Hi Glenn - that did it, getting the aircraft airborne allowed the floats to go up and down.  Thx for all your help.

Nigel

Sooo ... finally got around to trying the fake water rudder hack from the MSFS forums. 

Basically the real Goose never had a water rudder and relied on asymmetrical thrust to turn when on the water but asymmetrical thrust is broken in the game at present.

 

The hack involves changing the max_number_of_points in the  [CONTACT_POINTS] section of flight_model.cfg for the addon and adding a new line:

Quote

 

[CONTACT_POINTS]

static_pitch = 4.00 ; Degrees
static_cg_height = 3.750 ; Feet
gear_system_type = 0 ; Electric
tailwheel_lock = 1 ; Is tailwheel lock available TRUE/FALSE
max_number_of_points = 10 ; Number of contact points

;---- Aircraft Scrape Points
point.3 = 4, 3.589, -2.692, -2.200, 7500, 0, 0.000, 0.000, 0.500, 2.500, 0.700, 0.000, 0.000, 0 ; 
point.4 = 4, 3.589, 2.691, -2.200, 7500, 0, 0.000, 0.000, 0.500, 2.500, 0.700, 0.000, 0.000, 0 ; 
point.5 = 4, -15.249, -1.794, -1.250, 4500, 0, 0.000, 0.000, 0.500, 2.500, 0.700, 0.000, 0.000, 5 ; 
point.6 = 4, -15.249, 1.794, -1.250, 4500, 0, 0.000, 0.000, 0.500, 2.500, 0.700, 0.000, 0.000, 5 ; 
;point.7=4,  -2.45,-16.146,  -1.73, 3700, 0, 0.0,    0, 0.50, 2.5, 0.70, 12.0, 12.0, 5, 0, 0
point.7 = 4, -2.450, -20.300, -1.730, 3700, 0, 0.000, 0.000, 0.500, 2.500, 0.700, 12.000, 12.000, 5 
;point.8=4,  -2.45, 16.146,  -1.73, 3700, 0, 0.0,    0, 0.50, 2.5, 0.70, 14.0, 14.0, 5, 0, 0
point.8 = 4, -2.450, 20.300, -1.730, 3700, 0, 0.000, 0.000, 0.500, 2.500, 0.700, 14.000, 14.000, 5 
point.9 = 4,  -15.5,  0.0,  -2.1,    0, 0, 0.0,   20, 0.00, 0.0, 1.00,  0.0,  0.0, 0, 0, 0 ;

 

 

 

Seems to work. Here is a video I knocked up of the Goose taxi-ing out from the Circular Quay Ferry terminal towards the Sydney Harbour Bridge (Orbx addon scenery), there is no way I could turn like this in the original version: