required.