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-15 Height when on Floats... Long term dreaming.

Jvon811

Well Known Member
I know this is planning about 6-9 steps with the cart before the horse, but I think it will make a difference in QOL in the future...

I recently moved to an airpark home without a hangar and I'm in the process of designing and building my dream hangar before my RV-15 kit arrives :D

I'm planning on a 14' tall door. My thought was a Cessna 185 on anphibs is 12'8" to the top of the tail and 14' should be sufficient. After some more looking around on the internet, several websites including the Schweiss Bi-Fold Door Website has charts with various floatplane heights with the Murphy Rebel on anphibs being one of them coming in at "13.9'" It seems to be a user input sort of data table. I'm not sure if they actually meant 13.9' or 13'9" on the Murphy tail height but either way, that's pretty close to my 14' planned door opening.

Which got me thinking about my future -15... That tail looked pretty tall... And if I remember correctly, it was mentioned at Oshkosh of possibly making it taller for a seaplane tail... It would be a real bummer to spend all this money to build a 60x60 dream hangar, then spend a lot of time and effort building an RV-15 just to find out several years from now it'll never fit in the hangar on floats.

So my long winded question is: Does anyone at the mothership know of a possible top super secret CAD drawing of a RV-15 on anphibs and could estimate the height of the airplane for me? Not looking for specifics, just weather I should go for a 14' door or taller?

Thank you.
 
I know this doesn't answer the question, but it's just fun to think about...
 

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Plan for a Super Cub on amphibious floats; that ought to allow for a -15 and when the hangar needs to be sold it will accommodate at least a SCub.
 
14' door

If I were building a hangar, I would not put less than a 14' high hangar door on it regardless of whether I wanted an amphib in there.

That being said, the only popular GA aircraft over 14' tall on amphibs are turboprops - turbine Beaver, Otter, Caravan, Kodiak. A 185 has a pretty tall tail, and it is less than 14' on amphibs, and so is a Beaver on amphibs, so I think you'd be good if you sized it at 14'.
 
You could always lower the tail/raise the nose while you're putting the plane in the hangar if it's "close" and you have the ceiling height inside.
 
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