FoamFloats.com submission for the Wattage Mini MAX on 19" Hollow floats

Submitted by: Gary Villette

SPECS:
Motor/battery: stock Minimax motor/prop (S280 geared to 7.5x5 prop), 8-cell 370mAh Nimh battery
AUW: 10.5 oz. ready to fly floats: 19" hollow

Mounting: I mounted the hard points at 6-3/4" and 11-1/2" from the front tip so they coincided with the "bulkheads". I bent the included wire to match the stock landing gear shape so it would fit behind the motor mount. The rear struts are mounted in a plastic tube I pushed through the foam fuselage just forward of the servos. The tubing is sized so the left and right wires overlap and jam against each other. You can see I bent the front struts back a little to get the step behind the CG (about 1/2").
I would recommend that the firewall be reinforced with epoxy and glass cloth to the front of the fuselage as this is the weakest area of the aircraft considering its holding the motor and the landing gear to the fuselage. I wanted to show off the hollowness so I covered the floats in clear Reynolds Wrap glued down with GlueStik. Works great!

Flying: I don't perceive a difference. It's still a real floater. After liftoff I was able to cruise around at 1/3-1/2 throttle. I had trouble bringing it down where I wanted on the pond because the sink rate was so low. DO NOT worry about the weight or drag of these floats. The aircraft doesn't seem to notice a difference! I think the only thing I will try to tweak is the wing/float angle to try to shorten the takeoff run.