What would you get if you had $250 000 to spend and wanted a 4 seat float plane with the option for skis, for use anywhere from sea level to smaller alpine lakes around 4000'?

I'm thinking a 185 with either Sportsman or Robertson STOL, ART extensions, maybe Micro VG's, haven't really thought much about an engine/prop combo yet but likely would stay with the 520 until it timed out. Aerocet 3500s would be a nice touch.

I know of a guy who comes around Crane Lake MN every now and the who picked up a nice Beaver a few months ago for $250,000. You wouldn't have trouble with 3-4 pax and gear in short or high lakes.

I'd buy a nice sailboat...

1000HP....just come up and sail with me on a long weekend !!!

I think at $250K you'd be into a pretty shiney 185 with amphibs, low time IO550, LR tanks, wing-x, robertson, vg's, ABW's and hydraulic wheel skis and good to go. I'd want to have a little deeper pockets to get into a beaver. Agreed, they have come down a long way over the past few years, but if $250K was all I had, I'd be hesitant. I would also consider a C206 but very dependant on the type of flying and the where. Or get something in a 185 not quite as fancy and a nice PA18. It is nice to spend someone elses money. Speaking of which, I am still looking for a partner with me on my C180.

zeppelin wrote:1000HP....just come up and sail with me on a long weekend !!!

I'm going to hold you to that

Be careful with C185's on short lakes unless you have lots of experience. They can stay stuck on the water pretty easily. I'd try for a Beaver if you have enough moola. The R985 is a super-dependable engine and relatively easy to hand-start if the timing is set up right. I never did like fuel injection in remote locations, unless you have a battery charger. I've had my fingers bleeding trying to hand-prop a 185..

Did someone win a lottery and not buy me a beer?

1000 HP wrote:

zeppelin wrote:1000HP....just come up and sail with me on a long weekend !!!

I'm going to hold you to that

Be careful with C185's on short lakes unless you have lots of experience. They can stay stuck on the water pretty easily. I'd try for a Beaver if you have enough moola. The R985 is a super-dependable engine and relatively easy to hand-start if the timing is set up right. I never did like fuel injection in remote locations, unless you have a battery charger. I've had my fingers bleeding trying to hand-prop a 185..

The only reliable way that I found for the 185 & 206 was to take the cowling off sit back and relax til it cooled off then button it up and start swinging. Just saved the hands and at the end of the day didn't take much longer. The Beaver was far easier to hand start.

1000 HP wrote:
Be careful with C185's on short lakes unless you have lots of experience.

Ya, say you're up around 3500' altitude and only have about 3000 feet of glassy lake, you'd best let your pal in a Beaver blast off first to stir up some ripples...then it'll probably be OK. In fact, always use the buddy system in short, high altitude lakes, around thunderstorms and when landing in high winds causing large crashing waves around dark.

I don't really get the negative 185 comments... I'm pretty sure there has never been an aircraft made that you couldn't find an airstrip somewhere it wouldn't take off from under certain conditions?

I agree. I've flown a number of different ones and found them all to be good performers, even in short lakes and at higher altitudes, and never once had an issue with starting them.

I've only been involved with two 185's personally and the one was either poor or the other was very good but operating them off the same bush strip, one was scary and it only scared me once off that strip and the other handled it like a cub that the strip was built for. I think it may have been a combination of the one not being very good and the other real good and in fairness they were not set up equally either so maybe the "stock" one flew perfectly good as it was set up and the other was just that much better?? My limited experience allows limited judgement, but I think they are or can be a great aircraft especially if you had $250K to get it "set-up" with all the bells & whistles that make them fly better and all the extra non-essential weight stripped out. I'm still sticking to not getting into a beaver with "only" $250K but it wouldn't take much more to get me to jump off the fence in that direction (maybe another $100K) as I really do think that a Beaver is every bush pilots "Dream Machine" and money is the only thing keeping us from it.

I agree. I've flown a number of different ones and found them all to be good performers, even in short lakes and at higher altitudes, and never once had an issue with starting them.

I agree, although I thought the 260 hp 185's were dogs on the 2870 floats. You had to be careful not to sink the sucker under certain conditions. 300 hp and the 2960 floats cured that. I only ever missed starting one once, the first day I flew it. One of our mechanics was watching the show and afterward he came over and showed me what to do. Every start, mixture idle cut-off, throttle open and emergency fuel pump to emergency, I never missed a start afterward. Oh, and the three 260 hp ones I flew, RYO, RJH and RVC had a manual primer, as did two of the 300 hp ones, SSX and SZU.

Every start, mixture idle cut-off, throttle open and emergency fuel pump to emergency, I never missed a start afterward.

I don't know why more pilots don't know this. The IO-520 is the easiest engine in the world to hot start with that procedure.