Gary,gkremers wrote:Well that puts the Clamar floats about $10,000 - $11,000 higher than the Zenair (factory built), higher than what I was told 2 years ago. I'd really like to hear reports on the Zenair Anphibs. I spoke with 2 LSA vendors at Oshkosh last summer that had the Zenair's on their demo planes. Both did not like the quality at all but I'm not sure who built them. I don't mind building them from a kit, just want to be sure the overall kit and design quality is sound.
Thanks for the feedback
Gary
I guess I haven't looked close at any of the new factory built Zenairs. Too bad to hear the quality is not what it should be as I think the float design is good, especially for the money. After reading your comment here about quality, and having a friend of mine who has built three sets of Zenairs tell me that there is no way my 1250 amphibs can have standard aircraft rivets, I thought I had better take a closer look at the 1250's I have. So I did that today at my hangar. And here's what I found; My 1250's most definitely have aircraft rivets (unlike a standard Zenair float, they have access covers on the sides of the floats so they can buck the rivets from the inside). Next I looked at the overall construction of the float inside and out, only to find that the build quality is BETTER than I originally stated. They are EXCEPTIONALly well constructed. In fact, I can't imagine how you could build them any better than the Czechs did? So knowing that, if you are willing to apply a lot energy and time to do a similar job as the Czechs did, you will have an equally well built float. And if the workmanship is as good as the design, you will end up with a great float.
As far as operating the Zenair floats; I've been flying floats for 26 years, and have way more hours on floats than wheels since I live on a lake in a state that has 14,000 lakes, countless river systems, and is surrounded by the Great Lakes. And I've flown flown a lot of different airplanes on floats, as well as a variety of float designs. In LSA aircraft that includes Full Lotus, Zenair, CZ's, Downwind/Shark, Aerocet, Avid, Aqua, EDO, Bauman, etc, etc. And by comparison to all those other floats, I have to say the Zenairs work pretty well overall. I really like their low cost, light weight, they are relatively strong, have a reasonably sturdy landing gear with large tires (even though no suspension, the large tires offset that some), and handling that I would say is "average to good" compared to the other floats.
I used to fly a Rans S-7 on a set of early Zenair 1150 amphibs that belonged to an older friend of mine (you can see it fly at the 32 minute mark of this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lczFhy0qBj0). While there were times when I was flying it real heavy that I thought a bit larger float would be better, the 1150's still got it off the water just great,and proved to be very stable in the water. Later that same Rans was fitted with a new set of the Czech 1250's (just like mine), and now works even better. So again, testimony that the Zenair works well on LSA type aircraft. So if you are looking for a good float without breaking the bank, the Zenair is a really good option in my opinion.
Paul
