Anyone have any time on floats on one of these, how does it perform?

Pretty well. Lotsa room inside, 4 doors! gets off well with a load. With fuel for an average trip ~30-45 each way it can can carry almost a beaver load only (100 lbs less) IIRC. Ive only done a season on it but I like.

lynn lake air service has one up here, very very nice machine. they get a good payload on it with a slide in fuel tank to haul to the lodges. they speak highly of the plane, never had a ride in it yet. maybe next sumer we will go on a fishing trip.


last year they had the bush hawk on skis, came close renting a couple times but it didn't work out.

thansk

Don't know about gets off well with a load.....compared to the seasoned bush planes. I've seen them scream down the lake before getting airborn.

However, never flown one myself. Talk to the guys who've flown them though, they do have good things to say about them. I just don't buy into the load rating verses a beaver. A beaver will carry more, has more room, gets off a lake in half the time, takes real external loads, but it does lose inn the speed department.

I've done a demo flight in one on wheels.

I can't say anything about load carrying, but I really like the door and cargo area. It was very well thought out. Of note was the web seats, they seem to allow for some versatile load configurations.

I like the transparent doors, they give some excellent visibility. Otherwise, the cockpit felt a lot like most homebuilts.

It was rock solid stable and very heavy on the controls. I suspect it would be more "normal" when on floats.

The landing gear is great. Landing it is the closest to a super cub i've ever felt.

That's about all I have to say. It was only one flight.

I'm over six feet so I found it a little uncomfortable to sit in. I had plenty of leg room but because it lacks wing struts, the main spar is literally right behind your head. I had to tilt my head forward to sit properly, definitely would not like to fly it for an extended period. But for shorter people no doubt it's okay.

I've seen them scream down the lake before getting airborn

Too be honest I heard the same, Ive flown it with lotsa gas in the tanks and full drums in the back, propane, fat friends from down south, etc and never had a problem. For what it is, 300 hp 3800 lb gross machine its pretty damn good

I too have seen many-a-Found not getting airborne with a load (could be the operator... no official comment though ) I flew one once during a demo with five people on board - I didn't have much float time then so I hadn't much to compare it to but to my mind at the time it seemed ok.

I definitely noticed the Aerocets (without rivet heads I suppose) stuck to the water like all hell and it took some coaxing to 'unstick' it. Also seemed to hold its speed on the water when docking - again likely due to the slippery floats. I liked the big doors but it is cramped in the back with three abreast - and that dumb wing spar location would be enough for me not to want one. Rear seats very uncomfortable... but that may have been the 2 other fellas I was jammed back there with...

As for the panel I am not a fan of the LED rpm & mp indicators but that might just be me being old-fashioned and used to the 206 & Beaver "way". I liked the Garmin GPS-comm installation - nice to have a good GPS for bush ops nowadays even though I am not a big fan of Garmin myself. Too many buttons and menus/submenus/subsubmenus/subsubmenu-options.

In conversation with a good number of AME's everyone hates the Found. Apparently it takes forever to do a simple job - removing the cowls takes too long, etc. They don't have much nice to say about it. Oh there is no cockpit-control for the cowl flaps - only ground-adjustable ones that the pilot can do but you need a socket and a wrench and a couple minutes to do it. No sense to me - how hard would it be to put a lever in the cockpit? According to the AMEs even routine inspections take considerably longer owing to the a) poor design in some areas and b) lack of suitable guidance material from the manufacturer.

My $0.02 - I am around the Found all the time but as I said only flew it once, flew *in* it one other time. Would love to get the chance to try it again (on floats or wheels) now that I have some more experience and have more to compare it to objectively.

All I need is, what? $400,000 and I can have my very own.

REally jjal? I thought the only thing going for the 'Hawk was it's ease of maintenance?!

The Grease Monkeys I know that have worked on ours definately don't like it. Other than that I think it's great. I have over 500hrs in one (on floats and wheels) and I'll vouch for the Beaver load. Ours took 1200lbs on floats with no problem when we first got it (and were testing it out, before I came here). I think the problem with the long take-offs is due to the very narrow sweet spot on step.

I can strip all the flight controls, inspection panels, gear fairings, and engine cowls off of a bushawk in aproximately 15 hours. Nice simple design.

As an AME I rather like the ugly little thing. Comes appart nicely, at least I found (no pun intended).

And I had absolutely no problem with the cowls being a pain... didn't seem to take too long.....

Personally, I've found Bush and all of his current cabinet to be hawks too!

(OOOOH!! GROOOAN!!! Bad political geek joke!)

-istp