Scott Heger coined the following phrases regarding gyro-on-floats. I think the rules are universal:
FLOATS.....lets see
Do you want your high performance gyro to become slow,unstable and sluggish.....
put floats on it
Do you want to cut the speed in half of a gyro that can safely be flown at 100mph.....
put floats on it.
Do you want to go from being able to fly in almost any winds to only in just nearly perfect conditions .....
put floats on it.
Do you want to see what damage can be done to your gyro's prop from water erosion.....
put floats on it.
How many gyros have any of you ever seen flown in person on floats....?
But I bet you have heard a more than a few accidents with them,right? Talk about the accident statistics per flight hour being horrendous.
Are you seeing a pattern here? Take a fun machine, and turn it into a slow unstable pig, just go ahead and put a set of floats on it. Take a not-so -stable gyro and put a set of floats on it, and get ready to leave this world behind. There is a reason floats have not been a mainstay of gyro flying. It is sure not for the lack of water based locations to fly to or from.
Scott Heger,Laguna Niguel,Ca N86SH
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