I’ve went through my first season of float flying in my 185 on Edo 3430’s and have been very happy with them. Toying with the idea of amphibs but Aerocets aren’t really in the cards at this time.

I saw a nice looking set of Edo 3500 amphibs for sale at a decent price, but can’t find much info online about them.

Curious if anyone knows the weight of them and how they perform.

Can’t tell if they are the same profile as a 3430 or not. I’m hoping they are “aluminum Aerocets” for a fraction of the price like the 3430’s are.


Thanks!

Alright everyone lets just leave this question to MTV for a reply he will be along soon, MTV its all yours go...........

I've never flown either one, but the below pages are from "The EDO Guide to Straight and Amphibious Floats."

Ross

Thanks! Looks like they are wayyyy heavy.

Yes. I believe my 3400 Aerocets are 650#. My hangar neighbor has EDO 3500s on his 185. He is jealous of the performance I enjoy. I also have a Lycon prepared IO-550 to his IO-520 and have an MT prop to his Hartzell. That said, his does the job. They float and they roll. It will depart and alight on water or earth. Payload, length of landing or takeoff vary. Maintenance effort for the EDOs is more. I have more modern wheels seals and everything else is newer. I have no rivets to loosen.

Not a horrible way to get started in amphib flying. Affordable. Like all things aviation, you’ll lust for more but what you have will be enough.

Extra maintenance is a big concern with these 40-60 year old floats. They can be very difficult to work on and some parts are becoming pretty rare. As someone who spent years digging around in the darkened bowels of EDO floats I can tell you the amphibious ones weren't really designed with easy servicing in mind.

If you do end up operating a set just keep in mind that there is really no such thing as too much grease around amphibious EDO.

Aerocet has the advantage of being able to reverse engineer these old floats and see all the failure points, omitting them from the modern float.

It is not a small coincidence however that the Aerocet float looks a lot like the EDO 3430/3500 on the bottoms, just missing some rivets...

As expected, I’ll stay on the 3430’s til I find enough change for the Aerocets.

Thanks Guys!

The 3500 floats are larger floats than 3430s. JJ Frey told me the story once, that they were essentially copied from the old EDO 4000 straight floats, not just 3430s with landing gear.

They are big floats. Lots of floatation, and heavy…..

That said, they perform well. A story I’ve heard from reliable source says the Aerocet floats design were copied from this float. If not, they are VERY similar.

As noted above, ALL the older amphibs are fairly high maintenance. You’d be changing wheel bearings frequently, and servicing all moving parts.

So, depending on the price and condition…….these floats will perform. I’ve flown them, and, like most EDO floats, they’re tough and perform well. I always preferred these on a 206, due to weight, and the fact certain mods permit GW increase to 3800 lbs. Kind of large floats for a 185.

MTV

I knew MTV would show up eventually.