175 magnum wrote:There is a Cessna 175 with and o-470 and aqua 2400 floats for sale on barnstormers for 50k. Might be just what your looking for.

Ya and you're in Canada so wing x stol gets you a 200??lb up gross. Well I'm not sure with an 0-470 but with a 0-360 anyway

175 magnum wrote:There is a Cessna 175 with and o-470 and aqua 2400 floats for sale on barnstormers for 50k. Might be just what your looking for.

That might indeed be just what I'm looking for. Thanks for the heads up.

Thanks to all for your thoughts and sharing your experience. This gives me some more things to think about and research.

I have a line on a 170B near here that has the float kit but not the engine conversion. How cost prohibitive is the conversion to the 0-360? For the Canadian experts on this stuff would putting the plane in the owner maintenance category make an engine swap any more straight forward or cost effective? Would it open up some more choices of floats?

Not sure on the owner maint I wanted the constant speed prop so I was not able to go owner maint at the time but it cost roughly 30K to put a mid time engine in there. Del-air conversion being around 12k and about the same for a used 0-360, and some labour.
I'm not sure if you can use the Pawnee prop under owner maintenance but that might b the ticket, its not STCd I checked.

Ya, river rat is correct. If you want a constant speed you can't go owner maintained. Too bad.

Fraser Farmer wrote:

175 magnum wrote:There is a Cessna 175 with and o-470 and aqua 2400 floats for sale on barnstormers for 50k. Might be just what your looking for.

That might indeed be just what I'm looking for. Thanks for the heads up.

Very first question to ask on that one is "What is the legal useful load?" Second question is "what is the range with full fuel?"

I've flown one of those on floats and on wheels. Amazing performance, no doubt.

Might work for you. You'd probably have to cache fuel....maybe.

MTV

mtv wrote:

Fraser Farmer wrote:

175 magnum wrote:There is a Cessna 175 with and o-470 and aqua 2400 floats for sale on barnstormers for 50k. Might be just what your looking for.

That might indeed be just what I'm looking for. Thanks for the heads up.

Very first question to ask on that one is "What is the legal useful load?" Second question is "what is the range with full fuel?"

I've flown one of those on floats and on wheels. Amazing performance, no doubt.

Might work for you. You'd probably have to cache fuel....maybe.

MTV

I talked to the fellow, 684 lbs useful load, range is about 3.5 hrs or 450 miles. So I can't fly to the hunting spots and home on a tank. I'd have to make a fuel stop and there are some large lakes with fuel fairly near where I want to hunt so this doesn't bother me. As I think about this more the idea of shuttling doesn't really bother me much, the hunting trips only represent a small piece of what I want to do with the plane and I wouldn't want to go to a bigger and costlier plane for all my flying just to avoid shuttling on hunting trips.

The 470 powered 175 is a really forward CG airplane when empty.

Your last point is right: select an airplane for your most frequent mission. Then figure out how to make it work for the occasional mission.

MTV

mtv wrote:The 470 powered 175 is a really forward CG airplane when empty.

Your last point is right: select an airplane for your most frequent mission. Then figure out how to make it work for the occasional mission.

MTV

Interesting stuff, do you have any experience with the Stinson 108-2 with the 0-470 and EDO 2440's? I hear fuel capacity is the big obstacle with that plane.

Fraser Farmer wrote:

mtv wrote:The 470 powered 175 is a really forward CG airplane when empty.

Your last point is right: select an airplane for your most frequent mission. Then figure out how to make it work for the occasional mission.

MTV

Interesting stuff, do you have any experience with the Stinson 108-2 with the 0-470 and EDO 2440's? I hear fuel capacity is the big obstacle with that plane.

Nope, only Stinson I've flown was a 108-3 with the stock Franklin on EDO 2425 floats.....great floats, and a nice plane. Not a blaster on takeoff, but.....those are great floats.

MTV

If you're looking at Stinsons keep in mind that the 108-3 has 10 more gallons of fuel capacity and 170lbs higher gross weight than the 108-1 and -2.

Just noted the previous posts on Wing X mod. That is a GREAT mod on seaplanes, and as noted, in Canada, you get a gross weight increase to boot. A 180 hp 170/172 on a BIGGER set of floats and longer range fuel would be an awesome seaplane.

I'm not sure what it would take to convert a 175 to floats (I've flown them, but they were field approved) but all the 175s have larger fuel tanks than any of the 170s. Those bigger tanks are just about right for the 180 hp engines in my opinion. Also, there are a lot of 175s out there that have been converted to the 180 hp engine.

MTV

mtv wrote:Very first question to ask on that one is "What is the legal useful load?" Second question is "what is the range with full fuel?"

Great questions to ask. To the OP... I would add "Was that on certified scales or calculated?" It could be an unpleasant surprise to rely on paper useful load and end up unknowingly over actual gross. Performance hit of any extra weight when near float buoyancy limits can be substantial, especially when compounded by high altitude. Better yet if you can take a test flight at gross into a high altitude lake and see how it really performs, regardless of what the paper says.

I know you are asking about a 170 or 175, but just for reference in case it's useful. I have a 180 I've had on both straight 2870 and amphib 2700 floats. Don't have that much experience with high altitude but I did take some high altitude instruction out of Nelson BC. We flew into Evans lake at about 5300 feet. With two guys and half fuel, probably about 2500 lbs, we were off the water in less than 1800' judging by looking at my takeoff landmarks on Google Earth. That pretty well matches the book. Stock wing and straight 2870s at the time.

Again just for reference, here's the takeoff data from my owner's manual (1955 C180):

There's a nice Stinson -3 on 2425's on barnstormers 35k hadn't I just bout a super cruiser that's what I'd be looking at...miss my old Stinson...

I am surprised how little useful load the 175 has on floats (you say 684?) - is that useful load or payload (full fuel subtracted)?

The question of range is an interesting one. If you are prepared to fly slower, the range gets a lot bigger, especially if your engine will runs smoothly lean of peak EGT. For example, at 130KTAS my range is practically half my range at 95KTAS. Flying slower is a much faster option than shuttling.

Lot's of great input here, thanks to all. Now I have a lot to think about.

I'm not interested in getting a float plane, but I've been thinking about upgrading from my C150/150TD. It's a fun plane, but pretty tight inside, baggage limited, etc. I had a ragwing C170 for 11 or 12 years and flew the shit out of it- a great plane but somewhat underpowered. So I've been looking at C180's and hot-rodded C170B's and 172/175TD's. I can see the point of a 180hp C170/172/175, sort of halfway between a stock C170 & a C180 in both operating costs and performance. But hanging a 470 on a C175 doesn't make sense to me- seems as if it would be nose heavy, limited on useful load, and range-limited with the stock 50 gal tanks. Might as well go with the early 180 which was designed for the bigger engine, you get slightly larger tanks, the trimmable stabilizer, as well as more payload. The conversion oufits tend to go out of business and disappear too, which can be troublesome if you need to replace something like gear legs or tailsprings or a complete set of installation drawings.