You can pay me to fly your floatplane...

gismo

Touchdown! Greaser!
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iGismo
...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.
 
lancefisher said:
...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?

Now if I can just find a way to get some time in floatplanes without actually buying one.

Congratulations Lance!!! That's great! :yes:

Maybe you could rent one and give rides at Gaston's next year. ;)
 
That is so exciting! Congratulations, Lance. I hope you can find a way to rent -- maybe go into business part-time with someone who owns a floatplane?
 
Diana said:
Congratulations Lance!!! That's great! :yes:

Maybe you could rent one and give rides at Gaston's next year. ;)

How 'bout we just stick some floats on your Citabria for the day?:D
 
lancefisher said:
...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.

It was for me as well, definitely the most fun, never did get above 200' the whole time, and we did splash and go's in front of the casinos in Laughlin.

As for renting a float plane, forget it. I used to get paid to give Demo Rides in an Eipper Quicksilver MX II on floats because I had that ticket, and did some fish spotting with a tanked up 180hp 172, but that's it for work on it. I also used to fly a 185 on floats with a USCG Auxillary pilot who owned it, but that was volunteer SAR type stuff.
 
Good going Lance. I'd love to get that rating. looks like a blast! There is one place to rent them here in the Philly area. I think its a J3 on floats, Arnold would know better. Only problem is here in PA there aren't to many places to take them. Sigh, Minnisota however, well it is the land of 10,000 lakes ( Did someone actually count them?)

BTW does the stall feel or act any different with all that metal hanging off the bottom of the plane?
 
AdamZ said:
BTW does the stall feel or act any different with all that metal hanging off the bottom of the plane?

A bit, but maybe not in the way one might expect. Look closely at a set of floats, they actually provide lift. A J-2 on floats is 5 mph faster than on wheels.
 
AdamZ said:
Good going Lance. I'd love to get that rating. looks like a blast! There is one place to rent them here in the Philly area. I think its a J3 on floats, Arnold would know better. Only problem is here in PA there aren't to many places to take them. Sigh, Minnisota however, well it is the land of 10,000 lakes ( Did someone actually count them?)

BTW does the stall feel or act any different with all that metal hanging off the bottom of the plane?

At last count, we've got way more than ten thousand, but several states have more than Minnesota. I think Texas has the most.


Stalls weren't a lot different, except that when we did a stall out of a skidding turn, it was a lot more benign than I remember in a regular 172. The biggest differences in flight characteristics with the big amphib floats besides going about 20 mph slower despite the larger engine, was the difficulty in keeping the plane coordinated during turns. The combination of a lot of mass hanging out below and the wierd airflow around the floats when yawing makes for some "interesting" oscillations about multiple axes when rolling rapidly into or out of a turn.
 
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