What's the attraction to Floats vs Amphibian?

[raymar 969]

Is there any advantage to have a float plane over an amphibian? Seems like most bush pilots seem to always be waiting for the "floats only" version to come out, but, most everyone brings the amplib to market first. Any reasoning behind that, I wonder.RayM

[Yoda967 23]

Ray,I'd venture to guess that they want the floats version because there are many more of them in service than there are of the amphibious variant.

[Guest BeaverDriver]

Is there any advantage to have a float plane over an amphibian? Seems like most bush pilots seem to always be waiting for the "floats only" version to come out, but, most everyone brings the amplib to market first. Any reasoning behind that, I wonder.RayM

Easy answer to that one :( . Amphibs cost you about 200 or more pounds of payload due to the gear. 1) Most bush operators work on a pretty tight budget, especially if they don't operate in the winter (all their $ is made during the open water season). They can't afford to be leaving people or cargo behind (200 lbs is the equivalent to 1.2 persons)2) The aircraft doesn't perform as well due again to the extra load. 3) the maintenance is much higher to keep the gear operating correctly, especially under hard bush operations where protruding wheels (some float models have the front wheels sticking forward of the front bumper a bit) sometimes contact rocks, docks and whatnot. 4) There are 2 kinds of amphibian pilots - those who have landed on water with the gear down, or a runway with the gear up, and those who are going to :( . That means higher insurance and higher risk of having an airplane out of commission for a significant period of time, and/or passengers getting bumped off.There are a few bush operations that do use amphibs, but they are few and far between. Most bush operators (working ones) also mainly operate from lakes or rivers, where a runway is not handy anyway. That said, I did fly a 206 and a Beaver out of Winnipeg International (Canada) to northwestern Ontario for a few weeks that were on amphibs. I must say, the performance of both those airplanes were pretty bad compared to the straight float version for either. And, the pilot who succeeded me there, landed the Beaver in the river - gear down. I think the operator was finished for the summer at that point.There ya go, hope that answers your question (and a good question at that - those points aren't normally thought of by most :( )

[Guest Sky_6]

There are 2 kinds of amphibian pilots - those who have landed on water with the gear down, or a runway with the gear up, and those who are going to :( .

Yep...This is what happens... :(

So raymar, That is the attraction to floats over amphibs. Like Beaver said, its only a matter of time with an amphib.Hey guys, btw,I have just purchased TONGASS FJORDS X scenery package, if you luv to fly bush..this is a must have. I have some screen shotz of it,come over and check them out : http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/show...to-Schaft-Creek

[raymar 969]

Easy answer to that one :( . Amphibs cost you about 200 or more pounds of payload due to the gear. 1) Most bush operators work on a pretty tight budget, especially if they don't operate in the winter (all their $ is made during the open water season). They can't afford to be leaving people or cargo behind (200 lbs is the equivalent to 1.2 persons)2) The aircraft doesn't perform as well due again to the extra load. 3) the maintenance is much higher to keep the gear operating correctly, especially under hard bush operations where protruding wheels (some float models have the front wheels sticking forward of the front bumper a bit) sometimes contact rocks, docks and whatnot. 4) There are 2 kinds of amphibian pilots - those who have landed on water with the gear down, or a runway with the gear up, and those who are going to :( . That means higher insurance and higher risk of having an airplane out of commission for a significant period of time, and/or passengers getting bumped off.There are a few bush operations that do use amphibs, but they are few and far between. Most bush operators (working ones) also mainly operate from lakes or rivers, where a runway is not handy anyway. That said, I did fly a 206 and a Beaver out of Winnipeg International (Canada) to northwestern Ontario for a few weeks that were on amphibs. I must say, the performance of both those airplanes were pretty bad compared to the straight float version for either. And, the pilot who succeeded me there, landed the Beaver in the river - gear down. I think the operator was finished for the summer at that point.There ya go, hope that answers your question (and a good question at that - those points aren't normally thought of by most :( )

Thanks for the answers guys. This is way better than google.RayM

[Guest BeaverDriver]

Yep...This is what happens... :(

So raymar,That is the attraction to floats over amphibs. Like Beaver said, its only a matter of time with an amphib.Hey guys, btw,I have just purchased TONGASS FJORDS X scenery package, if you luv to fly bush..this is a must have. I have some screen shotz of it,come over and check them out : http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/show...to-Schaft-Creek

Man, that's painful to watch :(

[Donmo 6]

HA! HA! HA! The solution: CHECK LIST - USE IT! Don

[Guest sg38]

@ Beaverdriver,Thanx a lot for this very informative comparison.It's really interesting to learn about things which are NOT connected to airline flying :)