Amphibious Planes
 

Random question this one folks but can amphibious planes also land on a runway as well as on water?

No other reason than being intrigued for this question.

Yes they can. Generally the wheels are retractable so they do not interfere with the smoothness of the floats. There have been many original aircraft over time, and also many conversions.

One of the issues is the pilot getting mixed up with what sort of landing they are making, for the normal warning of no gear down when in approach configuration is not appropriate. A Cessna 206 amphibian conversion I flew (not handling takeoff/landing though - a special skill and licence is required) in the US, which had wheels fore and aft on the tips of the floats had a voice warning that cut in at 200 feet which announced either of "Wheels up - water landing", or "Wheels down - runway landing" depending on whether wheels were up or down.

Careful attention is required to wash the landing gear with fresh water after sea landings to avoid salt corrosion of the landing gear mechanism.

The clue is in the title, amphibious!

have flown on a cessna caravan from key west international (tarmac runway) to dry tortugas islands (fort jefferson?), where you land on the sea.

a great flight, and i always thought the pilot must have one of the best jobs in the world. tied up the caravan and sunbathed on the beach until we were ready to return.

happy days

Browners Go to airliners [dot] net and put 'Amphibious' in the KEYWORD and see what you get! It includes some amphibious helicopters too. I think there are limits on linking to the site due copyright but, in the search results, look for: Canadair-CL-215-1A10-CL-215-V as an excellent example of a machine with wheels extended and you can see how they are all placed.

... but there are seaplanes that are not amphibious and thus are restricted to water only.

I wonder if you actually mean amphibious? Many modern aircraft that can land on water are conversions of land based planes and retain some ability to use hard surfaces as well as water for landing take/off. However, that doesn't mean they use their original undercarriage because the floats are much bigger than the original wheels and, even if the wheels could be left in place they wouldn't reach the ground. So if the requirement is to land on both wheels are fitted inside the floats and they are dangled as required. I gather the landing characteristics of an aircraft so fitted are interesting.

However, even when the plane is a conversion from a land based machine it is sometimes fitted with floats on the assumption that it will never use land. In some cases the floats are interchangeable with landing gear - I remember pitching up at an airfield next to a lake in Quebec and finding rows of floats waiting to be attached to aircraft currently using their wheels.

Then you have purpose built aircraft. Some, like the current CL215/CL415 water bomber are built with both a floating hull and a retractable land undercarriage. Another example is the 2nd world war Catalina. Then, also from the 2nd war we have the Sunderland which was built as a flying boat, pure and simple. To get it out of the water they had to fit special wheels and then pull it up a slipway.

As a side I would also mention the WIGE (wing in ground effect) "things" built by the Russians and affectionately known as the Caspian Sea Monster.

I'm guessing you may have been there in the winter, when the lakes are frozen, so the floats have no purpose then, and as they add a considerable amount to drag they get taken off until the next summer.

Not an amphibian at all, always operated off water (despite looking like an Ilyushin 76 jet on steroids). You can still see them on Google Earth, by the way, with quite good resolution, laid up at the sea edge over there (large one bottom right, smaller one top left).

42.881667,47.656667 - Google Maps