Seaplanes: An Efficient way to get to your Private Island
Seaplanes provide an important service to island owners. Seaplanes are an ideal means of transportation when an island is far from land, when there is no landing strip on an island or when the owners just want to get to their property in a hurry. Sea planes are ideal for island owners due to the fact that they can take off from water and be driven right up to your dock.
Where do I get a Seaplane?
Seaplanes are widely available throughout the world with most modern civilian runway aircraft having a floatplane variant available for purchase. These floatplanes are perfect for island areas because they offer light duty transportation to lakes and other remote areas such as islands.
Advantages of Seaplanes
Seaplanes are a fast and efficient way to travel to and from your island, particularly when the island is far from shore. In addition, seaplanes have an excellent track record in remote areas, often used in the Alaskan and Canadian wilderness as part of rescue missions. Finally, unlike regular planes you do not have to build a large and expensive runway to accommodate you plane. This is ideal for small islands or islands where it is not permissible to build islands.
Disadvantages of Seaplanes
The primary disadvantage of seaplanes is that you can only take off and land your plane on water with little or no wave activity, and like other aircraft they have difficulty in extreme weather. The size of waves that a given design can withstand depends on among other factors, the aircrafts size, hull or float design and its weight. Therefore, if the water around your island is especially choppy you may be unable to use a sea plane.
Cost of Seaplanes
Just like any other types of transportation you can by new or old sea planes. Prices vary ranging from under $100,000 for a well-used plane to several hundred thousand dollars for a brand new one. Some areas also have sea plane charters, in which you can hire a pilot to ferry you to and from your island. This is best for island owners who want to get to their island quickly but don’t want to go to the expense of buying a plane and learning how to fly. The major disadvantage of hiring a pilot is that you lose the autonomy to leave your island whenever you wish.
