Re: [COUPERS-TECH] LSA for a 415D

[Hartmut Beil]

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"The new useful load would only be 350 lbs.  Put full fuel in it and now you only have 206 lbs left for the pilot, passenger and baggage."

 

But that's the case for almost all 415-Cs. If one can bring all 415-D,E,G Models into the Sport Pilot definition by adding floats  - why not?

I see a market already for extremely lightweight floats, that will put on all these Coupes, even if there's no lake around in hundreds of miles..

 

Could floats be added per STC?? I'd like some for eventual Ocean flights...

 

Hartmut

----- Original Message -----

From: Sydney Cohen

Cc: Ctech

Sent: Monday, October 09, 2006 1:53 AM

Subject: Re: [COUPERS-TECH] LSA for a 415D

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Kim, not only would there be all the difficulties that Ed listed below, there is the useful load factor.  If you took a 900 lb. empty weight 415-D and put it on floats, it's new empty weight would be somewhere in the vicinity of 1050 lbs., allowing 150 lbs. for the floats.  The new useful load would only be 350 lbs.  Put full fuel in it and now you only have 206 lbs left for the pilot, passenger and baggage.  Doesn't sound like a good thing to me.

Syd



Ed Burkhead wrote:

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Kim,

I’m pretty sure you’d only be allowed the 1430 lb. amphibious/water-operation LSA limit at times the plane was *capable* of those operations.  No floats, no extra weight allowance.

Similarly, if you go through the process of mounting floats and getting their installation approved, I’d feel confident that you’d be allowed the 1430 lb. gross weight or the conversion did not allow a gross weight higher than 1430 lb.

You’d have a really hard time convincing the FAA judge that you *intended* water operations with just your wheels.

Unfortunately, the FAA testing of an Ercoupe modified for floats resulted in a failed spin test, the FAA pilot bailing out and float operation being denied, if I remember the details right.

So, unless the guy in Idaho who was going to try for float approval on his Coupe was successful, there’s no way to get permission to mount floats on your Coupe.  He mentioned this several years ago and I never heard any follow-up.

As a side note, rudder action was required to do float operation (though that could be managed with a hand control, if you could overcome the other obstacles).

Ed Burkhead

http://edburkhead.com

ed -at- edburkhead???.com          (change -at- to @ and remove "???")

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