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Floatplane flying in Como

@boscomantico thank you for resurrecting the thread, I think the CFI Gabriele may also have UK CRE privileges?

Oxford (EGTK), United Kingdom

Here (pages 4-10) is a nice recent report on getting the seplane rating at Aeroclub Como. Not sure if and how in 2023 it still works for UK license holders to get the rating.

Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

FCL.740.A Revalidation of class and type ratings — aeroplanes

[…]

(b) Revalidation of single-pilot single-engine class ratings.
(1) Single-engine piston aeroplane class ratings and TMG ratings. For revalidation of single pilot single-engine piston aeroplane class ratings or TMG class ratings the applicant shall:
(i) within the 3 months preceding the expiry date of the rating, pass a proficiency
check in the relevant class in accordance with Appendix 9 to this Part with an
examiner; or
(ii) within the 12 months preceding the expiry date of the rating, complete 12 hours
of flight time in the relevant class, including:
— 6 hours as PIC,
— 12 take-offs and 12 landings, and
— refresher training of at least 1 hour of total flight time with a flight instructor (FI)
or a class rating instructor (CRI). Applicants shall be exempted from this refresher
training if they have passed a class or type rating proficiency check, skill test or
assessment of competence in any other class or type of aeroplane.

[…]

(4) When applicants hold both a single-engine piston aeroplane-land class rating and a single engine piston aeroplane-sea class rating, they may complete the requirements of (1)(ii) in
either class or a combination thereof, and achieve the fulfilment of these requirements for
both ratings. At least 1 hour of required PIC time and 6 of the required 12 take-offs and
landings shall be completed in each class.

Anyway, since your rating has lapsed, if you like, you can renew your SEP(sea) in Flensburg, aswell.

Last Edited by mh at 08 Feb 17:47
mh
Aufwind GmbH
EKPB, Germany

Well that the thing, my Seaplane class rating expired last October. I tried to get the missing 2 hours for most of the October month, but bad weather decided otherwise …

ENVA, Norway

Revalidation of the SEP (sea) … missing hours? I would think that a prof check is enough before the expiry date of the class rating?

EDLE, Netherlands

On my end, I’ve started seaplane flying after moving to Norway and finding a seaplane on the lake nearby. I ended up taking the license in Como because of limited availability of examiner in Trondheim and limited weather availability and short seaplane season.
I’m trying my best to fly the C185 the local club has access to, but we had several issues (change of plane, technical problem, change of base…) which made difficult for sometime. Long story short, I fell 2 hours short of the required minimum hours for renewing my seaplane qualification last fall so I need to re-take a training and flight exam to re-validate it, waiting for the spring to do it, not really usefull in winter here.

By the way, there has been a good initiative to list and describe all the lakes or rivers… where one can use a seaplane and with which restriction and contact to get authorization, so it is improving.
Re-fueling is a challenge though with straight floats !

ENVA, Norway

I learned to fly seaplanes, but am looking for a nice holiday destination. Canada looks amazing @Pilot_DAR: and I would love to go and fly around there sometime in the future, combined with some camping and outdoor stuff like canoeing (inflatable canoe). I don’t own a float plane and have just been flying the Husky, which does not provide a lot of room for luggage and the wife. So, I found this seaplane club here in Sweden where you can seemingly rent a seaplane. Is there anyone that has experience with this club? I would then be able to fly around in Sweden to start with.

So there is this floating hotel room on a lake in Sweden. My dream is to be able to fly to that lake, land there, taxi to the hotel room on the lake and stay overnight there to then continue my flight.

Fuel is then the biggest hurdle in Sweden?

EDLE, Netherlands

I landed in a few lakes in Sweden, including one near Brattforsheden. At that aerodrome, there is a magnificent aviation museum, including the original training simulator for the Saab Viggen. In return for a couple of hours flying the Viggen, I took the museum curator splashing in a few local lakes. We had also planned to land in the Gulf of Bothnia, to visit at a friend’s cottage, but the weather went down, and I ended up having to fly the approach into Oulu for the night. More horrible weather approaching sent us to the Sweden side to avoid further weather delay. Happily the weather information available is excellent there (I like yr.no). The north of Canada is less well served with real time weather information, so a lot of judgement is needed when float flying. A few times I’ve set down on an enroute lake, to sit it out, or plot a retreat.

One of the many important lessons taught to me by the old time float pilots which I pass on to all of my students is: When circling a lake considering to land on it, sketch the lake, shape, features, landmarks, hazards (shoals/rocks/wires), where north is, where the wind is coming from, where you will actually land, and suitable takeoff areas. The reason for this, is once on the water, probably on a lake you’ve never before visited, it’ll look entirely different than it did from the air, with much less opportunity to spot hazards, and select the best takeoff path. With the sketch, you (a), disciplined yourself to look for the hazards, and (b), have information you just cannot get any other way, to enable you to select the best takeoff area. It may be around a point, where you would not think to look, if you had not pre-assessed. This is particularly important if you’re going to stay the night. After a good campfire dinner, and super sleep in the silent, you may have forgotten some mundane details about local topography!

Home runway, in central Ontario, Canada, Canada

When you where in Norway you should have crossed the border to Sweden to enjoy landing spots everywhere! All lakes are legal to land in unless something else is stated. Some bird protection areas are no-fly zones for takeoff and landings.

But what we lack is the infrastructure for it. You need to get fuel barrels sent wherever you wish to refuel.

ESSZ, Sweden

I’ve been flying floats and amphibians for about 25 years. Happily, there are endless opportunities to lake fly in Canada, with nearly no restrictions on where one can land. I have two amphibians, which at present are waiting the end of a really miserable winter this year! From my home runway, I have six lakes I can land into within ten minutes flying, so it’s easy to keep current on the water. Another nice thing about water flying, is “circuits” can often be in line, if the lake is long enough. I’ve flown dozens of touch and goes, without any turns.

For my experience, Canada has the greatest opportunity for float flying. The US is good too, though has states and areas where lake landings are restricted. I’ve flown all over Norway, which is beautiful, though permission is required for lake landings. We god permission as requested, but is was bureaucratic. My seeking permission to water land in Germany seemed hopeless. I did receive permission to land at the water aerodrome at Split, Croatia, though that was a big deal.

Floatplanes are available for rent in Canada, though there are many restrictions due to insurance – insurers have learned the expensive way that one con fly a floatplane to a very remote place, then have some kind of problem, which becomes seriously expensive to recover. Decades back I was a member of a team who flew three hours north of Toronto to recover a crashed Maule floatplane. It was in a remote lake, no roads within fifty miles. It is a requirement that a crashed floatplane be cleaned up – otherwise, it’s littering – the government will clean it up, and the owner/insurer will get the bill. This crashed Maule was valued, in its crashed condition, at $75,000 – good engine, prop, and lots of avionics, all undamaged. Other airframe parts salvageable. The insurance company had had clean up quotes, and were shocked. My colleague was told by the insurer: “If you guys clean it up, you can have it!” We spent three days, with three C 185’s cutting it up, and flying it out in pieces – it was a big job. One of my clients was hired by the insurance company to recover a Grumman Mallard, which was entirely undamaged, other than having landed with an engine fire. He hired a Skycrane helicopter, which was flown many hours to the site, to fly a fifteen minute lift overland to an ocean barge, to barge it back to Victoria. The cost was hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Therefore, insurance rates are based very much on the perception of risk of the specific pilot, and operation. A new floatplane pilot in a remote area will have high premiums, or maybe even decline to insure at all. My premiums are hardly more than a land plane, as I keep the planes at my home runway, and with lots of experience, the areas I fly are well known.

I did fly to the far north of Quebec and Labrador, nearly to Baffin Island. Though I flew it solo, it was in a loose gaggle of six other planes, each with two pilots known to me – we looked out after each other. This was very carefully planned, as AVGAS availability is a challenge in the north (It was in northern Norway too). In an amphib, it’s no so bad, as I landed at airports for fuel. Straight floatplane pilot really have to plan where to land on the water for fuel. This makes MOGAS floatplanes attractive, more fuel choices. The fishing lodge we visited: https://rapidlake.com/en/discover-the-fjords-of-labrador/ had AVGAS available for guests – at six times the airport price. But, when the lodge owner told me what he had to do to get the drums of AVGAS 195 km in from the nearest ocean port, I understood the cost, and happily paid it – there was no choice! Oh, and it’s not “how many litres would you like?”, it’s “How many 45 gallon drums would you like?” You buy the whole drum, use what you can, abandon the rest. My plane took all 45 gallons, phew, no wasted gas at $8.50 per litre!

Water flying is a whole different way to fly, but there are many things which must be learned after the float rating, simply because you’ll be flying in a very different environment.

To answer the question… The place I’d like to fly floats would be the south island of New Zealand!

Home runway, in central Ontario, Canada, Canada
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