2solitude – Honeywell TPE 331-12 refitted Antonov AN-2 camper

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).

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

This is cool.

I think my blank-check lottery plane would be a Grumman Albatross with PT6s and a yacht interior.