Amphibious aircrafts?

I was surprised that FS2020 was released without at least one amphibious aircraft in the base package. I haven't checked the more expensive packages, is there one there? Or, does anyone know of a company working on one as a paid or free mod? Or, does FS2020 not currently support landing/taking off in water?

I really enjoyed flying the amphibious aircrafts in FSX and it's really nice for learning how to land (and it's just fun in general.)

Ah ...I see now. I am not familiar with the makes/models of aircrafts, so I just looked at all the planes and saw that they all had landing gears. But, I can now see how the design of the Icon A5 allows for water landing/takoff if you don't use the landing gear.

I had assumed there would be a dedicated amphibious plane (and a big enough one for transporting passengers, etc.) similar to what we had in FSX; but, the Icon A5 will work.

Thanks.

IT would have been good if there had been one of the 'workhorse' amphibious aircraft like are still used in many parts of Canada as well as that 'sports' amphibious aircraft.

I guess there will be a 3rd party one eventually.

I agree. Even FSX had more than one amphibious planes... it had the Cessna Caravan on floats for example.

Microsoft/Asobo need to sort out the water first though. At the moment there is no wake behind the A5 as you take off or land etc. Also in high winds the plane sits still while the water drops several feet below the plane & then goes up, submerging the plane completely. Also if you’re sat in the plane when this is happening you see some horrible grid lines. Totally unrealistic.

Regards

Steve

Ah ...I see now. I am not familiar with the makes/models of aircraft, so I just looked at all the planes and saw that they all had landing gear. But, I can now see how the design of the Icon A5 allows for water landing/takoff if you don't use the landing gear.

 

I had assumed there would be a dedicated amphibious plane (and a big enough one for transporting passengers, etc.) similar to what we had in FSX; but, the Icon A5 will work.

 

Thanks.

So just as an FYI, I'm guessing by "dedicated" you mean water only. That would be known as a float plane. Amphibious by definition means for both water and land.

I agree. Even FSX had more than one amphibious planes... it had the Cessna Caravan on floats for example.

 

Microsoft/Asobo need to sort out the water first though. At the moment there is no wake behind the A5 as you take off or land etc. Also in high winds the plane sits still while the water drops several feet below the plane & then goes up, submerging the plane completely. Also if you’re sat in the plane when this is happening you see some horrible grid lines. Totally unrealistic.

How odd! When I've been in the A5 Icon there is a wake, and the aircraft follows the waves just as it should... :cool:

Really? I’ve never seen the wake. Maybe it’s my settings then.

Certainly if you put the wind up to max you’ll see the plane going under water?

I’m going to have to check a few things now :)

Update:

Most of my settings are on ultra. The “water waves” setting has always been on “high” (there is no ultra)

Just increased render scaling from 100 to 200

& tried the I5 in two locations.. the Mersey (Liverpool UK) and also Toronto.

I still can’t see a wake behind the A5 & in strong winds the plane lifts out of the water and sinks below it. Anyone else see this?

73 Steve

So just as an FYI, I'm guessing by "dedicated" you mean water only. That would be known as a float plane. Amphibious by definition means for both water and land.

You're right! Now that you said it, I actually thought about the word "amphibious" and realized that you're correct in that it would mean both land and water. I did not know that water-only planes were called "float planes".

This is a little off-topic for the thread, but I'm curious, what are the biggest and/or most extensive (or most expensive) amphibious or float planes that exist? Are there any jets?

This is a little off-topic for the thread, but I'm curious, what are the biggest and/or most extensive (or most expensive) amphibious or float planes that exist? Are there any jets?

There are some pretty large sea planes out there, and some very large wing-in-ground effect ones too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ShinMaywa_US-2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beriev_Be-200

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lun-class_ekranoplan

And for your own personal enjoyment, check out the Dornier Seastar.

https://dornierseawings.com/

Don't forget the 1947 H-4 Hercules AKA Spruce Goose

Crew: 3

Length: 218 ft 8 in (66.65 m)

Wingspan: 320 ft 11 in (97.54 m)

Height: 79 ft 4 in (24.18 m)

Fuselage height: 30 ft (9.1 m)

Loaded weight: 400,000 lb (180,000 kg)

Powerplant: 8 × Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major radial engines, 4,000 hp (2,640 kW) each.

Seaplane only aircraft

What a pity MS couldn't have included the amphibian version to the C172 as XP did. All that was needed was the floats instead of undercarriage (modelling), and change of aircraft variants such as the undercarriage/floats dimensions which IMHO wouldn't have been too difficult.

The Spruce Goose would have been a bit of overkill I think as it never flew too much - I was luckly to be able to visit the Evergreen Aircraft Museum in Oregon last year and see it.

This is a little off-topic for the thread, but I'm curious, what are the biggest and/or most extensive (or most expensive) amphibious or float planes that exist? Are there any jets?

The Quest Kodiak is pretty awesome. I think about 6Million? Lionheart Creations made a very nice one for FSX and I think they are planning to re-release it for MSFS 2020 at some point.