"SelwayKid" wrote in message
om...

Bart
Are they pop outs? I would imagine so. Don't often see helos flying
around with inflated ones anymore. When I was flying 47's on floats it
was really noticable and on the H500 series too. But, I never noticed
any appreciable difference in speeds with less fuel. Have you changed
cabin loading to any extent? I'm also curious about this one.
As for the Cessna 206, or most fixed wings, having the aft cg requires
some trim that effectively changes the speed and economy. Lots of the
XC racers used that to gain a few kts and in fact that was where I
learned it many many years ago.
Best Regards
Rocky

Yeah, they're pop-outs. When we installed them, I had the "vibration
reduction system" removed from the chopper as well . I never used it and it
weighed about 35lbs. Its removal helped offset the weight gain of the
floats. My normal full fuel Lon CG is now 112 in a range of 106 to 114.3,
which gives me a noticably aft CG . With 50 Gals it becomes 111 ( a little
more forward). They also added some ballast in the tailboom when they
installed the floats, but upon reviewing this here I'm not sure why they
needed to.

On the stuck wing side of things. I bought a Lancair Columbia 400 this June
to use as my personal rocket (235kts) , and it has a really forward CG by
default. With two guys in front and a full bag of fuel you need to have
50lbs of stuff in the aft baggage compartment to keep the CG in limits.
Since I almost never have more than 1 pax, I just leave a 50lb sandbag back
there all the time. When I've got no pax, I do notice a couple knot speed
increase buy I'm not sure if its more attributable to the lighter load , or
the increased aft cg.

Nice hearing from you again Rocky,

Bart