Gucci Pilot
Pattern Altitude
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2014
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Gucci Pilot
Decided since I was doing the ASES and Glider, might as well do the AMES while I’m at it. There aren’t many options in the country to do the AMES. I came across Chester Lawson and his Grumman Widgeon(h2oflight.com) and thought that seemed like kind of a unique airplane to do it in so I sent him an email and had it booked before I went down on vacation. Jon Brown at Jack Brown’s Seaplane Base mentioned a gentleman on the same lake as him that does it in an Air Cam (probably the cheapest option) and there is an airline pilot at the Winter Haven Airport as well that does it in a Twin SeaBee. However, I had already made plans with Mr. Lawson so decided to stick with him. I had just done the ASES a little over a week before so most of the seaplane knowledge was still fresh. He does the training and checkride out of his home at Spruce Creek Fly-In Community. Pretty neat place if you haven’t been there before. I ended up staying at the Country Inn & Suites right up the road. Nice and only about 10 minutes from his house. In his confirmation email he sends you a huge 100-page PDF AMES book that he has written. I would say I looked at about 4 pages of it(more on that later). Showed up to his house day one and he seemed surprised to see me. After chatting for a bit and looking at my email on my phone I realized I told him October 14th instead of September 14th…I’m an idiot. He said it would be no problem. He was putting a new starter on the plane so told me to come back in a few hours after lunch and we would get started.
I showed up and he had the airplane all buttoned up and ready to go and said he just called and booked my checkride for the 16th. We got in, taxied to get some fuel, then blasted off out of Spruce Creek to head to the first lake. Enroute we did some steep turns, stalls, and slow flight. That was the last of that I would do my whole time there. Biggest difference between this and the Cub I did the ASES in? On touchdown, you don’t immediately pull the stick back. You actually have to ride this one out a bit until the plane comes off step before you pull back on the yoke. Took a little getting use to. All the other seaplane stuff was pretty much the same. Just a few different procedures in the Widgeon but the same techniques are used for the normal, rough, and glassy landings. With the confined area stuff you don’t do the turning take-off like you do in a float plane. Straight ahead, just more flaps.
Once you are done with all the water stuff you swap seats in the lake with Chester (only has brakes on the left side) and take-off and head back to Spruce Creek where he does all the wheel landings at Spruce Creek. He let me try one…it sucked…
Next day we did a bit of ground school talking about some of the different ramping/beaching techniques unique to a flying boat/amphibian. Then we went flying again to practice all the same stuff we did the day before. After we finished we went to lunch with his neighbor.
Checkride day: Showed up and Chester and I went out to fly one last time to get the hands warm for the checkride. Then came back and went to lunch again with his neighbor. Came back and chatted for a while waiting for the examiner to show up. Went out to pre-flight the plane and he asked a few questions about the airplane. Most of it Chester teaches you. Like I said before I looked at about 4 pages of the manual, because Chester said most of the oral would be done on the way down to the lake and it will be almost 100% systems/airplane stuff since I already had a seaplane rating. Asked the examiner which lake we wanted to go to and he set it up in the GPS. Cruising down there he asked me a few systems questions. Where are the batteries located, where is the hydraulic pump, how is the gear held up/down? What was funny was when he asked me all the V-speeds. He was looking out the window the whole time. Well…the V-speeds are on a placard above my head. You can bet I got all of them right. Went down to the lake and did a normal landing & take-off. Then did a rough water landing/take-off. Then a glassy landing, with some step taxiing and from the step taxi just did a normal take-off (glassy is pretty much identical to a normal). Then flew around the pattern, he pulled back the throttle and had me do a single engine approach and landing. Go through the normal small twin single engine motions, then pretty much a normal landing. Then we swapped seats, he did the take-off and let me fly back, then he made the wheel landing.
Some things to note: Chester’s website says the price of him and the airplane is $500/hr. It is actually $550/hr. So he is probably one of the most expensive multi-seaplane options out there. Chester is pretty good about not wasting your money though. His AMES manual says the examiner fee is $400 cash. Actually it is $550 and I felt a little embarrassed when the examiner told me this. I said I could go get more or I could write him a check. Didn’t seem too keen on me paying by check but he had another checkride to go to so he let it slide. The Widgeon can get pretty hot inside so dress comfortably. Since you go to and from his hangar/home, you won’t be getting wet unless you leave the window open when landing on water.
All-in-all it was a good experience. Total flight time was 3.5 hours plus 1 for the checkride. Spent $2475 for the training/airplane and $550 for the examiner so $3025 total. Are there more worthwhile ways to spend $3025 in aviation besides the AMES rating? I think almost every other way would be more worthwhile. I would only really recommend this if you like the idea of collecting ratings like me or you actually want to work for an outfit doing multi-engine seaplane flying. Or you want to buy your own multi-engine seaplane.
I showed up and he had the airplane all buttoned up and ready to go and said he just called and booked my checkride for the 16th. We got in, taxied to get some fuel, then blasted off out of Spruce Creek to head to the first lake. Enroute we did some steep turns, stalls, and slow flight. That was the last of that I would do my whole time there. Biggest difference between this and the Cub I did the ASES in? On touchdown, you don’t immediately pull the stick back. You actually have to ride this one out a bit until the plane comes off step before you pull back on the yoke. Took a little getting use to. All the other seaplane stuff was pretty much the same. Just a few different procedures in the Widgeon but the same techniques are used for the normal, rough, and glassy landings. With the confined area stuff you don’t do the turning take-off like you do in a float plane. Straight ahead, just more flaps.
Once you are done with all the water stuff you swap seats in the lake with Chester (only has brakes on the left side) and take-off and head back to Spruce Creek where he does all the wheel landings at Spruce Creek. He let me try one…it sucked…
Next day we did a bit of ground school talking about some of the different ramping/beaching techniques unique to a flying boat/amphibian. Then we went flying again to practice all the same stuff we did the day before. After we finished we went to lunch with his neighbor.
Checkride day: Showed up and Chester and I went out to fly one last time to get the hands warm for the checkride. Then came back and went to lunch again with his neighbor. Came back and chatted for a while waiting for the examiner to show up. Went out to pre-flight the plane and he asked a few questions about the airplane. Most of it Chester teaches you. Like I said before I looked at about 4 pages of the manual, because Chester said most of the oral would be done on the way down to the lake and it will be almost 100% systems/airplane stuff since I already had a seaplane rating. Asked the examiner which lake we wanted to go to and he set it up in the GPS. Cruising down there he asked me a few systems questions. Where are the batteries located, where is the hydraulic pump, how is the gear held up/down? What was funny was when he asked me all the V-speeds. He was looking out the window the whole time. Well…the V-speeds are on a placard above my head. You can bet I got all of them right. Went down to the lake and did a normal landing & take-off. Then did a rough water landing/take-off. Then a glassy landing, with some step taxiing and from the step taxi just did a normal take-off (glassy is pretty much identical to a normal). Then flew around the pattern, he pulled back the throttle and had me do a single engine approach and landing. Go through the normal small twin single engine motions, then pretty much a normal landing. Then we swapped seats, he did the take-off and let me fly back, then he made the wheel landing.
Some things to note: Chester’s website says the price of him and the airplane is $500/hr. It is actually $550/hr. So he is probably one of the most expensive multi-seaplane options out there. Chester is pretty good about not wasting your money though. His AMES manual says the examiner fee is $400 cash. Actually it is $550 and I felt a little embarrassed when the examiner told me this. I said I could go get more or I could write him a check. Didn’t seem too keen on me paying by check but he had another checkride to go to so he let it slide. The Widgeon can get pretty hot inside so dress comfortably. Since you go to and from his hangar/home, you won’t be getting wet unless you leave the window open when landing on water.
All-in-all it was a good experience. Total flight time was 3.5 hours plus 1 for the checkride. Spent $2475 for the training/airplane and $550 for the examiner so $3025 total. Are there more worthwhile ways to spend $3025 in aviation besides the AMES rating? I think almost every other way would be more worthwhile. I would only really recommend this if you like the idea of collecting ratings like me or you actually want to work for an outfit doing multi-engine seaplane flying. Or you want to buy your own multi-engine seaplane.
