Dear pigboat & floatjockey01, thank you for your comments which are very interesting.
I have been considering doing a fixed-wing PPL in order to fly float planes (I currently fly helicopters) but float plane landings and take-offs seem to have so many dangers but thank you for explaining about these.
I am going to continue researching the matter before approaching one or two float plane pilots and then hopefully make a decision.
In my first post I wrote:
I have an interesting seaplane landing from Sweden which I will post a little later.
And so now here is the video clip from Sweden:
My question is this, the construction of the floats for the Cessna 206, when the aircraft is sitting in the water the weight is carried not just by the very bottom of the float, the köl (I suppose you call it keel) but by as much of the float as is submerged, is this correct?
How then can the full weight of the aircraft be taken:
a) just only on the keel as in this video
b) instead of a "soft" material like water the float is now making contact with something much harder?
I suppose my overall question is whether using the floats on other surfaces can damage them - and yet this operator lands like this at the end of each season so I suppose it must be okay.
The same kind of question then, can you use floats to land on ice which is also very hard and only contacting the keel?