1st N3N fly-in ever!!

[N3Njeff]

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

Forgot to add. There is currently a N3N project on Barnstormers that was a duster and it still retains it P&W 1340.

[Jiggersfromsphilly]

Thats great. I am interested. He may be able to get in now that iit is being developed as an industrial park.

[marine air]

Thanks for the pics. Do you know where the Ebay one went to and how much it sold for? A friend invited me to his EAA Chapter meeting in a couple of weeks and they are doing a presentation on the N3N. Apparently someone in middle Tenneseee has bought one that is airworthy.
I know it's a "pipe dream" but the one's still set up as crop dusters interest me because I have a farm and grass strip and could actually get some use out of it in that configuration. A Stearman would be a good choice also but the N3N is way more cool.

[N3Njeff]

Where is that in TN????? The airplane going to be there????? I am only over 2 hrs from you and I would love to attend.

[Danno5691]

A few questions:

1) How rare are the N3N floats and gear to obtain to put it on the water?

2) Were there N3N's built specifically just for floats and not gear? In other words, were there specific land and sea versions, or were both built with interchanageable gear?

3) How hard would it be to convert a land-based N3N to a float plane version?

Great thread!

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.

I do have some pictures of the current installation if interested.