Scuba Diving Airplane/boat

[mrfixitchapman]

Buffett's Hemisphere Dancer is now a display at one of the Margaritaville locations.

DC

 

[mrfixitchapman]

His newer plane is a Caravan on floats.

DC

 

[inventor]

I'd go for a Turbo Pilatus Porter on floats

EZ, Veri-EZ, Starship, and Velocity fan. But just can't get behind Pilatus. Don't know why, but their designs just look, well, uptight. Like the engineers came in and said, 'Ya, iss byutiful design. Lets f*** with it."

 

[mike_s]

His newer plane is a Caravan on floats.

DC

I never realized how massive the floats were on a Caravan.

wow...



Only float planes I've been on are DeHavilands. Beavers and Otters.

we even loaded two refridgerators in an Otter one time and flew them in.

 

[DennisW]

Turns are all supposed to be positive G turns, so you only have to worry if there is a lot of turbulence.

 

[DennisW]

I never realized how massive the floats were on a Caravan.

wow...



Only float planes I've been on are DeHavilands. Beavers and Otters.

we even loaded two refridgerators in an Otter one time and flew them in.

You should see a DC-3 on Floats.

 

[mike_s]

You should see a DC-3 on Floats.

wow... talk about a high CG for landing.


I wonder if they get spray in the engines with the low wing?


not the best solution for a bigger floatplane in my opinion... which is prob why we don't see a whole lot of them....

 

[vladimir]

I chartered a seaplane to Cod Hole from Cairns in ~1995, back when I was feeling flush. The operator said I was the first non-Japanese customer to charter the whole plane for himself. (Remember when the Japanese were rich?) The seas kicked up the day of the flight and they had to cancel--I've forgotten how much that saved me. Whatever it was, I squandered it on helicopters to the ribbon reefs.

There was a luxury seaplane you could dive off of in Palau: not just for a day, it was set up as a liveaboard. It was pricy, I remember, but not utterly ridiculous--something like $6k for the week.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

is that a dive training pool in the middle back of the plane?

You know it is. The pilot just has to take it real easy on the turns.

Theoretically, you could do a barrel roll with a diver training pool on board and not spill a drop. Done properly it can (and should) be a 1 G maneuver from start to finish.

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On the DC-3 the floats are right under the engines so they tend to act as spray deflectors. It actually works better than the single hull of, for example, a Grumman Widgeon or Goose, where the engines are mounted as high as possible but still fairly low over the water. Spray on a piston engine is not all that big a deal but spray can be hard on a propeller blade's leading edge. over the long term, salt water corrosion is the big killer of sea planes.

Jet engines are a different story. If you look at business jets up close, you will often note a raised ridge on the nedge of the nose wheel. That is a spray deflector to keep rain water (and for that matter small pebbles and rocks) on the runway out of the engine inlets. For a turbine powered sea plane it's vital to keep spray on takeoff or landing out of the engines. That results in the engines being mounted high and generally shielded from spray by the wing.

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A Grumman Goose is more or less a really small version of an Albatross in general concept. The Goose is an 8 seat aircraft and the smaller Widgeon is a 5 seat aircraft. Both preceded the larger 12 seat Mallard and the Mallard led directly to the larger Albatross. The G-111 civil variant of the HU-16 Albatross could carry 28 passengers plus crew, so in comparision it is a seriously large airplane compared to the other Grumman seaplanes.

You could carry a decent load over a short range in the Widgeon, Goose or Mallard, but you could live on board an HU-16 Albatross and fly it pretty much anywhere in the world. With fuel in the mains, tip floats and drop tanks an HU-16 has a range of over 3000 nautical miles. But at a 108 kt economy cruise speed, it will take you a long time to get there. Alternatively you can use a higher cruise speed around 150 kts for about a 2800 nautical mile range buring about 100 gallons of fuel per hour. Max cruise speed is 195 kts but gives a much shorter range due to the much higher power settings and higher fuel consumption.

Serious fun and serious capability, but seriously expensive to fly and maintain. Still, it would make destinations like Truk and Bikini fairly easy (and fun) to get to.

 

[inventor]

For sheer Coolosity, I give you the Icon A5;

ICON Aircraft: Sport Flying Revolution

Also, my avatar is a guy named Yves Rossy, a SwissAir pilot, and inventor. He flew that rig across the English Channel and later, over the Swiss Alps.

http://www.jet-man.com/prod/index.html