gismo
Touchdown! Greaser!
...as I passed a commercial single engine seaplane checkride yesterday. Of course my whopping 6 hours in seaplanes might be a problem for your insurance requirements but a pilot has to dream, right?
This was hands down, the easiest checkride I've ever been on. Everything went well except that on the first water takeoff I managed to forget to set the flaps. Fortunately, I realized what was wrong when I got to flying speed and was still on the water and put the flaps in then. The examiner said "well, I didn't ask for a no flaps takeoff, but that was a good one!". We did 3 or 4 water landings, docked, tried a little step taxiing, then a couple stalls and went back to the airport. The ride took about 2 hours, but we spent most of one having a soda with one of the examiner's floatplane buddies at his home on the lake in the middle of the checkride (thats' where we docked).
Now if I can just find a way to get some time in floatplanes without actually buying one.
This was hands down, the easiest checkride I've ever been on. Everything went well except that on the first water takeoff I managed to forget to set the flaps. Fortunately, I realized what was wrong when I got to flying speed and was still on the water and put the flaps in then. The examiner said "well, I didn't ask for a no flaps takeoff, but that was a good one!". We did 3 or 4 water landings, docked, tried a little step taxiing, then a couple stalls and went back to the airport. The ride took about 2 hours, but we spent most of one having a soda with one of the examiner's floatplane buddies at his home on the lake in the middle of the checkride (thats' where we docked).
Now if I can just find a way to get some time in floatplanes without actually buying one.