Disclaimer: This is for a long story/short novel, there are NO plans to go into any illegal activity.
What are the most common planes fitted with floats for water takeoffs/landings?
I’m looking for the most reasonable/believable airplane that could fly from the Gulf coast of, say, Florida/Alabama/Mississippi to central North Carolina hauling a few passengers or even contraband or light cargo. Round trip may be a factor although in the story line I can provide a means for refueling.
There might not be a plane that could reasonably do this. If so, I may change locations but that is what I’m going with right now.
Flyboy types (and flygirl) types… what say you?
… and another question; how difficult/dangerous are water landings/takeoffs at night with just natural moon/star light?
Thanks!
Do you need amphibious capability, or is float only OK?
I just did search on trade-plane and the most common model seems to be a Cessna 180/182/185. Piper Super Cub (only 2 person) and Maule also seem popular:
For your second question, probably too dangerous for legitimate uses but if you’re talking about gun running and that sort of thing then I reckon an experienced float pilot could consistently land and take off safely at night provided they either had good ambient light and/or a GPS (common equipment these days.) Factors that would make a difference, you’d want the landing area to be free of obstacles and ideally not have too much high terrain near by. A radio altimeter would also be a useful piece of equipment for a night water landing, it reads the actual height of the aircraft above the ground by using a radar type signal and is far more accurate than a barometric altimeter.
I’d do it by setting up an approach in the GPS that takes me to the start of the landing area on the lake. Plan your descent so that you’re at about 50-100 feet at the start of the landing area. Then if you can’t make out the surface of the water clearly, keep flying the GPS track along the lake and conduct a gradual descent of around 200 foot per minute and wait for touchdown. A similar technique is used during the day when the surface conditions are very calm and glassy as you can’t judge height in those conditions either.
The radio altimeter (radalt) will work well 99% of the time as a height guide for the final few hundred feet but they can be fooled by very glassy water.
To plan the approach properly the pilot would need an accurate topographical chart of the area so the approach path and descent can be planned to keep you clear of terrain. If it’s a nice night, then you’ll be able to see well enough to do it visually probably, but you can’t rely on the weather. The planning of the approach is something they can do at home any time and load into their GPS at any time, it doesn’t have to be planned in flight.
You might like a DeHavilland-DHC-2-Beaver for this purpose. They can do everything you want and are built to be a true utility float plane for cargo and a few passengers.
In Alaska, float plane capital of the world, Beavers and Otters are quite often the plane of choice for haulling asses and cargo with. For land-based, the Caravan is probably most popular. The Beechcraft King Air turboprop is another fave. The old amphibs like the Grumman Goose and others are terrific water craft, as well, but they’re amphibs. For all-around popularity, the Piper Supercub wins hands down. It’s only a two-seater, but is reliable and cheaper than most other planes.