This article started with an email from a reader asking whether a Cessna 150 would be a good floatplane. It morphed from conversations with experienced floatplane pilots about the 150 on floats-okay, but not great-into what makes a good floatplane, what to look for when buying one and whats involved in putting floats on your airplane.
To keep the subject within limits, we’ll limit the discussion to floatplanes weighing 4000 pounds or less and omit flying boats-after all, we covered the most popular, the Lake Amphibian, in detail in our Used Aircraft Guide back in the January 2014 issue.