[supercub1974]

I have a great planes piper cub with 81" wingspan and have just changed my floats from great planes to hanger 9. The new setup allows for good takeoffs with hardly any up elevator for takeoff, flying is good but landing is terrible. I bring it in smooth but the plane always bounces and porpoises. What am I doing wrong? The great planes floats didn't look the best but they made for smooth landings everytime.

[3dflyer]

are you landing with enough airspeed,i had this happen on a float plane i use to have , it was doing the same thing and it would porpoise and bounce.it sounds like your plane is stalling on landing,not enough airspeed which is causing your problem.just my observation.

[mogman]

When you're landing, imagine a straght line from the bottom of the step to the transom, and flare the plane to land with that line parallel to the water. If you're landing on the front portion of the float, that will lead to bouncing etc..in other words, land on the back half of the floats.

[Cougar429]

Are the Hangar 9 V-Bottomed or flat? If flat then bouncing is expected. If V-Bottomed is the angle the same or shallower than the previous floats?

[supercub1974]

Thanks guys, the floats are v bottom but it sounds like I'm doing at least 2 things wrong, I am landing on the front of the floats and maybe a little slow. I could get away with this with the great planes floats, guess I will have to learn over again..

[supercub1974]

I also unsubscribed to this thread buy mistake with my thick fingers, how do I subscribe again

[Cougar429]

I think you just did. Normally by posting you will be notified of any replies.

[DO335]

Your problem is not air speed, ground (water) speed, flat bottom or V bottom floats, angle relative to the water, number of water rudders or any of that irrelevant stuff. It is rate of descent.

When you whack the water, the plane bounces. It's the same thing when a taildragger hits the ground too hard. It bounces.

You guys really ought to get a copy of "The Compleat (sic) Taildragger Pilot " by Harvey Plourde, read it and learn how these planes planes fly. You'll be doing a much better job after that.

BTW, whoever proof read his book had some problems. Thats why there is the spelling error in the title. Proper word is complete. But that's life. Too late now. Harvey is deceased.

One last point - porpoising and bouncing on landing are two different things. Why not get a copy of the EAA video on float flying produced by the world renowned Brown seaplane base in Florida? You'll learn all that stuff there too.

Porposing occurs during a high speed taxi or take off run when there is insufficient back pressure on the elevator. The float noses drop and rise like a roller coaster or more simply a porpose. The cure is to back off and start over.

The cure for the hard landing is to forget trying to salvage it, put on power and go around. If you decide that you must land must however and want to risk it, immediately put the nose down while adding a bit of power and attempt to correct your second laning following the bounce with less rate of descent.

Why nose down and then power? The cycle of control, as all well trained pilots know is attitude, power, trim. As you improve, the first two become virtually a single, simultaneous action.

[kip51035]

Without pictures we are poking in the dark, but it sounds like the nose of your floats is too low. During my float flying days I always just flew the A/C at low speed right on to the water. The step of the floats must be exactly 5 deg. behind the C of G.

[supercub1974]

I think you are right, I should have posted some pics before but seems the nose of the floats are way low. I have a pic with the top of the float level and a pic with the bottom of the wing level.