There are scads of Challengers operating on floats and living outdoors for years without problems. We don't know a single Challenger owner who has done anything special for corrosion protection in freshwater environments.

Challenger owners who live on the coasts with salty air and spray don't seem to do anything special to protect their airplanes. People we've heard of who float fly on salt water are all religious about rinsing thoroughly with fresh water after each exposure. I would put lots of seaplane drain grommets in the fuselage to allow the fresh water to flush out any salt residue.

The 6061-T6 and 2024-T3 aluminum used in the Challenger is highly resistant to corrosion. All the hardware is AN. Puddlejumper floats are fiberglass and use 6061-T6 for the spreader bars, whisker struts, mounting plates, etc. All the float nuts and bolts are stainless steel. PJ offers a Salt Water Operations package of special bearings, bushings, axles and other parts for new floats.

In saltwater environments the Challenger would be no more susceptible to corrosion than any other aircraft and, for the reasons given above, probably less. The same would apply to the installed accessories.

Here is what the Challenger factory has written about galvanic corrosion - pay particular attention to the main gear leg weldments and the tail post weldments:

"Galvanic action takes place when bare steel is in contact with bare aluminum. We paint the inside of the weldments before installation which helps a lot. If the customer is worried about it, he can drill out the rivets through the steel weldments and brush paint some zinc chromate primer in all the holes and then install new rivets. Or just seal the tail post and main gear weldments - by painting them with a few coats of Rustoleum spray paint until there is no way for water to find it's way between the steel and aluminum. 6061 T6 is fairly tolerant of galvanic action corrosion but 2024 T3 not as much. 6061 T6 has it's own coat of oxidation which protects it further. The main area of concern is the tail post weldments. Seal these good inside and out and inside the rear longerons. Lithium grease works well as it repels water but Rustoleum paint works just as well. "

Some commercial operators whose planes live in saltwater full time use a variety of anti-corrosion treatments - there is no reason why you couldn't use the same treatments during assembly if you so desired.

One professional Challenger builder before covering sprayed the airframe with an epoxy primer having a zinc chromate base. He got the materials from UAP and used 2/3 gallon of each of Dupont Mason 491-17 Etch Primer and Dupont Mason 441-43 Activator (mixed 1- 1).

He also said that if desired the AN hardware could be sprayed with LPS-3 (which is like a beeswax). Two more comments: the main gear legs are 2024-T3 which can be primed and the Rony brackets are 7075-T6 so the finish should not be scratched.

An old saltwater pro suggested ACF-50 and said it would not hurt the fabric. ACF- 50 is a magic potion used by the US Coast Guard and many other marine operators:

http://www.copanational.org/PRaircraftproducts-3.cfm

http://www.learchem.com/products/acf-50.html

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/appages/acf50.php

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/pdf/ACF-50-BROCHURE.pdf

All the Challenger cables are easily accessible and very easily changed at any time, and at very little cost. It is unlikely this will be necessary however... The cables run through teflon-like sleeves so if you are concerned about salt get a cable luber and flood the sleeves with ACF-50 anti-corrosion lubricant:

http://www.aircraftspruce.ca/catalog/cspages/cablelubeblock.php?clickkey=53628

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG6JO9f0Q6U

Here is some advice on electrical wiring from a sailor who spent years on saltwater in the tropics:

"For electrical wire supplies, whenever an open bare end is showing, use Liquid Electrical Tape to seal off the ends. Whenever you crimp a fitting, smother with liquid electrical tape even if it is shrink sealed. Plug-in connections, whether out in the weather or not, should be sprayed with good corrosion preventer regularly. Products that I recommend are Corrosion Block, Boeshield T-9, Corrosion X depending on your specific needs at the time. As an aside, to keep from losing the little red spray doodad, tape a drinking straw to the side of the can and put the little red, easily lost spray thing in it. It has been said that in the event that some piece of electrical equipment gets soaked with salt spray, rinse with fresh water, then spray with Corrosion Block or T-9. It has been reported by surprised sailors that this actually works!"

The cost of the materials is insignificant - you just have to decide for yourself if the effort is really worthwhile. We suggest an annual inspection more detailed than the norm. For example removing and inspecting the strut attach brackets and hardware doesn't take a significant amount of time but would provide significant peace of mind. You could also put more than the usual number of inspection covers in the fabric in key locations to allow easy access for examination.