Seaplane pilots out there?

CW wrote:

this is really cool that seaplanes are even used in maritime research these days.

One of my early flight test and STC approval projects, I even spun it a number of times during flight testing!

A few other seaplane survey mods I’ve flight tested:

And FLIR iceberg hunting in my amphibian

I am a seaplane pilot and recently started instructing it as well. To me it is the most interesting and challenging flying one can do. I am currently looking for a seaplane to own myself.

Fly310 wrote:

To me it is the most interesting and challenging flying one can do. I am currently looking for a seaplane to own myself.

Agree. It is the ultimate skin in the game. No hull insurance for me as the rates are so high, I bear total responsibility for my own mistakes. If you mess up out in the middle of a lake on your own you have nobody but yourself to blame with very few people you can call to get you out of the mess. When I got the rating the examiner said to me “just remember from here on, it is incredibly easy to make an expensive and embarrassing mistake”

If I could do nothing all day but fly seaplanes I would be happy forever.

WilliamF wrote:

“just remember from here on, it is incredibly easy to make an expensive and embarrassing mistake”

Yup, ‘been there, done that! My student surprised me, and I woke up four days later in hospital. Embarrassing, yes, but if he hadn’t splashed us in front of a number of people, we would not have been rescued, and I would not have advice to give!

Advice: Wear your lifejacket at all times, take an underwater egress course, and carry on your person everything you think you’ll need on your person, ‘cause everything not on your person is going to the bottom, where you can’t get to it. Put your phone in a water proof bag, and clip it to you, ‘cause it won’t work when it’s wet. I know my waterproof bag worked, ’cause even though it was torn off, and went to the bottom, it still rang for a couple of days when my wife phoned it, until either the battery went flat, or water did seep in.

Water is very hard when you hit it wrong, but very soft while you’re sinking in it!

I’d love to try a Seaplane. I’d love to have the rating but it would be a waste.
However none of it is cheap so I’ll be unlikely to do more than maybe a 1hr trip one day.

The wife and I love the look of Canada or Alaska so if we manage a trip there one day, that’d be the time and place to give it a try.

I did once go in a Twin Otter on floats (one if my favourite planes) and the wife commented that I didn’t look out of the window at all (I was sat directly behing the crew, lol)

CW wrote:

I think flying without insurance is a good reminder on how we should always act.

I haven’t insured either of my planes for hull for several years. When I had two amphibians it was needlessly expensive. I sold one (which was the plan anyway), and simultaneously, insurance premiums went up, as Canada had a bad float flying season. Now, I just fly it like I have to pay for it!

As for my student splashing us, I can say with some happiness, that I really don’t remember what happened. I never expected to “forget” something in life, but I forgot that! He was landing in perfect conditions, and touched down perfectly. I remember looking out to the right thinking: “he’s going to touch….. now…..” and he did nicely. I was having him take me to the dock, so he could fly the five solo circuits to complete his seaplane rating. After a perfect landing, the next thing I remember was water coming in the windshield, and then holding onto an aileron, trying to inflate my life jacket. I have only a few one second memories after that, which in hindsight correspond exactly to someone speaking to me by name (by the way, if you must crash, do it at your home airport, where your fellow volunteer firefighters will take care of you!). My Fire Chief told me later that I was conscious and talking the whole time, and not complaining of being in pain, but I don’t remember. I woke up four days later, with a doctor telling me to wiggle my toes. Three hospitals, and three months later, I was home, and seven months later I flew a check ride in a borrowed 172, which felt like I flew it the day before. The accident investigator told me that the accident was simply that, no “factors”. After seeing photos of the wreck, I suspect an inopportune accidental opening of the throttle while on the step, but that is simply speculation on my part.

I have faith in the genuine good will of my student, but I’ll never ride as a “passenger” again during a training flight!