HobbyZoneFloat Set: AeroScout 1.1m, HBZ3811

These are very well built. They are not easy to take off and seem difficult to put back on when they are assembled. Very pricey for what they are.

The media could not be loaded.  Allows for year around flying. A perfect addition.

I haven’t even had an opportunity to fly the floats because attaching them is terrible. The nylon inserts in the floats are too tight for the M3x45mm screws. As I was tightening them, the head of one screw twisted off leaving the shaft inside the float. I could try drilling it out, but this shouldn’t have happened in the first place. Also, the floats can’t easily be removed and re-installed making switching from floats to wheels or vice versa difficult. I’ve emailed Hobby Zone about the broken screw. I’ll update my review when appropriate.

The Aeroscout is a good plane, but do not attempt to install the float set. It is very poorly designed. 1) The water rudder requires mating the rudder itself on a shaft. The problem is that the predrilled holes in the rudder are too small, so the screw puts pressure on one side of the shaft and will split the shaft like a wishbone. I had to epoxy them together. 2) the screws that mount to floats to the strut are very long and way to snug. I could not get them to tighten down completely without them starting to strip. This is renders the whole structure very unstable and unsafe to fly. I tried to take up some of the play between the float and the strut by tying rubber bands between them (pictured). That worked as a stopgap, but this is a completely unacceptable design problem. 3) The struts that hold the floats on under the plane don’t mount easily like some other planes. You need to disassemble the entire float/strut structure every time you want to remove them. Given the problems described in #2 above, you are almost guaranteed to strip the screws after a few assembly/disassembly cycles.

They suck to put on and take off this is now my permanent lake plane. The floats take on water taking off and landing from the strut mounts. Made drain holes on top 1 1/2” from the tip of the float and rock the duct tape special on it to cover the holes