looks like fun.

The second take-off is much more fun than the first.

I got "stuck" on my trailer one time, while launching a friend's Super Cub. We had it blocked up wrong with the heels of the floats too high (trailer was built specifically for my T Cart on Edo 1320's).

At 60 MPH and the end of the runway looming fast, I was unable to lift off the trailer. Finally, after elevator and throttle weren't doing anything, I had one more control left to play with so I pulled full flaps, which launched me like I was spring loaded. I knocked out both taillights on my pickup with the nose of the floats, lurched nose down, and then luckily rotated nose up over the cab, clearing the whole train wreck by inches.

Not one of my finer moments.

Gump

The guy in the pickup bed had a lot of faith in the guy flying the airplane.

What I really want to see is the landing on the trailer.....

Gump

Your's is the third dolly/trailer takeoff story I've heard where someone had the floats blocked preventing rotation. The other two stories ended with broken airplanes. Block location is a good thing to check for all the future attempts at this maneuver

There was an outfit retrofitting Beavers in Idaho in a town I lived in growing up. They landed them on the grass by the taxiway on floats and then pulled them up onto carts. They launched them off of the carts(on pavement) as well. I remember one cart cartwheeling on the runway just as the plane left the ground.

Apparently there was an accident with a cart and they started launching from a trailer. One of the pilots said they would take off with a very reduced power setting until they launched at a higher than normal airspeed and then applied full power once they had cleared the height of the truck.

We used trailers as well as dollys, both individual as well as one piece and usually had no problems...but sometimes things got a bit interesting and we did a lot of repair to the dolly. But we found the best and easiest way to launch was just to put a small loop over the rear horn of the nose cleat and tow it with a pickup off the grass. We did that with everything from Cubs to Otters and never once had a problem or close call of any sort.
John

I want to see some straight float landings on grass. Anyone have some links to that? Always thought that was ballsy.

It's a non-event. You slide to a smooth stop.

Gump

GumpAir wrote:It's a non-event. You slide to a smooth stop.

Gump

Yup...non event.....unlike a wheel landing on water! Nice tall green grass first thing in the morning is a really smooth ride....but we've done them on really crappy grass and never had any hint of a problem....even with one guy dropping it in pretty hard.

Another method...

That dolly obviously had brakes, activated by the liftoff of the plane. Friends of mine once built a dolly for launching floatplanes. They didn't install a brake system, initially. They said the first launch went fine, but they spent much of the rest of the day finding, then retrieving the wayward dolly, which launched off the runway at high speed into the alders....

They then devised a slick brake system, operated by a lever that was pushed down by the plane. Plane lifted off, lever released, and brakes applied.

I've done ice landings and takeoffs on straight floats, and those can be interesting unless you have some snow on the ice.

MTV

Yes, it has brakes. A thin rope tied to the floats trips a spring loaded brake pedal, that appears to be from a J-3.

As the dolly has no steering; the airplane is pointed to the right of centerline, to varying degrees. The 180 needs about 25 degrees. About the time p-factor brings you through centerline, the rudder becomes effective.

aqua wrote:Yes, it has brakes. A thin rope tied to the floats trips a spring loaded brake pedal, that appears to be from a J-3.

As the dolly has no steering; the airplane is pointed to the right of centerline, to varying degrees. The 180 needs about 25 degrees. About the time p-factor brings you through centerline, the rudder becomes effective.

Yep, P-Factor can be the interesting wild card. I landed a Beaver on bare ice once on floats, and wasn't sure I'd ever be able to get it to go straight. Fortunately, due to pure dumb luck, I parked it a long ways from shore. As I slowly brought up the power, the airplane pivoted around itself, increasing in rpm till the inertia of that engine out front slung me out of the circle. And, it happened to be headed in an acceptable direction. Even if it'd pointed at shore, I'd have had room to shut it down..... But, that was a lesson learned.

MTV

when taxing on bare ice on straight floats I have found that using full down elevator helps A LOT in keeping the plane headed the direction you want till you get some speed built up.