Postby Timothy Huff » March 4th, 2019, 2:11 pm
I love the weathering/distressing of the heel-plates. The screws probably ought to be countersunk, as something that could arrest your heel when applying rudder would be undesirable from a pilot's point of view. Regarding the flotation etc. My guess is that a bilge-pump that can clear a lot of water quickly would be prohibitively heavy. On the other hand, trying to take-off with a keel full of water from a previous flight, migrating to the rear fuselage as it accelerates could "end badly", so it's clearly an important issue.
Do the skis have any intrinsic buoyancy themselves? I figure they must do to keep the fuselage clear of the water before takeoff.. If so, the answer may be to add buoyancy to the upper fuselage, and put electrics on the midline, so whether it's on its skis, or capsized, the batteries etc remain above the waterline in both cases. Now that I come to think on it, I think self-righting would be very difficult, in much the same way as righting a capsized sailing boat is difficult if the sail is under-water.
The other line of thought you might like to look at is provision for a removeable bag of a suitable dessicant, which would be removed before flight, which might mitigate corrosion within the fuselage of metal and electrical components. it could be something simple like a muslin bag of rice...