RE: 1st Float Plane
Ican recommend the GPG-44 Widgeon. Aftera hairy maiden Imade three changes that gave it a better disposition. Add a hair of up to both ailerons (1/16" above flush on the upper surface) to give a bit of washout. Program in 40%differential aileron. And addAPCprops. The 9 x 4.7gives nice torque. For speed Iswap out for APC9 x 6E props. It's a head turner in the air and a great seaplane. Rugged; but it has a high wing loading and has to be flown in or it will stall. And twins sound great even with the electric motors.
It's also a good effort to mix in differential throttlefor watersteering. That works great.
A friend has the Flyzone Beaver and that's a nice floatplane. The black "paint"seems to ruboff fairly quickly. Almost no cabin access (just a hatchbetween thewing bases)soit would be hard to switch out components. It also requires the flaps be mechanically connected if you take the wing off, so it's apparantly designed to be transported assembled.
You can't loose with a Giant Stik. Stiks on floats are the tigers at float flys.
Ihave a Saratoga 40 on Hanger 9 floats and it is a sweetheart and my favorite float plane. Of course they discontinued the ARF. A Pulse on floats would be close (low wing instead of mid wing).