Float cart

You would think when they build an airport they would make sure it was near a body of water for us on floats - right! I know anfibs would be the way to go ($$$) but not just yet.

We are building a cart but will probably have to draw straws to see who uses it first. Has anyone used anything else for "getting back to water"? Edo had a cart that was made for this. Any experence out there?

I have both a float on trailer and a four wheel cart. The trailer is used to pull the Cub up a ramp and under a shelter, pulled with a small tractor. The four wheel cart can be used to pull the Cub out of the water like the trailer, and I can winch the Cub on it if the Cub is sitting on the ground. Also the cart can be used for take-offs from a runway or grass. When on the cart it sits pretty much like a Cub on amphibs, with the two front wheels castoring.

I have a airport that is about 1/4 mile from the lake so I use a trailer to transport my Cub. When I get to the boat ramp I'm in line behind several boats so I just wait my turn. haven't had any problems yet.
My trailer fits under the floats and raises the plane on the spreader bars so the floats are never more than 12 to 18 inches off the ground. The trailer does not float so it is relatively easy to pick it out of the water. The lift uses a hydraulic hand pump.

Thanks

I was mainley wondering about a cart for taking off. Landing on the grass with floats (2000's) goes easier than I expected! "Old Timer" at this (done it twice!), gives a hole new meaning to "Pucker Factor".

Please install a runway video cam before trying this...I definitely want to see this.
KL

One of the popular Cub videos has a clip of a Cub on floats departing a paved runway via a cart. Was it Hardcore 2 or Bush Pilots of Alaska? I remember the Cub was painted like an American flag.
SB

I think it was Hardcore II. Seems to me he was flying out of the Thompson Falls airport. in Montana. Some of the carts I've heard about (never actually seen one) had brakes that would automatically engage after the plane lifted off. It would probably shorten the distance the ground crew would have to chase the cart after takeoff.

Dehavilland used to do cart type float departures with Beavers from their factory in Downsview. Seems to me there is a picture of it in The Immortal Beaver, but my copy is at home so i can't give a decent description of it.

Bill

My neighbour has been doing this for 35+ years. He brings his airplane home from the lake, on EDO2000's, after the first November snow fall and lands on the snow on his strip. Drags her in the hanger with the backhoe and switches to wheels or skis. Then in the spring he puts her on the cart, gets her up to about 35mph and blasts off back to the lake. Just wish he'd put some automatic brakes on the cart so we know where it's going to go after he lifts off the thing! All your need is some spring pulled levers that the float hulls hold down while sitting on the dolly. Upon lift off they lift up and the pivoted end rubs the tires.

Video of the American Flag Cub is in Super Cubs Hardcore!

Wayne

Float trailers

When I put my Husky on Baumann floats they had a four wheel cart-like affair that they used at the South St. Paul airport. I agree with irishfield. Brakes would have been very nice. As I lifted off the runway, I watched the cart coast off the edge of the pavement nearly hitting a runway light! To get the plane from the seaplane ramp to the hangar I used a pontoon boat trailer (the narrow kind that went between the pontoons). I replaced the stock wheels with a set of the smallest diameter wheels I could find. That allowed me to get the trailer under the spreaders. I then used a couple of 2X6 boards under the spreaders to spread the load on the spreaders as well as keep the plane from sliding off. The hand winch that came with the trailer worked very nicely to raise and lower the plane. A small tractor with a hitch on the front served as the propulsion. Hope this helps.

klm_ak said:

Please install a runway video cam before trying this...I definitely want to see this.
KL

Click to expand...

KL

Tried that last time - He forgot to hit the record button! - (no touch and go's") maybe next year.