Quite a talented chap, our George
But the numbers still came out wrong, and the straight floatplane was a couple of hundred pounds in TOW above predictions. The nose wheel in the wipline amphib floats ruined the lines and aerodynamics completely, and removed the three hundred pounds -such is the fickleness of it all. That was the trouble with designing for the OEI ceiling. A little bit of drag was worth a lot in TOW.
Serial 28 was to be the original floatplane, but only had the nose fittings (apparently the rest was going to be OJT at Wipline), but it was sold into west papua and stacked in bad weather. There was an attempt to convert three more to amphibs at wipaire, but I think only one was semi finished, and descended into some sort of legal fiasco. 83 still flies out of Florida and is maintained by "Thommo" who used to work at Avalon.