Floatplane training flights.

[gismo]

I damaged a finger last week and when this interfered with my waterskiing I found myself with some availablel spare time so I finally got around to working on a seaplane rating. I flew 2.5 hours Friday afternoon and another 2 hours today and it's been a lot of fun. The wind completely died yesterday mid flight so I got lots of glassy water practice along with pulling into a dock and a circling takeoff. Today the wind was 15-20 Kt so we practiced sailing (taxiing backwards with the engine off), more docking and of course rough water takeoffs and landings. I've now landed on seven different lakes and today we even got to stop at a resturant on a lake for lunch. The CFI I'm using is also the DE so I have to fly once with another CFI so he can recommend me for the checkride. Unfortunately the second CFI won't be in town for a couple weeks or I'd be taking the checkride next week (the CFI says I'm ready now).

Now I need to find a nearby friend with a seaplane I can borrow!

 

[bbchien]

I damaged a finger last week and when this interfered with my waterskiing I found myself with some availablel spare time so I finally got around to working on a seaplane rating. I flew 2.5 hours Friday afternoon and another 2 hours today and it's been a lot of fun. The wind completely died yesterday mid flight so I got lots of glassy water practice along with pulling into a dock and a circling takeoff. Today the wind was 15-20 Kt so we practiced sailing (taxiing backwards with the engine off), more docking and of course rough water takeoffs and landings. I've now landed on seven different lakes and today we even got to stop at a resturant on a lake for lunch. The CFI I'm using is also the DE so I have to fly once with another CFI so he can recommend me for the checkride. Unfortunately the second CFI won't be in town for a couple weeks or I'd be taking the checkride next week (the CFI says I'm ready now).

Now I need to find a nearby friend with a seaplane I can borrow!

You know what the loss ratio is on the first year of operations, of course....?

 

[gismo]

You know what the loss ratio is on the first year of operations, of course....?

I'm sure it's impressive. It'd probably be the same for land planes if we almost always landed in farmers fields we'd never been to before.

 

[Carol]

Sorry it's taking you so long to do the ride. Isn't seaplane flying just a tremendous load of fun?

There are several places in Florida where you can go and fly with an instructor. I don't know if they will rent to you solo or not. Have fun!

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

I am planning for this rating too, what airplane does everyone suggest?

 

[Tim]

Now I need to find a nearby friend with a seaplane I can borrow!

Ok you can use mine, if you come up and get rid of this smoke its 1 mile again this morning!

 

[gismo]

Ok you can use mine, if you come up and get rid of this smoke its 1 mile again this morning!

Thanks!. Chances are the smoke will be gone by the time I get there.

 

[gismo]

I am planning for this rating too, what airplane does everyone suggest?

It may be that your choices are pretty limited, they sure are around here. I found one FBO in the Twin Cities metro area that had two float planes for rent, a 206 and a SuperCub, both on amphibs. The fellow I'm working with doesn't advertise (he's not a flight school) and he uses a 180 HP Skyhawk on amphib floats. And AFaIK that's about it around here. I would recommend going with something that's not so overpowered that you don't have to work at getting it off the water although I guess a savvy instructor could teach you about that by using less than full power.

 

[Dave Krall CFII]

I'm sure it's impressive. It'd probably be the same for land planes if we almost always landed in farmers fields we'd never been to before.

It's what you said plus, what would be a low dollar repair "fender bender" on a land plane but that damages a float system enough to sink a seaplane can end up as or nearly as a total loss in salt water, not counting paying off the hiers of the people that probably won't make it out of the water/exposure scenario.

All that, plus typically low PIC currency is why seaplane insurance is ~2X landplanes and few people will rent them at all.