3400 Amphibs
Aerocet, Inc. is pleased to announce that they have recently received FAA certification on their Amphibious Model 3400 Composite Floats (TSO) and their application to Cessna 180 and 185 model aircraft (STC’s). This is the culmination of five years of engineering, testing (including 500 hrs of flight testing), and report writing.
With confidence of over 11 years of the 3500 straight floats working commercially, Aerocet, Inc. directed its attention to bring that basic design to the black-top – the 3400 Amphibious Model for these airplanes. A major benefit is the added floatation, giving safety of operation in comparison to the older lower floatation floats
Getting the proper mix of composite materials (no corrosion or rivets to leak), construction methods, and hydrodynamics have allowed the straight floats to perform to very high standards. As with any new design, there were challenges with the amphibs, but the flight test results have shown the floats to be better than estimated. There has been no performance lost with the added landing gear when taking off on water. This is virtually unheard of in the float-flying world, but every pilot who has taken the yoke agrees, the performance of the 3500 straight floats has been matched by the new 3400 amphibs.
A tremendous amount of work went into the landing gear design for the floats. The object was to keep the design simple, be able to CNC machine literally all the components in house, and give a great handling gear for runway landings. The floats use a very simple but effective oleo main gear and fiberglass spring nose gear with a castering nose wheel. Displacement loss for the main wheel wells has been minimized because of the custom shaped composite gear boxes. Trailing arm link configuration for the main gear makes landings a breeze. Do not forget how high up you are when landing, however. On any of these aircraft the pilot’s position is about that of any of the small commercial jets.
The Aerocet 3400 Amphibious Floats are designed to handle airplanes with gross weights up to 3775 pounds and certification work is continuing for various other model aircraft. These floats still work very well on the lighter 180 aircraft especially accompanied by gross weight increase kits (read discussion in the straight float section). Float weight with all the rigging is 651 pounds with an exchange weight (minus regular gear) of 516 pounds. The versatility of amphibious floats is unmatched, but plan on giving up a passenger for being able to land both on water and on land versus straight floats.
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