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All seaplanes of this desigh have some type of floats on the wing so that they don't dip into the water. Other seaplanes I’ve seen place the wing float anywhere from mid-wing all the way out to the wing tip. I decided on about 60% of the distance from fuse to tip. I’m just guessing height placement for now as I don’t know how low the fuse will sit in the water. So, I’m not glueing in the support pylons yet as I may need to make longer ones. The float is angled like most I’ve seen to just skim the water, not dig in. They also shouldn't touch the water until the plane settles to taxiing depth.
The float consruction is similar to that of the the fuselage, with formers glued between the sides. The sides, rear, and top are 1/8" balsa. I used 3/32" balsa on the bottom because it would bend easier.
To attach the floats to the wing, I used a pylon that is inserted into the float and a "socket" in the wing. Two pieces of lite ply, shaped like the rear of a rib are glued to a rib with 1/4" balsa spacers to form the socket. After covering both float and wing, the covering will be slit to insert the pylon.
An area is cut out of the ply pieces to glue in a top piece of ply to make sure the pylon doesn't damage the covering when it's put in place and to help absorb impacts with the water, although this shouldn't happen, right? Yeah...right.
These are the finished floats, covered in the same color that I'll use on the top of the wings and fuse...cub yellow.
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