On 02 Sep 2003 15:51:22 GMT, Stan Gosnell
wrote:

"Walter Hawn" wrote in
:

Fixed floats are always in the way when you enter and exit the
aircraft. Serious loss of cruise speed. Memory is 90 kts IAS vs 100,
105 on six-pack. Reduce max gross, 3000 vs 3200 for B3.
Exaggerate pitch and especially roll when you're on boat, rig, or any
surface with motion. Especially boats.
Wally

Or wind. Sit on a pitching barge with about 30 kts of wind with fixed
floats, & you're just about out of control because it pitches so far. It
gets bad on a fixed surface with the wind. Add motion from the surface,
and you often can't crank or shut down.

There are also some problems with everyday maintenance operations.
When moving the aircraft on ground, in and out of hangar etc., it is
very easy to puncture them (This is from personal experience during my
national service years ago. Fortunately it was quite easy to patch
them too. Like patching a bicycle tire.)

Also during winter time they needed adjustment of pressure every time
when moved outside from hangar or back in to prevent sagging when
cooling down to outside temperature or bursting when brought back
inside.

Mikko