Bill, the 'brakes' thing came from a discussion Manuele (mvg3d) and I were having about his Cant 506 once upon a time. I've deleted the PM's but it was something he'd noticed as had I. IIRC, he suggested I try the brakes and it worked (somewhat) along with rocking the plane in all axes. I think he made an adjustment afterward to the contact points and uploaded a revision, but that was months ago and, well.. memory you know....
Whatever it is, playing with the brakes on a flying boat/floater is not an optimal fix but might get you airborne once in a while.