Hey guys, I'm doing some research for a film script I'm writing. The film is a modern day western about the war on drugs, and it features quite a bit of flying around in remote areas.

I've been trying to research float-plane takeoff and landing distances and haven't been able to find a whole lot. I need to find a plane to use in my script that would be capable of extremely short takeoffs and landings. Something simple and relatively affordable that you would expect to see in a rural community. From what I've found so far, the PA-18 Super Cub fits the bill pretty well and would definitely look right at home in an adventure movie. All I've found so far though is that it can take off in about 200 feet and land in 300. I haven't been able to find anything about how amphibious floats would effect that.

So whats a good plane with realistically short takeoff and landing distances when using floats? Preferably something that could hold 3 people in a pinch (I know a super cub has 2 seats... could 3 people squeeze in?). The more common the plane is, the better, as in the next year or two I will hopefully be shooting this film and needing to hire a pilot with a plane for some scenes.

Anyway, I appreciate any help I can get!

Just get a Maule.

Tim

I'm a long way from any expert in such things, having all of one seaplane lesson, but it was in a stock 160hp 172 on straight floats at sea level. I have lots of time in stock 172s so that I can make easy comparisons, and believe me, with floats, that becomes an entirely different airplane.

With a very light load (half tanks and 2 people), it takes much, much longer to get off the water (although it can land in a very short distance--as soon as the throttle is chopped from doing essentially a soft-field landing, there's a huge sploosh and it comes to a near stop). A similarly loaded land version leaps off the runway at the same elevation.

Cruise in a stock 172 is around 115 mph. At the same power setting, with floats it's between 85 and 90 mph.

Chop the power in a stock 172, and you can glide and glide and glide--roughly an 8:1 glide ratio. Chop the power in a float version, and it goes down, now!

The one thing that the float version has over the stock land version is a much higher fun quotient!

Cary

The SuperCub is the bush plane that all others are compared against.
Maules (on floats) don't compare well. NO offense to mauleDrivers, they do well on wheels @ sea level.
Amphib floats are HEAVY, thus affect TO performance.
Not very many 3 seater Cubs, but is doable.

To be more specific, I'm looking for a set-up that a skilled pilot could realistically land and take off from this lake with. I like to write with actual locations in mind whenever possible, and this is the place I've been envisioning. It's about 1350' long, and 150' at it's narrowest. The south side of the lake has a low sloping valley leading into it (I left the coordinates on the picture if anyone wants to check it out). I've been out here many times so I added lines denoting roughly where bushes (maybe 15-20 feet tall) and trees maybe 60-ish feet tall begin. Obviously before I filmed out here I'd need a pilot to recon the area, but I'd like to know if it would even be possible to do this or if it would be crazy to try landing on a lake this size. At the end of the day it wouldn't be all that hard to change the location



It's also probably worth noting that if we used this as a shooting location we wouldn't actually need to have three people in the plane and the airport we'd be flying out of is only about 10 miles away if we needed to cut down on fuel weight a bit to make it safe. If we had to do it with straight floats there's a lake about 18 miles away that I know float planes land on that could be used to fuel up at.

1350' is pretty short. I am far from an expert at this point, but I have been flying a 180 Lake Amphibian for the past few weeks and the owner likes about one mile long lakes. Doesn't need to be straight for a mile, an L will work sometimes too. I know the owner of the plane I have been flying is pretty conservative and that we don't need that much room but it ads a lot of options if things don't go right.
Since all the high lakes are frozen still, I have only flow from Lake Chelan (about 60 miles long) and the Columbia River (also very long)


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Found a couple videos of STOL equipped float planes taking off in less than 200 feet! Looks like this lake would be very doable for a plane like that. I also discovered the Sherpa which seems to be essentially a larger, roomier Super Cub. That'd work perfect for what I'm writing but they seem rare so I doubt I could find one to film next summer. Oh well, I guess my real question here is answered. What kind of plane is used is fairly inconsequential so long as it works.

The moving picture show will be well served if you simply hire a consultant that has the exclusive yes or no vote based on safety.

Good luck with your project!

Would plane and pilot have to be part 135. Not too many float planes like that down here.

Tim

What is the elevation of the lake.?

Never mind ,just looked at the photo again .... Almost 4 thousand ..... How tall are those trees and how much you want pay the pilot will mostly likely play a huge roll in if that lake is useable or not. Looks pretty short to me.

That lake being @ 3700 msl would make it VERY marginal in my opinion, especially in an Oregon summer, especially in an amphibian. Your best bet would be a 180+ super-cub, but, every time you throw amphibious floats into the equation the performance really drops off.

My gut tells me I might could make it in/out in the turbine beaver but finding someone willing to rent you their turbine beaver for this could be difficult.

Here's some footage that was the result of the producers willingness to "pay" to make things happen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgHmTanno0E

sam

Aviat Husky on Wip 2100 amphibs....no sweat.

MTV

It might be worth watching some take off contest videos from the International sea plane fly in in Greenville, Maine. I know the pilot of one super cub who can be airborne before you can count to three. But this is at a absolute minimum weight. I probably would not go with amphibs if I wanted real good take off performance. The 180 drivers are quite competitive and the winner usually is off the water in 8-9 seconds.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qIx-9Qs3Zs[/youtube]

-Levi

But if you look at videos of the Greenville fly-in, bear in mind that Greenville is at 1100' MSL, and your proposed lake is at 3700' MSL--and that makes a huge difference in performance, whether seaplane or land plane.

Cary

Is that lake down there by the Mexican border??

The lake is in Southern Oregon where most of our filming will take place.

CubCrafters Carbon Cub SS on floats could be a good choice if you do not need to bring much:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQzGGRHt348