Super STOL Floats?

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Tbabbott
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Super STOL Floats?

Post by Tbabbott »

Wondering if any one has put it on floats yet and how it would handle
I know some people have the Highlander on floats but have not found much data on the performance and how it handels
Any info would be greatly appreciated
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danerazz
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Re: Super STOL Floats?

Post by danerazz »

I only know of one customer built one flying right now, and that is Steve Henry's. There may be more, but otherwise there seem to be a whole bunch of kits, and I expect many to be flying within the next few months to a year.

If you call Ben Brown (look at the just aircraft website and find the dealer in maine) he had a couple on floats and can probably tell you more.
Dane

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SheepdogRD
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Re: Super STOL Floats?

Post by SheepdogRD »

You might also search this forum for keyword "floats" and author "av8rps". You'll find a wealth of information in the resulting posts.
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Familyflyer
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Re: Super STOL Floats?

Post by Familyflyer »

Deffinately none on floats yet. Really curious as to how one plans to install them. There is an attach point under the lift strut but the forward attach point is only on the fuse centerline and at the shock pickup point on the side of the fuse. I would assume you would not use the fox shock/gear assembly for the float attachment. I was hoping one day to put it on floats, but not sure what the fittings will end up looking like. I will add something now before covering if I have to, but I hope it will work as is. Not sure if anyone has put any thought into it yet.
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moving2time
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Re: Super STOL Floats?

Post by moving2time »

I didn't ntoice till you mentioned it so I went back to my photos and dang if the Super Stol does not have the tabs that the Highlander has for the landing gear. That said, I don't think that the Super Stol would work well as a float plane. The whole angle of attack envelope for the Super Stol does not align with the needs of a float plane on landing or takeoff.
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Familyflyer
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Re: Super STOL Floats?

Post by Familyflyer »

I think the plane will fly fine with floats, you just can't take advantage of the real high angle of attack slow flight. You would just fly it like a normal aircraft. The high angle of attack is all forced by the pilot, it can be flown as normal as you want. But it will be a much safer aircraft when getting slow over the trees in a turn trying to stick in a pond :mrgreen: Its not going to spin as soon if you get way behind the plane.
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danerazz
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Re: Super STOL Floats?

Post by danerazz »

Just is pretty accommodating when it comes to small changes, like if you wanted a SS fuselage with all of the regular Highlander attach points still in place for something like floats, I am sure they would have no problem adding them at the time of your order.
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jak
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Re: Super STOL Floats?

Post by jak »

We will not leave the highlander attach points on a Super Stol fuselage. Per Troy he just won't do it. Sorry Jak
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Familyflyer
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Re: Super STOL Floats?

Post by Familyflyer »

Is this because Troy does not want the SuperSTOL on floats or because he does not want the extra attach points welded to the fuse. I think I know the answer reading between the lines, but a clarification would be great.

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Familyflyer
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Re: Super STOL Floats?

Post by Familyflyer »

Just to put this to bed as I just talked to Troy. He feels the SuperStol will make a great float plane. The standard attach points of the regular gear, just does not allow as good of a joint with them on the structure of the SuperStol. The upper and lower main gear attach points will be fine to handle the load of the floats. It may look a little different, but totally doable.
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Tombat74
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Re: Super STOL Floats?

Post by Tombat74 »

Well thats kinda a bummer. I was seriously looking at the SuperStol to be a do everything aircraft for me. If you can't attach floats in a configuration that suits the floats you either build or buy then this won't work for me. The regular highlander adapts well to floats. I guess it'll be a regular highlander for me and back to regular strips instead of the back yard! Unless you can purchase the regular highlander fuselage and the SuperStol wings then that may be a combination for me. I doubt the factory will ship a regular fuse with the stol wings however because of the steep descents that can be achieved with the SuperStol and the gear that was designed for it.
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danerazz
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Re: Super STOL Floats?

Post by danerazz »

The SS wings are an option on current highlanders for retrofit. The issue is the gear won't absorb the sink rate like the SS so you really can't use the wing like you would on a SS fuselage. Really kind of defeats the purpose.

You could just run the forward float struts to the upper gear-strut attach point, then just run the diagonals from the forward float point to the fuselage rear strut attach point. If you needed additional bracing because of geometry, you could add short struts to the center gear point.

Give it some thought, I am sure there is an acceptable way to do it on a SS. You may be able to talk to Troy and either come up with another solution/modification or just a good idea that will work with the current design.
Dane

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john2
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Re: Super STOL Floats?

Post by john2 »

Tombat74 wrote:Well thats kinda a bummer. I was seriously looking at the SuperStol to be a do everything aircraft for me. If you can't attach floats in a configuration that suits the floats you either build or buy then this won't work for me. The regular highlander adapts well to floats. I guess it'll be a regular highlander for me and back to regular strips instead of the back yard! Unless you can purchase the regular highlander fuselage and the SuperStol wings then that may be a combination for me. I doubt the factory will ship a regular fuse with the stol wings however because of the steep descents that can be achieved with the SuperStol and the gear that was designed for it.
This is a post from a different thread. If I had a Highlander and wanted the SS wing but didn't want the SS landing gear it is what I would do. The shocks control the rebound of the bungies and according to the reports does a very good job of soaking up the bumps and rough landings. Granted it won't be as good as the SS gear but should be the next best thing. It is supposed to be adaptable to the Highlander gear and you could use the standard Highlander float arrangement.


I had posted about this earlier in the "AOSS" thread and thought it would get some interest from folks that have completed planes already. Maybe I should had started a different thread as foxred did. Anyway this is the post from that thread:
Just saw this tonight. I knew that Mr. Roberts was working on something but I didn't know exactly what it was to enhance his "Roberts Bush Gear" for the Rans S7. He has added a Fox shock to the bungee system and has patented the mechanism less Fox shock. If you read the thread it says it is easily adaptable to the Highlander gear. This is the link http://www.backcountrypilot.org/forum/1 ... 99#p156699 (I don't know what the deal is with the links not working right....do a search for AOSS on the Backcountrypilot site) It looks like something to seriously consider if you have a Highlander and don't want to do the STOL gear mod.

And this is picture from the "backcountrypilot" forum
IMG_3404.JPG
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bandit
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Re: Super STOL Floats?

Post by bandit »

This is probably a stupid question, but here goes. :?

Why cant the shock absorbing capabilities of the SS be used on floats? I have read that floats landing on rough water can be very hard on the airframe.
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Bandit
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danerazz
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Re: Super STOL Floats?

Post by danerazz »

I don't think you want the bouncing action of the airframe separate from the float. I don't have a lot of float time, but I think you pretty much want the floats and airplane to be pointed in the same direction at all times. If you have the suspension between the two, as you hit waves, or just trying to get on a plane or when you touch down, the bows of the floats could end up not parallel to the fuselage, and I can envision a situation where an oscillation would occur between the airframe bobbing one way and the floats trying to catch up and bobbing out of phase, possibly becoming a catastrophic situation and ending up on your back. I know when mounting floats on a new design the angle of incidence of the float can be kind of critical to performance, and suspension would not allow a constant angle. Also, during step turns, you can put a HELL of a side load on them (you can turn a float plane faster and sharper than you would EVER even THINK about turning a land plane), and if the plane were allowed to "lean" due to shocks, it could be a bad day real fast.

I don't know this for a fact, I have done just enough float flying to be dangerous. I WILL say I have never seen a float plane with suspension-mounted floats. It may have been done, but I've never seen it. I have seen planes from cubs and 172s to the last (only) DC-3 on amphibs, Beech 18s on straight floats, and my wife got her MES rating in the only Apache on amphibs in the world. Plus all of the cool stuff at the International Sea-plane fly-in in Greenville Maine. Not one had suspension mounted floats.
Dane

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