"Paul Tomblin" wrote in message
...
The thing has two engines and six seats, but has less payload than my
club's (P28B-236) Dakota (a four seater). Doesn't cruise any faster,
either. That kind of sucks.

How many times can your club's Dakota land on the water and take off again?

I haven't looked at this new Russian design closely. But all other
seaplanes sacrifice performance to the boat-nature of the airplane. Engines
have to be placed in non-optimal positions to keep them out of the water,
some form of stabilization is necessary to keep the wings from digging into
the water, and extra structure is required to deal with the massive forces
created when crashing from one wave to the next during take off and landing.

All of this adds up to extra weight and drag and performance suffers. But,
the airplane is capable of something most others are not. I hardly think
that necessary and reasonable compromises justify an opinion that an
airplane "sucks".

Pete