Fiber Floats next spring on M5

[Clearwater]

Hello,
New to this forum... Thanks Christine for letting me on.
I bought a 1975 m5-210c last year. This year I bought a set of Fiber floats that appeared to me to be in good condition and well stored. It has all the rigging, vertical fin, parts and paperwork.

I'm looking for an A&P or FBO that has a little experience with fiberfloats in Minnesota? If there any still out there?

Appreciate any referrals.
Clearwater

[MAU MAU]

It may help if you call the manufacturer of the floats and ask if they have any authorized installers in your area.

In the land of a thousand lakes, I am sure you will have a blast!

Please post some pictures when you have them installed.

[maules.com]

Clearwater, check the pork chop fittings for symmetry, often one of the four was off by a couple of degrees which makes it impossible to rig.
After mounting and attempting to rig them on land, final adjustments to rigging parallel and cant must be done on water.
Check the cross braces as early ones were extended Maule oleos and later ones had rubber donuts. Also check supplements whether you need the deep droop wingtips or the bigger ventral fin.
Fully clean and seal all electrical connections in the aft compartment and double check the hydraulic rams are not bent and can move full travel.
These are a wonderfully different float and can achieve things that no other float can but keeping them dry and rigged correctly is paramount.
The company is a Florida boat builder and I dont think they have any parts left as the floats have not been in production since mid eighties.

[Clearwater]

Thanks Jeremy,
I knew the company was defunk but also knew that there where people still using them. For the money I paid for the plane it seemed reasonable.
The floats are at a hangar a couple hours away and I'll be picking them up soon.

The ventral fin and droop wing tips were included. And they have the rubber donuts and edo rudders, but not sure about the pork chop symmetry?

Do you know anyone in Northern MN still flying with these?

[maules.com]

I don't know anyone using them in MN.
I do see them in apparent use here and there in AK and WA but don't recollect the owners.
Winter storage method is important. Best if fully drained and kept upside down or in a non freeze area because if water has been allowed to get between laminates through lack of care, freezing will delaminates them.
One of the great advantages of them were the hydraulic/electric steering doors, pity yours are converted.
They originally had no ventral, just the tips. A number were mounted and certified with standard M5 droop tips and a large size ventral fin.
Lack of care and poor ops or understanding re the steering doors contributed to their demise. The bottoms are tough enough to run up on rocks and one time I got hooked up on a vertical 3/4" rebar with no damage.
The doors allowed a turning radius pivoting at wing tiedown plus they cod be used to trim the plane in flight. Operation was by yoke mounted electric toggle switch..

[Clearwater]

[/url]

[akholland]

Do you happen to have any paperwork on them that you would be willing to copy or send photos of?
My 79' M5 came with an identical pair to yours and the guy passed away so no paperwork.... Solid rubber struts and dual water rudders. Their currently sanded down awaiting glass repairs and a repaint. they weighed about 140lb each with no rigging on them. They were originally water logged and so they were basically freebies. Seem to have dried out though since I've stored them properly. A guy pm'd me recently here and said he had a pair for sale but I dont think he ever gave me a price. I am just lacking one of the pork chops which has some intergranular corrosion delaminating it. Probably going to just have one made at a machine shop.

I called everywhere and there is nobody that has any info and no companies that seem to give any support for these.

[Clearwater]

Sure,
I haven't found anyone that supports these either.
I have the install instructions, stc, blueprints and some part prints.
Send me an email address and I'll send what I have. It might be a few days as they're at my office and it will be a few days till I have a chance to convert them to a PDF. Emmel_777@hotmail.com