EDO vs. Wipline vs. PK.... etc.

Northern Skies · Post by **Northern Skies** » Fri May 26, 2006 9:44 am

Does anyone have any opinions on amphibs for a 206?

ie. EDO 3500, Wipline 3730, PK D3500A, etc.

Cheers!

medby · Post by **medby** » Fri May 26, 2006 10:58 am

Big Pistons Forever · Post by **Big Pistons Forever** » Fri May 26, 2006 5:30 pm

I have about 50 hours in Wipline 3730 amphib turbo 206. All I can say is what a dog. If you have to have a amphib get a 185. As for the Wips they handled well on the water but were high maintance. The two nosewheels are 185 tailwheel tires and are highly loaded. They must be kept inflated properly or they have a tendancy to roll off the rims when turns are made.

North Shore · Post by **North Shore** » Fri May 26, 2006 8:28 pm

My experience with Wiplines are that they make nice "Doctor floats." You can put a nice shiny pair on your polished 206 to blast off to the cabin for a long weekend. Put them to work 7 days a week on a bush plane, and they won't last nearly as long...

Brint · Post by **Brint** » Sat May 27, 2006 9:01 am

My only experience with Wips is on the 208 and Otter (both Amphib). Compared to Edos, I found they didn't handle in the water as nice.

The good thing about the Wips (8000s anyways) is that all the wires and hardware are inside the floats, so you don't trip on them. The flip side is, it's a pain to change a pulley or repair a cable, you've gotta pull up the covers.

The water rudder attachment assembly is pretty mickey mouse on the 8000s, check them out on the smaller floats. They take NO torqueing force at all. I know from experience - If you know what I mean.

Wips tend to get beat up pretty fast. I've been told however, that they will take more abuse before they actually tear or puncture. Edo's however may stand up to bumps around the dock, but will tear faster when hitting a rock. Softer aluminum on the wips perhaps?

Driving Rain · Post by **Driving Rain** » Sat May 27, 2006 12:38 pm

Brint [quote]

They take NO torqueing force at all. I know from experience - If you know what I mean. Brint [quote]

I know what you mean. We fabbed up two small check cables that limit the left right movement to full travel and no more. That way when your backing up you don't snap the rudder post. Of cource this is forbidden by TC but when was the last time they looked in your floats?

Bubbaganoosh · Post by **Bubbaganoosh** » Sat May 27, 2006 9:46 pm

North Shore wrote:My experience with Wiplines are that they make nice "Doctor floats." You can put a nice shiny pair on your polished 206 to blast off to the cabin for a long weekend. Put them to work 7 days a week on a bush plane, and they won't last nearly as long...

Yeah, whips look ok, but they are crap otherwise, I flew a DH-2T on those and it did not perform especially well either, not bad, but you could not load the crap out of it (like 6 or 7 hundred or more o/g) like you might expect for a turbine. Also, the forward spreader bar had a stupid faring over it, the faring was continually falling apart and being duct taped together, and the float compartment lids were very poorly designed. Just an all around lousy float for a bush plane, I would have loved to compare it's performance on a set of edo's.

Traf · Post by **Traf** » Mon May 29, 2006 8:32 am

I only have a bit of amphib and a bit of 206 time. I hated both. The 206 is a POS at best. I would take a burned out 185 over a brand new 206 any day.

You want floats that last, get PKs. They ar desigend to cut waves and on a Cessna, they make all the difference in the world. I worked at a place that had PKs on 1 185 and EDOs on the other. The EDO plane would shake, vibrate and smash through rough water wereas the PKs cut through nicely and and shook the airframe 1/5 th as much as the EDOs. The downside is they stick a little on glassy water but not enough to worry about it.

Whiplines? I don't think they ar every durable but you can paint them to match your plane if that makes you fell any better.

North Shore · Post by **North Shore** » Mon May 29, 2006 9:21 am

On the brighter side, though, those float compartments are a great idea. Load up all of the light, bulky stuff in there, so you have room for the heavy stuff in the cabin.

Northern Skies · Post by **Northern Skies** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 3:53 am

How about aerocets? Any experienced opinions?

arctic navigator · Post by **arctic navigator** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 8:16 am

I only flew a 206 on aerocets a couple times, but they flew pretty much the same as 3430's i'd flown previously. However, aerocet has all of the tin floats' beat in 2 areas... First is they dont leak... Unless you punch a hole through a compartment or taxi around in big enough water to continuously have water washing over them you'll only have to pump the condensation out about once a month... Second is they're super strong... Saw pic's of a 206 that someone had ran out of lake on takeoff and ran it up on the beach a hundred or so feet, busted all of the struts and if i recall correctly left the plane sitting on the spreader bars, but the floats only had a few scratches in the gelcoat...

Rowdy · Post by **Rowdy** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 7:04 pm

I've flown on Caps and Edo's only...

so far I like the edo's 100000 times more.

Would like to check out those aerocets and get a bit closer to a pair of whips just to see what the deal is.

Curious as to what the most common -2 floats are?

Brint · Post by **Brint** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 11:52 am

Probably the Edos

Dog · Post by **Dog** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 10:06 am

Bubbaganoosh wrote:Yeah, whips look ok, but they are crap otherwise, I flew a DH-2T on those and it did not perform especially well either, not bad, but you could not load the crap out of it (like 6 or 7 hundred or more o/g) like you might expect for a turbine. Also, the forward spreader bar had a stupid faring over it, the faring was continually falling apart and being duct taped together, and the float compartment lids were very poorly designed. Just an all around lousy float for a bush plane, I would have loved to compare it's performance on a set of edo's.

Um, I'm curious about your experience with the Turbo Beaver. For one thing we fly them legaly at 6000 lbs (630 lbs above stock, Viking STC) and they're fine. Really the only limit to loading the airplane is the floatation and that's probably a good thing. It sounds like whoever was maintaining your floats had their own problems as I've spent many thousands of hours around wippys and I've never seen the fairing come off.
Having said all that I'm not a big fan of the Wips. I've flown the 3450s, 6100, 8000 and 13000. The 8's on a Caravan are badly under-floated in the back and the decks submarine with a legal load in the plane. In fact, the only plane I like them on is the Turbo Beaver. I only flew the 13's once so I'll reserve judgment 'till I have more experience there. People either love them or hate them on the Twin Otter; there seems to be no middle ground.
The best improvment I've seen in performance was the Aerocet float on the 185. Better out of the water, faster cruise, better hatches and storage, nice rigging, and no leaks!

Has anyone had experience with the new Beaver amphib composite floats? They look great. It's too bad they only displace 5300 lbs though.