Lake LA-4-200 Buccaneer

Story and photos by Ken Kula

An amphibious airplane can operate from water or land. There are several different approaches to make this happen… adding wheels to floats or making landing gear part of the aircraft’s body and/or wings, or with so-called “beaching gear”.  This collection contains amphibious aircraft that are all “ducks out of the water” at the 2024 EAA AirVenture. Some would ultimately alight on Lake Winnebago at the Seaplane Base a few miles away while many others would stay on land and park on the expansive grounds around Whittman Regional Airport.

Take a look at the different, but effective ways to make these aircraft amphibious. And take note… while these aircraft are operating on land with their landing gear extended, water operation with the gear down is quite dangerous and usually leads to an aircraft flipping upside down due to the drag of the wheels in the water.

Piper PA-18 Super Cub with amphibious floats

Grumman G-44 Widgeon

Bernier G-BAIR 6T Turbine Stationair

Grumman G-44A Widgeon

Piaggio P.136-L1 Royal Gull

Lake LA-4-200 Buccaneer

Piaggio P.136-L2 Royal Gull

Cessna A185E Skywagon

DHC-2 Turbo Beaver

Republic RC-3 Seabee

Lake LA-4-200 Buccaneer

Aviat Aircraft Husky A-1B

Progressive Aerodyne Searey

Grumman HU-16 Albatross

Cessna A185F Skywagon

An honorable mention… this Harbour Air eBeaver (an electrified DHC-2 Beaver) is a true floatplane without amphibious wheels. “Beaching gear” consists of dollies under the floats for this display on the airport grounds. A second eBeaver was found in its element…in the water at the Seaplane Base. The other half of this article contains photos from the seaplane base on nearby Lake Winnebago.