Lake LA-4-200 Buccaneer

Which airplane the specifications above describe. This page covers the whole Lake amphibian line, but its frontmatter describes exactly one airplane: the Lake LA-4-200 Buccaneer, TCDS 1A13 Section IV, at the 2,690 lb gross weight that Section IV's NOTE 6 permits once the optional auxiliary (sponson) fuel tanks are installed. That is the configuration the one performance source located this session — an AOPA Pilot flight test, August 1980 — actually flew, and matching the frontmatter to the source it is built from matters more here than matching it to the certificate's unequipped 2,600 lb base figure. Every other configuration in the family — the 180 hp LA-4 predecessor, the 250/270 hp Model 250 "Renegade" (a materially bigger, 6-seat airplane on a separate section of the same certificate), and the EP/Seafury/ Seawolf/Turbo trim names — is a row in the Variants table, not this frontmatter.

A note on the "Renegade" family. TCDS 1A13's Section V (Model 250) is 250-300 hp, up to 3,140 lb gross, and up to 6 seats — a different engine class weight and seat count from the 200 hp, 2,690 lb, 4-seat LA-4-200 this page describes. By docs/CATALOG-SPLITTING-RULE.md Step 1 (different seat count) and Step 2 (gross weight 17-21% over threshold), the Renegade line should be its own page. That split was not executed this session, which was scoped to re-sourcing lake-la4; it is recorded here as an open item rather than done quietly.

The Lake LA-4 family is the definitive single-engine certified amphibious aircraft in American general aviation. Unlike float-equipped conversions such as the cessna-205-206-stationair on amphibs, the Lake is a purpose-built flying boat: an aluminum monocoque hull with retractable tricycle gear, shoulder-mounted wings with fixed tip floats, and — most distinctively — a single piston engine mounted on a pylon above the cabin in pusher configuration. This layout keeps the prop clear of spray, gives pilots unobstructed forward visibility, and produces a silhouette unlike any other production aircraft.

The lineage traces to the 1948 Colonial C-1 Skimmer (three-seat) and 1957 C-2 Skimmer (four-seat) from Colonial Aircraft of Sanford, Maine. The company reorganized as Lake Aircraft in 1959 and flew the prototype LA-4 in November of that year. Production moved through a succession of corporate owners — Lake, Consolidated Aeronautics, Aerofab, Revo, LanShe Aerospace — before production wound down in the early 2000s. Total family production is approximately 1,300 airframes: roughly 22 Colonial C-1s, 20 C-2s, 192 LA-4 180-hp Amphibians, and the Buccaneer (LA-4-200) through serial 1073 in 1981, followed by the Renegade series.

The Lake appeals to a specific buyer: the owner-pilot who wants genuine water operations without the compromises of floats, the ability to put the gear down and land at any paved airport, and the visual theater of arriving at a dockside restaurant under pusher-prop thrust. It is not a trainer, not a hauler, and not cheap to own — but for its mission it has no certified competitor in its price class.

The Renegade is a substantially different aircraft from the LA-4-200 despite the shared planform: beefier wing spar, lengthened hull, deeper-V water entry, larger vertical tail, and a rear cabin door that makes loading rear passengers and cargo far easier.

Everything below is the LA-4-200 Buccaneer only, sourced to a single 1980 AOPA Pilot flight test — no factory handbook was located this session (see the raw press passage for what was searched). Treat single-sourced figures accordingly.

• Cruise: 126 KTAS at 75% power, 8,000 ft — the source states the power setting explicitly, which is why cruise_percent_bhp and cruise_altitude_ft are both filled per runbook rule 3.
• Fuel burn: 9.5 GPH at that setting.
• Range: 560 NM at 75% cruise, explicitly stated as NO RESERVE. This is not a conservative planning number — subtract a real reserve before using it to plan a trip. The page previously stored 408 NM with no source or reserve statement at all.
• Rate of climb: 1,200 FPM at gross weight (2,690 lb).
• Service ceiling: 14,000 ft.
• Land takeoff, ground roll: 600 ft. Land landing, ground roll: 475 ft. Both at gross weight. No over-50-ft obstacle figure exists for either — the source reports Lake Aircraft could not supply one when asked directly in 1980.
• Water takeoff, ground roll: 1,100 FT — nearly double the land figure. Water landing, ground roll: 600 FT, also longer than land. These have no frontmatter field (the schema is built for landplanes) but are the single most important performance numbers on an amphibian, which is why they are written out here rather than left to a reader's assumption that "takeoff distance" means the same thing it does on every other page in this catalogue. Real-world water performance is also far more sensitive to density altitude, wave state and load than these book numbers show — see the ADs & Common Problems and Payload-Range sections below, which are unchanged from before this session and not re-verified.
• Stall: Vs0 (full flaps) 39 kt, Vs1 (no flaps) 45 kt. Vx 52 kt, Vy 56 kt. Vx/Vy moved substantially from the page's previous, unsourced 65/69 kt.
• Vne is serial-split and not fully resolved this session: 127 kt for the majority of the production run (S/N 422-1036) absent a specific speed-limit kit, 134 kt for S/N 1037 and later or any earlier airframe with Consolidated Aeronautics Kit K-137 installed. The page stores the majority/base figure; an individual airframe's actual eligibility depends on whether that kit has been installed, which the certificate cannot say.

Everything below this point (Renegade cruise/climb/range figures, the Turbo/Seafury performance claims) is carried over unverified from before this session and was not re-sourced:

58TC/58P-style figures previously on this page for the Renegade family (122-140 KTAS, 900 FPM climb, Turbo Renegade 155 KTAS/23,800 ft ceiling) have no certificate or handbook backing found this session. Treat them as unverified pending a dedicated pass on the Model 250/Renegade split.

LA-4-200 Buccaneer (40-gal standard fuel, 9.5 GPH, 1,135 lb useful load at 2,690 lb gross, 126 KTAS at 75% power):

• Full fuel (240 lb) + 2 pax + bags: 895 lb for payload — two 170-lb adults + 250 lb cargo; real range with a proper reserve is closer to 480-500 NM than the source's 560 NM no-reserve figure.
• Full 4 seats (680 lb) + bags (100 lb): 780 lb people+bags, leaving 355 lb (roughly 59 gal — more than the 40-gal standard tank holds), so a full-4-seats mission on the standard tank alone is fuel-limited, not weight-limited.
• Water takeoff limited: Useful load is often constrained not by MTOW but by water-takeoff performance at density altitude; operators routinely plan 200-300 lb under gross for water departures on warm days, which matters even more now that this page's stored gross weight (2,690 lb) already assumes the heavier aux-tank configuration.

LA-250 Renegade (90-gal fuel, 13.5 GPH, ~980 lb useful load, 122-140 KTAS) — figures below not re-verified this session, carried over from before:

• Full fuel (540 lb) + 2 pax: 440 lb remaining — marginal; the Renegade despite larger tanks is payload-constrained with full fuel.
• 4 pax + bags (840 lb) + 50 gal fuel (300 lb): ~1,140 lb load — at or near gross; 4-hour / 500 NM mission achievable.
• 6 seats + reduced fuel: With 6 adults and light bags, fuel must be held to ~40-50 gallons; practical range drops to 350-450 NM.
• Turbo Renegade at altitude: The turbo variant is the only family member capable of high-altitude long-distance cruise, with published range to 1,150 NM at optimum cruise settings in the Seafury configuration.

Real-world Lake operators plan carefully: water ops dictate weight planning more strictly than land-only types, and pilots tend to fly two-up with full fuel and a large baggage margin — not four-up with tanks brimming.

Sources:

• FAA TCDS 1A13 Revision 28 (this session; see raw/tcds passage)
• AOPA Pilot, August 1980, "The Lake Buccaneer" by Mark M. Lacagnina (this session; see raw/press passage)
• Lake Buccaneer - Wikipedia
• Lake Renegade - Wikipedia
• Aircraft Performance – Lake Amphibian Club
• PlanePHD LA-4-200 Buccaneer
• PlanePHD LA-250 Renegade
• Aviation Consumer - Lake Amphibian Used Aircraft Guide
• AVweb - Lake Amphibian
• Plane + Pilot - Lake Amphibian/Buccaneer/Renegade/Seafury
• BWI Lake LA-4 Buccaneer Insurance Cost
• AOPA - FAA advises Lake Amphibian spar inspections
• Federal Register - AD for Lake LA-4, LA-4A, LA-4P, LA-4-200, and Model 250
• Lake History – Lake Amphibian Club
• Jane's - LAKE LA-250 Renegade and Turbo 270 Renegade

Local Fun Flying (9): The Lake's core competency. Few aircraft deliver more conversation-starter value per dollar, and the ability to alternate between lake destinations and paved airports in a single flight is genuinely unique.

Backcountry (6): Scores moderately well for water-based backcountry — remote lake access, beach landings — but poorly for rough unimproved strips; the low-slung hull and exposed pusher prop limit rough-field work compared to a piper-pa-18-super-cub or Maule on tundras.

Cross-Country (5): The 560 NM no-reserve range at 75% power (roughly 480-500 NM with a real reserve) makes the Buccaneer usable but not generous for long trips; the wider fuel tanks on the Renegade extend this materially, though that airplane's own range figure is unverified this session.

Business Travel (4): Possible but compromised: limited range, specialized maintenance, higher insurance, and the inability to use many shorter runways at busy business airports.

Surveying (6): Good forward visibility (no engine up front), stable platform, and the ability to land on water for remote ops lend the Lake to wildlife, shoreline, and marine surveying work.

Flight Training (3): Not a primary trainer. The Lake is a valuable transition/specialty airplane for seaplane ratings and single-engine sea checkouts, but unfamiliar handling and unique failure modes make it an expensive way to learn basics.

Cargo Hauling (3): Useful load of 1,135 lb (basic aircraft, at the aux-tank-equipped 2,690 lb gross) is modest; rear access is awkward in the LA-4, better in the Renegade with its rear door.

Aerobatics (1): Not approved for aerobatics and not suitable; the pusher pylon and hull structure are not designed for sustained G loading.

Comparable amphibious alternatives include the much newer Icon A5 LSA (two-seat, very different mission envelope) and the homebuilt Progressive Aerodyne SeaRey (experimental, lower cost, two-place). No certified four- or six-seat pusher amphibian competes with the Lake.

Budget tier ($40-70K Buccaneers): Original 1970s panels are common — King KX-170B NAVs, single VOR, ADF, basic transponder. Many have been upgraded piecemeal with a GNS-430 or GTN-650 and a modern Mode S transponder for ADS-B compliance. Panel space is genuinely tight in the LA-4; retrofit work is harder than in a Cessna.

Mid tier ($80-130K Buccaneer EPs, early Renegades): GNS-530W or GTN-750 with coupled autopilot (typically S-TEC 50 or Century III), dual comms, WAAS-capable navigator, ADS-B out complete. Most market listings in this band will have at least one modern navigator and ADS-B.

Premium tier ($150-250K Renegades, Turbos, Seafurys): Garmin G500 TXi or Aspen Evolution retrofits, GTN-750, GFC-500 autopilot installations where STC'd, full IFR-legal with modern weather datalink. The Renegade's larger panel accommodates glass upgrades better than the LA-4.

See Avionics Pricing Reference for panel cost references; Lake retrofits run 15-25% higher labor than equivalent fixed-gear land planes due to wiring runs through the hull structure.

• Vne increase, Consolidated Aeronautics Kit K-137: Raises the LA-4-200's Vne from 127 to 134 kt on S/N 422-1036 airframes; "no structural change to Type Design required" per TCDS 1A13 NOTE 5. Airframes S/N 1037 and later carry 134 kt from the factory.
• Auxiliary fuel systems, two distinct approvals: NOTE 6's 14-gallon sponson tanks (Consolidated Aeronautics Flight Manual Supplement No. 4, 1973) are what raises gross weight to 2,690 lb, which is what this page's weight is built around. A separate, later approval, NOTE 9's STC SA264NE wing tanks (34 gal usable, 17 each side), is a different system entirely — do not assume the two stack or are interchangeable.
• Turbocharger, STC SA469NE: The Model 250 turbo ("Turbo Renegade") — runbook rule 32 applies: absent from the TCDS model list because an STC is always absent from a TCDS, not because it doesn't exist.
• Hydrofoil / strake packages: The "EP" (Extended Performance) modifications include forward hull strakes and hydrofoil refinements that reduce water takeoff run and improve spray handling. Often factory-installed on late Buccaneers and field-retrofittable. Not independently verified this session.
• Fin extension / tail mods: Some owners install extended vertical fin kits for improved directional stability in water operations.
• Salt-water protection packages: Essential for coastal operators — extra zinc chromate, polyurethane topcoats, bilge drains, sacrificial anodes, and corrosion-resistant fasteners. Seafury variants came with these from the factory.
• Engine upgrades: 200-hp IO-360 retrofit onto LA-4 180s is a common field conversion for older airframes.
• Avionics/panel mods: WAAS navigators, ADS-B, modern autopilots — all require custom STC field-approval paperwork given the low production numbers.

Parts availability (fair): The Lake factory (most recently LanShe Aerospace, later dormant) is not producing new airframes, but parts supply remains viable through specialist shops and the Lake Amphibian Club parts network. Some structural and hull-specific parts require fabrication or salvage. Common hardware, engine parts (Lycoming IO-360/IO-540), and typical consumables are unaffected.

Mechanic familiarity (specialist): Lakes are not serviced by general Part 145 shops. The specialist ecosystem includes:

• Amphibians Plus — Bartow, Florida
• Lake Central Air Services — Gravenhurst, Ontario
• Lake Hamilton Seaplanes — Lake Hamilton, Florida
• A handful of other Lake-experienced A&Ps distributed nationally

Owners typically ferry their aircraft to a specialist for annuals and major work rather than using local shops.

Annual cost estimate: $12,000-25,000 typical annual inspection + fixed costs, dominated by hull inspection labor, corrosion treatment, and gear system service. Expensive recurring items: spar inspection compliance, hull bulkhead inspections (interior teardown), pylon inspection, gear actuator overhauls, prop removal for corrosion check (pusher props live in spray environment), and salt-water corrosion remediation for coastal operators.

Engine reserve: $45,000 (IO-360, per reference/engine-overhaul-pricing.md) against 2,000-hour TBO = ~$22.50/hr engine reserve.

Price fields (price_min_usd, price_max_usd, price_typical_usd, annual_cost_estimate) were not re-verified this session and are carried over unchanged from the prior pass.

Price tiers (2024-2026 market, unverified this session):

• LA-4 180 (1960s): $40-60K for flyable examples with clean hulls and fresh engines; project aircraft under $40K are often uneconomical to recover due to corrosion.
• LA-4-200 Buccaneer (1970-81): $55-95K typical; clean, well-equipped, low-time airframes reach $100-120K. A 1990 LA-4-200 EP bluebook retail starts around $190K, though most examples trade lower.
• LA-250 Renegade (1983-97): $100-180K typical; well-equipped examples with modern avionics reach $200-275K.
• LA-270 Turbo Renegade / Seafury: $150-275K depending on condition and equipment.

Major value drivers:

• Corrosion history: A documented freshwater-only airframe with original alodine intact commands a 20-40% premium over an equivalent salt-water example.
• Engine time: IO-360 and IO-540 overhauls run $35-55K; a run-out engine drops value by near the full overhaul cost.
• Spar inspection compliance: Current spar AD documentation and recent inspection paperwork add $5-15K of perceived value; non-compliant aircraft are hard to finance or insure.
• Avionics: A GTN-750 + GFC-500 panel retrofit adds $35-60K of value on a Renegade.
• EP modifications: Hydrofoils and strakes add $5-10K on a Buccaneer.
• Rigging and flight test: Lakes that have been properly re-rigged fly noticeably better; a documented rigging job adds confidence and value.

See Aircraft Valuation Methodology for formula references.

Wing spar AD / inspection: The most significant recurring concern. Cracks in the rear wing spar doublers and angles led to an AD (REVO-era, 2002) requiring inspection and replacement of cracked parts. In 2024 the FAA issued further recommended (not mandatory) spar inspections for Lake Amphibians. Pre-buy inspections must include thorough spar documentation.

Hull corrosion: The single biggest killer of Lake airframes. 1960s 180-hp LA-4s were built without zinc chromate treatment and some without alodine — a badly corroded Lake is essentially unrepairable. From the 1970s onward, all Buccaneers were alodined and zinc chromated, and from 1983 a polychromate primer was added. Any aircraft flown in salt water without the Seafury corrosion package is a high-risk buy. Interior must come out to inspect hull bottom and bulkheads — allow time and money for this at pre-buy.

Hull bulkhead cracking: Pounding across waves in rough water cracks hull bulkheads, particularly around the step and keel area. Inspection is invasive.

Gear transition failures: Gear-down water landings are catastrophic and have killed pilots. The Lake has specific gear-position cockpit warning systems, but discipline is required on every transition.

Pylon and engine mount cracks: The overhead pylon carries engine loads through a single attachment structure; cracks in the mount and pylon tube are a recurring inspection item.

Brakes and wheel wells: The retractable gear lives in a hull cavity that sees water intrusion; brake corrosion and wheel well drainage are annual-inspection items.

See Maintenance Ecosystem for general GA maintenance context; the Lake requires specialist attention beyond typical single-engine practice.

Lake amphibians are high insurance-cost aircraft relative to their hull value due to amphibious operations, retractable gear, pusher-specific handling, and limited underwriter familiarity.

Liability-only ($1M): Qualified pilots see $770-900/year on a Buccaneer; low-time or non-current pilots see $1,100-1,270/year. Renegade premiums run higher.

Hull + liability: $3,500-4,700/year for qualified pilots with $70K hull coverage on a Buccaneer. Owner reports of $3,400/year for $100K hull + $1M liability are common for qualified pilots. Less qualified pilots can see $5,000-8,750/year. Renegade hull rates at $150-200K insured value push annual premiums to $5,000-9,000+.

Underwriting requirements: Most carriers mandate:

• ASEL + ASES ratings
• Minimum 10-25 hours dual instruction in type
• Seaplane endorsement current
• Annual recurrent training for hull coverage over $100K
• Specific named-pilot coverage (open pilot clauses rare)

Underwriters scrutinize water operations environment (freshwater lake vs. coastal/tidal) and hangarage. Saltwater operations require the Seafury package or documented equivalent corrosion protection for insurability.

See GA Insurance Underwriting for category context; the Lake falls in the "amphibious single" category alongside light seaplanes rather than "standard retractable."