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Has anyone had any kind of bunk system installed for their aircraft? We are looking at building a boathouse for our aircraft. The aircraft would be stowed out of the water on a lift inside the boathouse. Has anyone had issues with creating a bunk system? The goal would be to replicate the bunks that they have for their trailers, but wanted to see if anyone had first hand experience in building a lift/bunk for the plane.

Thanks!

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Just be mindful of the extreme shift in C of G if you plan to fold the wings. The standard bunks you see under the main fuselage/seawings is adequate for a normal C of G. once the wings are folded, the C of G shifts to near the center of the wheels (1 cm forward, seems like. At that point, your bungs would need to carry a lot of weight behind the step. Brett may have some wisdom for you. If you fold before you lift, the tail will sink. Good luck!

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Thanks Michel. Interesting point. We've always beached the plane at our lake property, and there's been times that I've needed to fold the wings while it's beached, and I've experienced some interesting CG shifts, but I never thought about what that would do to the plane if we were to try float it on it's hull after the wings are folded. Thank you for that insight.

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I believe that is the main reason electric folding wings would never have worked (gross weight aside) because some pilots would want to fold them as they are docking and the tail would go straight down.

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I hope you figure it out and can post some pics when it's done. I had the thought that if I ever had the setup to do this that I'd also want to try to get really fancy and find a way to have the bunks on a lazy Susan so I could spin the plane back the other way before launching - obviously the swing/rotation of the wingtips (not folded I assumed) would have to be accounted for in the building dimensions as well.

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Marc, David Mullane owner of ASN 40 has a really need bunk/rotary system at his lake house in CT. I will reach out to him and ask if he would be willing to contact you directly. If so I will send him your number.

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Marc, David Mullane owner of ASN 40 has a really need bunk/rotary system at his lake house in CT. I will reach out to him and ask if he would be willing to contact you directly. If so I will send him your number.

I am looking forward to seeing this!

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I believe that is the main reason electric folding wings would never have worked (gross weight aside) because some pilots would want to fold them as they are docking and the tail would go straight down.

With people in the plane the CG shift is not really an issue (until deplaning at which point hopefully the plane is stopped!)

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Marc, David Mullane owner of ASN 40 has a really need bunk/rotary system at his lake house in CT. I will reach out to him and ask if he would be willing to contact you directly. If so I will send him your number.

Any pics of this anywhere?

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Have you ever tried folding the wings while in the cockpit? Can you imagine the scene while deplaning on water after the wings are folded and you are already pointing into the sky... Would have been something to watch.

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Have you ever tried folding the wings while in the cockpit? Can you imagine the scene while deplaning on water after the wings are folded and you are already pointing into the sky... Would have been something to watch.

hahahaha!! Actually I was addressing the automatic wing-fold (i.e. that plane would tip back) - but if pilot did that on water while in cockpit, the CG would still be well within the wheelbase.

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Wheelbase yes, but water does not care about where the wheels sit. I would love for someone to sit solo in his/her icon in 2 feet of water and have helpers fold the wings to see what angle the plane would take. There is very little flotation in the tail and the wings would become "floaters". If anyone has done this, please let me know or send photo. I know some of our members have folded while beached but probably never had someone fold while in cockpit AND floating... When I am back in Ottawa area this summer Dathan we need to experiment.

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Hey Michael, using wheelbase as reference area. On land, with wings folded, CG is fore of mains (just). With say 180 lbs of passenger weight ahead of the mains the CG will move forward substantially from there.

But when the plane is empty of people it’s a different story. CG will still be fore of mains which means significantly fore of seawing trailing edge (since mains retract into them) so the tail should not drop to any significant degree.

That said, I’m curious too!