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Float plane dock

I use a ramp for my Cub, but to make it easier with water level changes and to be able to use a stationary dock with it, mine floats. It also is hinged and is lifted up out of the water with a winch/cable/pulley system. It keeps the plane up out of the water and waves, and with the turn of a switch (all 12 volt battery powered) it lowers and the Cub launches easily. Plane can be put in either nose first or tail first.

The most important part of using it I think is securing it. I use several 5' screw in anchors and can adjust the lines from the floating ramp when needed for different water depths. Right now I have it setup along side a stationary dock, anchored and tied off to the dock. And I use spring lines to keep it from rubbing on the main dock when the wind comes up.

It can be used in shallow water or deep water, along the shoreline or at the end of a dock.

274P1010291.jpg


This was when I used it along the shoreline.

Like Mike says, ramping a plane even with wind is a lot easier than coming along side a dock, keeping the float off the dock and getting tied up. Coming into a ramp with very little power the plane will stick at the top of the ramp, hop out and turn the switch and the plane is up and out of the water in about a minute, everything is very stable and secure.

With the ramp raised, loading and unloading gear and supplies from the plane is even easier than from a dock, with the plane high and dry and not moving in the water. And the ramp can be kept free of slick growth, since it is raised out of the water part of the time. I leave mine down when I'm out flying, but you can use a remote controlled winch and raise it when you taxi out, then lower it when you taxi back to the ramp after a flight. I've got a steel plate attached to the underside of the end of the ramp to sink it. With the winch you drop it to whatever incline works best for your plane.


Gregg Anderson
Oak Harbor SPB
 
Dave J, up here, you rarely have road access to anywhere you want to be. You don't have materials just laying around ready to use. I've done a lot of remote building, and not once did I go "oh look, we can use that plywood laying there". If it's there, it was hauled in, or cut, for a purpose.

Floats, nice flat treeless bank there. Unfortunately, if you build on ground like that here, whatever you've got is going to float away sooner or later. Be it ice or flooding. That little platform would never survive a season on any the popular lakes around here.

One thing I forgot in to say, on the outward end, don't in drive posts unless you have too. Tails hit them, floats can bang against them. Get some duckbills down under the dock and run straps or heavy bungees up to the dock. Use some kind of clip so you can unhook it and float it to the shore in the fall. Or build a ramp, and a ramp for your friend, and tie up all that shoreline with airplane wings. If you do build a dock, it must be floating or you'll spend a lot of time lowering it or raising it to match your floats, boats, or whatever toys you have around.

Last summer we had over 24" of swing in the water level in 3 months. I am sure the guys at Shell saw that kind of fluctuation too.

I find it interesting that all you rampers live in the states (even Mike has moved).
 
I am probably going to piss off most of you here but another means of securing a sea plane is a well anchored bouy.

In fact that is almost the only thing we used to use, but we were flying PBY's. :)
 
Thanks, Guys, I got it. Ramps or docks, they all work. Docks and Ramps both need to be secured to the bottom somehow, or they'll move.

I've left ramps in the water and let them freeze before. Sometimes no problem, sometimes had to go on a scouting mission in the spring to retrieve. Depends on the lake. That would not be a good plan with a dock.

Whatever winds your watch, works for me.

MTV
 
Roger that David I haven't visited the place yet and don't know what the beach looks like so maybe I'll go with a ramp it the trees don't get in the way. And when you visit I should have an additional ramp or two I sure don't want to turn down all that help I'm going to get this summer. :D :D
 
stalledout:
nice flat treeless bank there. Unfortunately, if you build on ground like that here, whatever you've got is going to float away sooner or later. Be it ice or flooding.
Click to expand...

As I mentioned, it can be located anywhere along the shoreline or by a dock, it's floating like a normal floating dock. This one has been used along a tree line, with a walkway going from shore to the ramp. It has been used along a couple different docks and along the flat treeless shoreline in the picture.


stalledout:
If you do build a dock, it must be floating or you'll spend a lot of time lowering it or raising it to match your floats, boats, or whatever toys you have around.
Click to expand...

stalledout:
That little platform would never survive a season on any the popular lakes around here.
Click to expand...

You say to build only a floating dock. Why will a floating dock work where you are and not a floating ramp? I'm curious, and always looking for a better way of doing things. This one has been through a couple hurricanes.

Gregg
 
Floats, I suppose because I don't just put a cub on it, there's boats, Cubs, and assorted other things on the dock. It's very common to have two planes on the dock at once, as well as a boat, sometimes two or three.
We're talking a cabin, not your primary tie down location. Cabins are recreational and recreation means toys. It also means friends and others stop by. Your ramp looks nice, I'm sure it works great for your application. I do a lot more with a dock than park a single plane against it.

Until the winds top 40, it's fine tied securely to the dock. Above that, I'll float it off and tie it down to the duckbills in the lake bottom faced into the wind. Might even put on the mesh covers to spoil the lift. I can get the covers on standing on the dock, with a ramp or other method you'd be on a ladder. I can also stand on the dock and scrub the bugs off the leading edge. I don't know if you have that issue where you are, but here, you'll find your leading edge becomes loaded after a few flights. You'd have to have a ladder on your platform to do that.

I'm glad it's been through hurricanes. We have different forces of nature, ice and wind. You'd be amazed at the power of ice and wind.....

One other advantage of the dock is I can disconnect the sections and use them as a floating barge / platform. I'd do that to get machinery across the lake from time to time.

I'm curious where Gastons property is, if it's in the interior, southeast or south central.

Whatever works.
 
I'll take lashed to the lift (or a ramp) over tied to the dock any day for a good nights sleep. Survived over 90 MPH winds this summer that were direct on the left wing tip. At one point the left wing was 4 feet higher than the right and it tried to weather cock..even with 5 ropes on it..but it survived unscathed thanks to the extra weight of the lift and docks it's attached to. There would have been no time to move the plane from a dock to better mouring during this freak storm that destroyed a good part of the old growth forest of Temagami and flipped some C185's into the drink that were tied to the upwind side of docks.

djkleah.jpg

djkonlift.jpg


..and before you set me straight as well stalledout....I've got the visitors and toys covered as well. lol

Tallaircraft.jpg
 
Oh comon Irish, you've got a dock with a lift........not a ramp from the lake bottom up onto the shoreline like Dave J. That's what I was referring too.

How do you have it secured to the bottom and floating out on the ends?
 
Irish, How do you get into that in a heavy wind? I don't see "bumpers" in the U area you pull onto, and the ends are squared and sharp, looks like in a good wind you could dent the side of a float. You've basically got two parallel sides to pull against. You just power it in?
 
Mike...you talking about the lift...or my wife ? LOL :lol:

Stalledout. I guess if you can hit a ramp...you can hit my lift..no different with 12 feet between my finger docks. I'm always crosswind putting it on it and haven't missed YET and yes there is a Goodyear Eagle 16R245 (10" wide) on each inside corner just to be sure! Kinda like shooting an arrow and knowing how to allow for the wind. The double ramps are held to shore with fence T bars driven thru the eye of 3/4" eyebolts attached to the ends of the ramps. The cross dock is a 20 footer and a floater on 10" thick SM. The finger docks are 4' wide x 16 long also on 10" SM. There are 140lbs cement anchors on each end of the cross dock as well as each end of the fingers..and they are cross chained so they don't swing around.

airlift%20and%20docks.jpg


If it's blowing too bad I can sail up to either side of the H dock set up and then use the two bow lines to pull it onto the lift and fill the air tanks and tie her down. My wife is generally there and knows to sink the lift when she hears me fly over...but if she isn't I have to pick a dock and go sink it anyways to put the airplane on it.

lifthinges.jpg


Other options, if it's too hairy, are all that floater dock and my other two docks that have T'd ends on. They work really nice. I just L'd a 2x10 and 2x8 together and lagged them to the ends of my old crib docks. Hooped the entire truck tire (x3) onto them before bracing and the water can drop it's 2 foot seasonal fluctuation and the tire still keeps the floats out from under the dock and they roll if the floats bob up and down in boat wakes taking any alum wear out of the equation

Tdjk.jpg


It's currenty surviving it's second winter in the ice. Last year it was submerged in amongst 4 feet of ice and frozen slush. I put the lift part up on a 4 x 4 to get it out of the water and let the rest fend for itself.

temtrip7.jpg
 
Sorry Jerry...guess I helped take this way off your needs.

I'd suggest if you don' t know what's there..go in with a swed saw, hand drill with long 5/8 bit, hammer, LOTS of rope and a bag of long spikes. Whether you can get a wing over shore or not will dictate how far out you'll need to put the log. If you can get a wing over shore then get what you need immediately quickly unloaded. Throw a rope on each front/rear cleat on one side. Tie them to something on shore to allow the airplane to go out off the rocks and then use the tie down ring to tie to something at the shoreline and that will hold you out off the rocks. Then cut a tree down, limb it and drill a hole in each end. Put a rope on each end and put the log in the water. If you can get a wing over the shore and the water is deep enough..just something that simple may get you by until you can haul other stuff in. If you need to be out more due to depth or shoreline obstacles..spike a couple smaller logs onto the "dock" log at each end and push it out until those smaller logs are into the shoreline. Weight them down with Rocks and still use those ropes on angles to a tree/rock etc to hold it. Spike down some more logs/boards to make a walk way around center where you'd be unloading..or each end if you are going to have to nose in against the "dock' log.

Wayne
 
I am building a dock on a deep lake with heavy boat traffic. Has anyone used Basta Marine in Washington state ? They make a ramp with a lift it looks like. Can you give me some other names of websites I can look at.

Thanks ,Chad
 
I never did answer stalled's question about how the Beaver sank in Kodiak.

It was tied nose to the dock. That channel is DEEP, and as snow built up on the tail, the aft end of the floats sank down till the pump outs were under water. Water flowed into the aft compartments, reducing floatations there, sinking the aft further, putting more pump outs underwater, etc.

If you have to tie to a dock in deep water, pay attention, and sleep light.

MTV
 
Float locker (hatch) kit

Couldn't start a new thread so I'll ask here. Does anyone have drawings or photos on installing fish hatches or lockers in EDO floats? I'd like to put them in a set of 2960's we have on a 180. Thanks, Bill
 
EDO sells a kit, which is, I believe, STCd. Otherwise, you'd have to field approve them....good luck with that, since there is an approved product currently available. Unless, of course, you're using these floats on an experimental aircraft.

Don't know what the price is, but it may bring tears to your eyes.

MTV
 
mvivion said:
I never did answer stalled's question about how the Beaver sank in Kodiak.

It was tied nose to the dock. That channel is DEEP, and as snow built up on the tail, the aft end of the floats sank down till the pump outs were under water. Water flowed into the aft compartments, reducing floatations there, sinking the aft further, putting more pump outs underwater, etc.

If you have to tie to a dock in deep water, pay attention, and sleep light.

MTV
Click to expand...

I tried to stay in till the end of Nov 4 years ago. Woke up to 3" of snow that was wet and heavy. I drive past the plane on my way to work and I noticed it listing to the left a 1/2 mile away. When I got to the plane the left 2 rear compartments were under and one on the right rear. It's only in 2' of water so I jumped in and tried to lift the tail but it weighed a ton. It sank right in front of me over the next 10 min. I had to cut the docking lines because I was afraid it was going to pull the cleats out of the floats. Next season when I was checking the floats ( edo1320 ) for leaks I discovered that no one had ever sealed the top deck to the sides, they are now. I have a floating 16' dock on each side and when it starts getting cold I run a 1/2" line under the heels and tie it to each dock pulling up on the heels so that it will have to sink both docks next time. A canoe with a plastic garbage can tipped upside down under the tail of the plane works also. Funny all the weird stuff you learn when you start flying floats that nobody tells you about.

Glenn
 
stevensonjr said:
Couldn't start a new thread so I'll ask here. Does anyone have drawings or photos on installing fish hatches or lockers in EDO floats? I'd like to put them in a set of 2960's we have on a 180. Thanks, Bill
Click to expand...

Bill,

My 2960s had flush hatches that were installed locally. There was no raised lid and it was hinged along the inboard side as opposed to the forward one like I had with my 2000s with a squared/raised lid. The flush hatch was retained and released with recessed spring latches. Of all the float hatches I've had the flush ones on my 2960s were by far the best ones. They didn't leak and I could walk on them without tripping. I remember Mark @ Thrustline posting a thread that a Big Lake repair station was doing a similar hatch. I believe mine were done further up the road in Willow. In any case you might ought to seek out somebody who can advise you on the flush hatch installation.

I had some photos of my 2960s and 2000s that illustrated the difference in the flush lids and raised rectangular lids but the files are corrupted. Maybe somebody can post some pics of the flush lids. I'd take more but my 2960s are gone and off the top of my head I don't know any other floats with the flush compartment lids. Somebody out there has them, I'm sure. Getting them to speak up is the trick.

SB
 
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Thanks SB, I've never seen the flush hatch. Anyone have any idea who in Big Lake is installing/building the flush hatches? I contacted EDO and I'm waiting on their info. I'd like to see photo's of either type hatch if someone has the time to post them. Drawings would be great if they exist out there. Thanks again, Bill
 
Jerry Gaston said:
We are going to have a flyin for all the guys that fly cubs and have a tool box. Torch you can organize the crew because I'll be out trying to catch dinner.
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Sounds good Jerry as long as there is plenty of Crown Royal to help with the organizing. I went out to one of the lakes you and I fished. I had a great night. I was catching real fat 20 inch rainbows as fast as I could bring them in and release them. Had the lake to myself.
 
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Torch said:
Sounds good Jerry as long as there is plenty of Crown Royal to help with the organizing. I went out to one of the lakes you and I fished. I had a great night. I was catching real fat 20 inch rainbows as fast as I could bring them in and release them. Had the lake to myself.
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good to hear you are getting some fishing in. Think about our trip many times do you still go to the greyling stream? Would love to return for some fishing but not this year.
 
Don,

Looking like I will be flying out there for a week or so come september time frame.

If I miss your moose trip, any chance at getting a fish trip with you?? I will be on airport wheels, so limited.
 
aktango58 said:
Don,

Looking like I will be flying out there for a week or so come september time frame.

If I miss your moose trip, any chance at getting a fish trip with you?? I will be on airport wheels, so limited.
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Looks like me and the spotted cub will still be in bare flanks until the first of November. If you get up this way, give a holler. I see that bright red torch cub parked on the pond.... retired guy like Don should be flying more.
 
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