The reality of owning floats for my 180 in Colorado is pretty unreasonable but I'd love to do some float flying when I'm away from home. The airplane does have the kit installed and was primarily operated off the water in Kamloops early in its life. Has anyone leased straight floats for a month or a few weeks? If so how did you find floats to lease?

I imagine float flying in Montana / Minnesota / BC (or AK in a couple years) would be a lot of fun. Does it make more sense to find a 180/185 on floats available for lease, or is it worth installing/removing straight floats for a couple weeks of flying in my plane?

Looks like the swap is roughly 300 each way from earlier posts?

300$ each way? That is off the bottom end of cheap, more like 1000$. That might get cheaper in successive seasons as you collect and correctly catalog and store all the little bits that go along with a seasonal float change.

There’s items that go along with a float installation that are often missing from a factory installation. Water rudder retract handle, steering springs, lifting eyes, Etc...

Your results may vary by location.

I think your best bet would be to buy a set of floats and store them at a shop that is convenient to where you want to fly. Check your type certificate to see what floats your 180 is approved for (older ones can use Edo 2870s but the newer ones need the Edo 2960s. Other floats might require an STC. At least in Alaska, the Edos are commonly available for about $6k and I'm sure condition can very quite a bit. From another thread, I understand that might not be the case around Seattle. Basically, so many people switched to Aerocets that there is a large surplus of aluminum floats.

My shop charges about $550 for each swap and about $500 per off-season to store them. The first swap cost more because the IA needed to make some changes to make the swap more user friendly on my aircraft.

If you look around for a rural shop that has a lot of extra real estate, you might get lucky and they'll store them for free.

Good luck.........Ross

pipeliner wrote:I think your best bet would be to buy a set of floats and store them at a shop that is convenient to where you want to fly. Check your type certificate to see what floats your 180 is approved for (older ones can use Edo 2870s but the newer ones need the Edo 2960s. Other floats might require an STC. At least in Alaska, the Edos are commonly available for about $6k and I'm sure condition can very quite a bit. From another thread, I understand that might not be the case around Seattle. Basically, so many people switched to Aerocets that there is a large surplus of aluminum floats.

My shop charges about $550 for each swap and about $500 per off-season to store them. The first swap cost more because the IA needed to make some changes to make the swap more user friendly on my aircraft.

If you look around for a rural shop that has a lot of extra real estate, you might get lucky and they'll store them for free.

Good luck.........Ross

I'd second what Ross said. EDO 2870 or 2960 or for that matter, CAP 3000 floats are available for low cost. You might have to do some work on them, of course.

Halestorm also makes a good point, which also suggests ownership. That first installation will cost more, just because of all the bits, rigging cables, pulleys, and so forth. Buy a set, and you leave things like the water rudder retract, etc in the plane, as well as the aft fittings, pulley brackets, etc.

But, you might be able to find someone who'd lease you a set of floats. For a month's worth of flying, though, it's going to be spendy, at least that first year.

Trying to lease a 180, on wheels or floats is going to be tough. And, frankly, anyone who would lease one out these days needs his head examined, especially on floats.

Finally, call your insurance company, and find out what a rider to cover floats would cost you. If we've convinced you that the installation is going to be a bit spendy, get a good grip on a table or something before your insurance agent quotes that gig.

MTV