What if anything can I haul on the out side of my airplane. I have a folding boat that I want to fly with me. I have done it a couple of times but heard it's not legal. This is just for personal use. It works very good and us heavy straps to hold it on with. Haven't seen and negative flying from it on there.

That depends if your aircraft is equipped with an approved rack or not.

Since January 1st, 2011 you require a STC for external loads approved by transport Canada and stamped by an engineer. Although the STC and the Stamp don't make it any easier is does give you the right to do it and should something happen your CofA and Cof Insurance are still valid.
Should an accident occur and you have no STC your CofA is void. Once you have an Engineer approved method and STC that will determine whether or not you require a rack. Some aircraft are approved for racks and others are not.

The way I have been doing it is to strap it to the float structure. If I don't us a bracket do I still need an Stc?

Sadly still illegal even though lots of float planes have been flying around for 60+ years with external loads some pencil pusher decided that engineering diagrams and certification is required now to say you can do it. Put it this way if you don't crash no one will ever know if you do it without the STC

There is absolutly no restriction to carrying an external load on any aircraft unless it is opererated un CAR VII subpart 3 and the aircraft is carrying passengers. If you are private there are no retrictions, if you are 703 there are no restrictions unless you are carrying passengers.

External loads have been carried on float planes ever since float planes have been used.

The most important issue is proper attaching / strapping / tieing of the load.....and of course the load can safely be carried on the airplane you are flying.

The folding boats |I have seen have pieces of wood to stiffen them. Don't try and fly the boat unless thy are inside the boat! I saw a beautiful Pa-12 crash because the front of boat bent over resulting in loss of control and a spiral into the water.

If you guys had any education in engineering, it would be clear to you how tying a boat to some thin tubes that are attached to the plane with a pair of 7/16ths bolts is a lot safer than tying the boat directly to the float struts. AND you would see how holding the boat away from the fuselage and angled into the wind so it acts as a giant scoop helps the plane go faster in the air. It's not up to us to criticize this breakthrough in external-load technology. As long as you follow the air regulations, you are guaranteed to be safe. Besides, tying a large object to the side of a plane is a trivial matter: It's one of those things that can be taken lightly.

Ya the regulations are so stupid. They should let us just do whatever we want and fly float planes how we want. Fly them overloaded like it's been done forever, fly them with unapproved external loads because it's been like that forever, oh but they should definitely change the whole approval for the float rating. That shit has got to change because its rediculous that you can get a float rating in a weekend and all, I mean, how can you possibly learn in a weekend how to strap an illegal external load and master the art of float flying in 7hrs?

B-rad wrote:Ya the regulations are so stupid. They should let us just do whatever we want and fly float planes how we want. Fly them overloaded like it's been done forever, fly them with unapproved external loads because it's been like that forever, oh but they should definitely change the whole approval for the float rating. That shit has got to change because its rediculous that you can get a float rating in a weekend and all, I mean, how can you possibly learn in a weekend how to strap an illegal external load and master the art of float flying in 7hrs?

Do you have a float rating?? Pretty inflammatory statements.

Though the wording was a bit combative I think B-rad is wondering why Cat wants more regulation regarding float training. Yet less regulation put in place because we are losing knowledge about trying external loads on planes.

The Regulation is there to prevent me in ignorance looking at a 75 year old picture of a boat tied to a plane and thinking. "I should be able to do that with my boat on the rental 172 after hours."

Any of you flown with plywood sheets on the spreader bars of a Cesna 180 on floats?



I have been told it can be done...but I am too chicken to do so!

Cheers

I hauled 8" of stacked plywood on the spreader bars often. Alllways screwed the plywood together, tied two ropes from front to back spreader bar, and two ropes from side to side. Never had a problem.

Thanks

How many would you carry per trip? How does it affect flight characteristics? I am assuming you are flying a c 180?

Will need more lumber for the cabin next summer...really curious if I can get to do this!

Never counted the sheets, all depended if they were 3/4' 1/2 etc. I was flying a 185 and would haul 8" of plywood. I would count it back to 6" on the 180 and your first trip. If you like how it flies add a few more.

tazin river wrote:Any of you flown with plywood sheets on the spreader bars of a Cesna 180 on floats?



I have been told it can be done...but I am too chicken to do so!

Cheers

It'll work fine but I'd take it down to 2 or 3 inches to start. Plywood is about 100 pounds per inch so even 6 inches is quite a significant amount to strap on the outside of your machine. Limit your airspeed to 100-110 knots on descent.

Somebody just needs to make a Super-Otter with a door big enough for an 18' lund. That qould solve 95% of the external load issues. I'd also suggest an integrated I-beam in the wing with a sliding block and tackle, and a 1200 HP Turbo prop single.

Why do DHC bushplanes need an STC to haul a boat? It's in the POH as part of the Type Certificate.