Amphibian vs Floatplane

Capt.Crash'n'Burn

Capt.Crash'n'Burn

Cleared for Takeoff
Joined
Jun 9, 2010
Messages
1,097
Location
Lompton,CA
Display Name
Display name:
Capt.Crash'n'Burn
I was browsing amphibious airplanes for sale and I noticed that Cessna built both an amphibian and a floatplane (they both look the same to me). The Wiki article on the 185 indicates that the amphibian is heavier and slower than the floatplane.

Does anyone know the differences between the 2 models??
 
A float plane has no wheels.


Capt.Crash'n'Burn said:
I was browsing amphibious airplanes for sale and I noticed that Cessna built both an amphibian and a floatplane (they both look the same to me). The Wiki article on the 185 indicates that the amphibian is heavier and slower than the floatplane.

Does anyone know the differences between the 2 models??
Click to expand...
 
To expand on Steve's explanation, a float plane has no wheels. Therefore, it can ONLY land on water. An Amphibian has wheels that retract into the floats for water landings. Extended, they can land on land. Hence the moniker, Amphibian.
 
I suspect that one came from the factory with amphibious floats, with hydraulically-controlled wheels, while the other came with straight floats.

As an aside, I saw a Lake the other day come to a float plane party by landing on a short gravel strip lakeside with brush swacking the wingtips. Never had a chance to ask him why.

As another aside, I saw this sweet Supercub on amphibs a few weeks ago.
 

Attachments

  • ImageUploadedByTapatalk.jpg
    ImageUploadedByTapatalk.jpg
    22.6 KB · Views: 35
Greg Bockelman said:
To expand on Steve's explanation, a float plane has no wheels. Therefore, it can ONLY land on water. An Amphibian has wheels that retract into the floats for water landings. Extended, they can land on land. Hence the moniker, Amphibian.
Click to expand...

Float planes can (and often do) land on wet grass. They use a dolly to take off. The place the plane on the dolly, and it takes off, leaving the dolly on the ground. I suspect the unmanned dolly rolling down the runway at 60 - 70 mph can be interesting.
 
Greg Bockelman said:
To expand on Steve's explanation, a float plane has no wheels. Therefore, it can ONLY land on water. An Amphibian has wheels that retract into the floats for water landings. Extended, they can land on land. Hence the moniker, Amphibian.
Click to expand...


I take offense to that explanation......:D

I don't have floats...!
 
Talked yesterday to the guy who was flying the Maule that landed gear-down in Lake Dallas earlier this year. The woman riding along was killed. Sad deal.
 
Steve Foley said:
Float planes can (and often do) land on wet grass. They use a dolly to take off. The place the plane on the dolly, and it takes off, leaving the dolly on the ground. I suspect the unmanned dolly rolling down the runway at 60 - 70 mph can be interesting.
Click to expand...

I've seen videos of float planes taking off from a trailer towed by a pickup truck. Seems a bit safer than the "misguided missile" dolly method.
 
Greg Bockelman said:
To expand on Steve's explanation, a float plane has no wheels. Therefore, it can ONLY land on water. An Amphibian has wheels that retract into the floats for water landings. Extended, they can land on land. Hence the moniker, Amphibian.
Click to expand...

I suppose i should've looked closer at the pictures. :crazy:
 
OffCenter said:
I've seen videos of float planes taking off from a trailer towed by a pickup truck. Seems a bit safer than the "misguided missile" dolly method.
Click to expand...

I did that with a J-2 thatI helped some guys put on floats at a land locked airport in trade for a bit of time in it. They had it on a trailer and were about to take the wings off to take it to a nearby lake. I said "Why not just fly it off the trailer?" "You want to?" "Sure...." Not a big deal really, just floor the truck and it'll be flying long before the truck quits accelerating. The truck pulls away from the plane as it starts to climb. I just slowly brought up the throttle until flying speed then nailed it and climbed.
 
One more question, is there a difference between planes that are set up for salt water vs fresh water??
 
Capt.Crash'n'Burn said:
One more question, is there a difference between planes that are set up for salt water vs fresh water??
Click to expand...

Not intrinsically except for magnesium anodes for fresh water ops and zinc anodes for salt water. Much of the rest depends who's operating them. Fresh water operations with bare aluminium are fine, while salt water operations...eh... not so fine, so you tend to see more corrosion proofing finishes for salt water ops. Personally, I'd prefer fiberglass.
 
Ok so when r u gonna ask about snow...?
 
Capt.Crash'n'Burn said:
How would you prep, say a Cessna 182 floatplane, for the harshest Arctic conditions.
Click to expand...

You dont.

A gentleman from upstate NY flew a T206H on amphibs into some ice over lake Michigan last winter. Crashed somewhere near Traverse City.

There is no reasonable way to protect floats from ice, so even if you have protection of the flying surfaces, you are going to pick up a lot of weight in any kind of icing.
 
weilke said:
You dont.

A gentleman from upstate NY flew a T206H on amphibs into some ice over lake Michigan last winter. Crashed somewhere near Traverse City.

There is no reasonable way to protect floats from ice, so even if you have protection of the flying surfaces, you are going to pick up a lot of weight in any kind of icing.
Click to expand...


So I take it there's no way to heat the fronts of the floats to keep ice from building up?
 
Capt.Crash'n'Burn said:
So I take it there's no way to heat the fronts of the floats to keep ice from building up?
Click to expand...

You can solve any problem if you throw enough money at it. But it is all the struts and spreader bars and all the other crap hanging off the airframe to support the floats that ALSO would have to be dealt with.
 
Greg Bockelman said:
You can solve any problem if you throw enough money at it. But it is all the struts and spreader bars and all the other crap hanging off the airframe to support the floats that ALSO would have to be dealt with.
Click to expand...

Hmmm, that's quite an engineering challenge to overcome.

I wonder if anyone has tried to money-whip a floatplane that can deal with ice.
 
Capt.Crash'n'Burn said:
Hmmm, that's quite an engineering challenge to overcome.

I wonder if anyone has tried to money-whip a floatplane that can deal with ice.
Click to expand...


Nope, if you're running into ice, your float plane is most likely on its skis for the season.
 
OK, one more question on this subject, has anyone ever heard of a Cessna 337 converted to a floatplane/amphib ??
 
Capt.Crash'n'Burn said:
OK, one more question on this subject, has anyone ever heard of a Cessna 337 converted to a floatplane/amphib ??
Click to expand...

Nope, can't be done. Apparently from what I found out a few years ago when I looked into the same thing, was that the rear prop gets destroyed and there were some stability issues they couldn't cure.
 
Henning said:
Nope, can't be done. Apparently from what I found out a few years ago when I looked into the same thing, was that the rear prop gets destroyed and there were some stability issues they couldn't cure.
Click to expand...

I had heard something to the effect that the rear prop corrodes real bad (especially in salt water) but I haven't heard anything about stability issues. Do you know what the reason for the stability issues was??
 
Capt.Crash'n'Burn said:
I had heard something to the effect that the rear prop corrodes real bad (especially in salt water) but I haven't heard anything about stability issues. Do you know what the reason for the stability issues was??
Click to expand...


Nope, but if you look at most seaplane variants of land planes, you'll notice an added dorsal or some other type vertical stabilizers. Perhaps the tailboom structures weren't sufficient to support them? Really not sure, and from what I heard with the prop, it wasn't corrosion, it was erosion.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top