Warbird Information Exchange

Are there any N3n's still flying as crop dusters or with the crop dusting equipment still installed?

1) Not as common as the amount of aircraft currently flown. But there are many aircraft out there that are flown on wheels that the owners have a complete set of floats for it!! stuff still surfaces from time to time so it can be done.Complete asemblies are getting harder and harder, we now have 5 complete sets, 1 on one of the planes, one restored to factory specs for display and show, one getting reskinned currently and two waiting for rework. If you know of any get ahold of me. A poor center float needing massive restoration will still cost around $50k without the tip pods.

2) Any N3N can be on either floats or gear. Made to be interchangeable.Correction, No not all N3N-3's can be converted unless you change out the bottom wings. The attach points are not on all N's produced. only about 100 were converted to set on floats. Trust me, we found out the hard way.

3) No harder than putting your C-185 on a set of floats. Everything is bolt on. In the top wing, is a eye hook ( N3N at Pensacola hangs from it). Hoist it up, remove the gear. Take off the covers at the fuselage attach points and bolt on the center float and rig wires. Install wing tip floats and set on dolly.Surprisingly it's not all ahrd if you have everything figured out. AND if the plane was origionally set up for floats and you aquire ALL the hardware. We raised the fuse and slipped the float under in about two hours. But remember, the Navy was not anticipating swapping the floats and conventional gear out on a regular bases. Only if there was damage. But to set a 2200lb plane on one you do need some proper rigging or a "Gradall" It's been a rather uneventful experience so far.

I have not done it personally but I am told, it can be done before lunchtime.