As a pilot, I love the idea. But as soon as I saw the cockpit I knew the price would be out of my league. I'm still in the single digit gallons per hour world, and this bad boy is running at 50-60 gallons per hour. Nice engine. Would be great to be able to buy JetA.
I was amused that they elected to pay the weight penalty of a stove, until I saw they're carrying around an outboard motor. Love the idea, wish I were rich enough to really consider one of these for myself.
Also - thrusters in the floats? I haven't seen that before. I never did get a seaplane endorsement, which you'd need for one of these. That's a neat idea, even if it isn't theirs. I wonder how much they're needed, and if the added control on the water is worth the weight. I have to imagine they'd be great if they offer enough degrees of freedom (and are easy enough to understand how to use).
edit, I guess you need that turbine to lug all the extra weight from the furnishings and floats around with enough Vx to get out of short mountain lakes with a little density altitude.
Holy Toledo. The Winnebago Heli Home is the most 1970s thing I have seen since the CRT thread. How much more energy can we consume in doing a typical recreational activity.
Its a bit odd that they spent all this effort on a nice looking website and have the most mediocre interior photos. Just two photos, neither showing a bed made up and one has a bottle of cleaning fluid in the sink and a opened can of favoured seltzer on the bench.
This is probably a stupid question, but can these float planes be fitted out to land on runways? There are pictures of the planes on wheels but I can't tell if those are landing gear or just wheels to move it around on land.
Edit: Yes they have landing gear. Under "Floats" in the specs:
> Re designed to FAR 23 standards out of Carbon fiber including landing gear for hard surface use
I was amused that they elected to pay the weight penalty of a stove, until I saw they're carrying around an outboard motor. Love the idea, wish I were rich enough to really consider one of these for myself.
Also - thrusters in the floats? I haven't seen that before. I never did get a seaplane endorsement, which you'd need for one of these. That's a neat idea, even if it isn't theirs. I wonder how much they're needed, and if the added control on the water is worth the weight. I have to imagine they'd be great if they offer enough degrees of freedom (and are easy enough to understand how to use).