If your used to dehavaland planes then this should demonstrate the difference between what your used to and the van!!
YouTube - Otter vs. Caravan
Pax love them but dont expect the fill all the seats and go far (the 2 extra seat baggage area conversion is usless unless you plan to fly lots of children around). You seriously need about 1km to get airbourne to 50 feet and thats on flat water so its not well suited for every float operation.also the plane is made of thiner metal than the beaver\otter so corrosion will be more noticable.
Other than that the plane its self is pretty reliable and the gear system will be your biggest headache.
here are some realworld number for you from our factory new van on wip amphibs with all the add-ons including floats, full deiceing, single pt refueling, blade latches, full ifr ,extented rear baggage compartment, 12 pax seat conversion and coffe cup holders!
:
we planned 300lb an hour fuel burn giving a tas of 135kts
empty weight + 90kg pilot = 5974lb leaving 2386lbs for fuel AND payload if your operating from water.
if your planning to land on a runway then the payload becomes landing weight limited at 7800lb (equals 1626lb payload with a 200lb fixed reserve) But this limit is mostly ignored by most operators i know.
the moral of the story is if you want to keep a useful plane dont go overboard with the extras, keep it light!
good luck!