Pilots And Boaters CAN Have The Best Of Both Worlds
By David Juwel
What do you do when you love boating and flying, but you can
only afford to do one or the other? That’s easy, you buy an
amphibious seaplane; a freedom machine that gives you both
worlds.
I have been a pilot for over forty years. I have flown
approximately 30 different aircraft and I’ve traveled over
1,000,000 air miles as a corporate passenger in Learjet’s ...
but I had never experienced landing on water until I had the
opportunity to ride in an amphibious aircraft a year ago.
What an awesome experience! It was the first time I ever landed
and didn’t have to align my aircraft with the runway. It was
also the first time that I had ever taken off following the curving
contour of the shoreline, instead of going in a straight line. It
was amazing when I learned to lift one float up to reduce surface
adhesion and hasten the take-off, sort of like doing a one-wheel
take-off. We even “puddle jumped” lakes, by doing touch
& go’s, lake after lake. They were soft and gentle
landings too. Eagles and other birds were flying and cavorting
below us. We became part of the wilderness, but we didn’t
worry about it because we always had water nearby. Some say that
flying floats or an amphibious aircraft is safer because you have
10,000 extra runways to land on. That’s a gross
understatement. Some states have that many aerial watering holes
all by themselves. You actually have hundreds of thousands of
additional places to land across the United States. And you have
the added safety of a reinforced hull or floats in case an engine
quits with neither runway or water beneath you. It would really be
a technical litotes to say that seaplane flying is a lesser genre
of aviation. It’s not. Like many of the higher pleasures in
life, it’s just a less frequented area. But it doesn’t
have to be.
Naturally if you’re a fisherman, you see the advantage of
it. But there’s far more benefits to seaplane flying than
just fishing. It’s the perfect aircraft for backcountry
and inaccessible exploration, hunting, wildlife viewing, search
& rescue, remote living, nature photography and camping.
It’s the epitome in “get-away” transportation.
Imagine if you will, filling a picnic basket with gourmet food,
grabbing a few blankets, and flying to a small-uninhabited remote
island, where you wine and dine the love of your life for a few
extremely private hours. This is not a fantasy just for the rich.
Properly planned, it can be the reality of almost any seaplane
pilot.
It was because of these fond memories and aircraft capabilities
that I stopped at the Seaplane Pilots Association booth at the 2012
U.S. Sport Aviation Expo. There I met Steve McCaughey, Executive
Director of SPA and the impassioned champion of wet aviation. I
have rarely met anyone as dedicated to a corporate mission as
he.
I asked him what was on the agenda to build up and expand the SPA.
He stated that they are working to offer the following:
- A program to provide full seaplane rating scholarships to
career tracked individuals.
- A program to provide college credit for seaplane ratings.
- College courses that teach real stick & rudder flying
skills.
- More annual tours and events.
- A continued thrust in their open waters campaign.
- An expanded number of seaplane related products in their
store.
They are also developing strategies to introduce as many people
to the seaplane experience as possible. More information will be
available in the future.
I recommend that you contact the Seaplane Pilots Association to
receive the best advice for joining the seaplane adventure.
If you are interested in building your own seaplane, I recommend
contacting the Progressive Aerodyne company, producers of the
SeaRey amphibian. A great bunch of folks.
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