killbilly
Vocals, Lyrics, Triangle, Washboard, Kittens
So another JCer and I (who will chime in if he wants to) spent a couple days at Jack Brown's Seaplane Base in FL and did the seaplane add-on.
We flew the J-3 cubs on floats. Could've done the Super Cub for a few hundred bucks more, but the J-3 was just fine for our needs.
They say the hard lessons are the best ones, and in this case, there was a hard lesson about patience and second-guessing that led to my first checkride bust. However, I got back on the horse the next morning, fixed the problem, and passed the checkride. More on that in a second.
For those of you who've never tried it, I encourage you to do so. Seaplane flying is different - the risk management/ADM factors are considerably different when factoring your environment and wind into the equation. Learning how to read lakes for wind is surprisingly easy when you get the hang of it, but maintaining your situational awareness with respect to the wind (especially after a series of crosswind and confined-area takeoffs) takes a bit more mental energy. I imagine it becomes second-nature after a while to an accomplished seaplane pilot, but I often had to break it down into steps, be patient, and figure out my wind situation before making any maneuvers.
And that's fine. They encourage you to do that.
If you have some tailwheel experience, then awareness of weathervaning tendencies and nose-high pitch attitudes will come naturally to you.
I busted the first checkride on a step taxi. For some reason, I had a complete and total brain fart and didn't let the airplane just settle onto the step (this is where the floats start planing) - instead, I got impatient, and started fighting it. And my subsequent incorrect attempts to fix it snowballed into more confusion. Checkride was over at that point.
All I had to do was be patient with it. In the J3, you treat a step taxi just like a takeoff, and when the airplane settles onto the step, THEN you pull your power back.
After subsequent checkride-failure-shock I spent some time that night figuring out how/why I did it. And went into the remedial training the next morning with the instructor with somewhat of a plan. He taught to me in a slightly different way this time:
Total hands off stick.
Full power. Plow. Airplane rises to the step, settles down, pull power back to 2100, and PRESTO - I'm step-taxiing without touching the stick. After a few seconds, just a tiny bit of back pressure stabilizes the nose and that's it. Easy-peasy. And passed the checkride just fine later that morning.
Confined Area takeoffs are unnerving the first time you do them - it's a completely unnatural act to take off in a turn like that, and feel those lateral forces as you're coming around into the wind, but it's a very handy tool to have in the box. Step Taxi turns are similarly weird.
But as I found (and they say this is true of all Cub flying) you don't fly it so much as guide it.
Definitely a worthwhile experience - both for the fun of flying float planes and the lesson I learned from the bust.
Go get a float rating. You won't regret it.
We flew the J-3 cubs on floats. Could've done the Super Cub for a few hundred bucks more, but the J-3 was just fine for our needs.
They say the hard lessons are the best ones, and in this case, there was a hard lesson about patience and second-guessing that led to my first checkride bust. However, I got back on the horse the next morning, fixed the problem, and passed the checkride. More on that in a second.
For those of you who've never tried it, I encourage you to do so. Seaplane flying is different - the risk management/ADM factors are considerably different when factoring your environment and wind into the equation. Learning how to read lakes for wind is surprisingly easy when you get the hang of it, but maintaining your situational awareness with respect to the wind (especially after a series of crosswind and confined-area takeoffs) takes a bit more mental energy. I imagine it becomes second-nature after a while to an accomplished seaplane pilot, but I often had to break it down into steps, be patient, and figure out my wind situation before making any maneuvers.
And that's fine. They encourage you to do that.
If you have some tailwheel experience, then awareness of weathervaning tendencies and nose-high pitch attitudes will come naturally to you.
I busted the first checkride on a step taxi. For some reason, I had a complete and total brain fart and didn't let the airplane just settle onto the step (this is where the floats start planing) - instead, I got impatient, and started fighting it. And my subsequent incorrect attempts to fix it snowballed into more confusion. Checkride was over at that point.
All I had to do was be patient with it. In the J3, you treat a step taxi just like a takeoff, and when the airplane settles onto the step, THEN you pull your power back.
After subsequent checkride-failure-shock I spent some time that night figuring out how/why I did it. And went into the remedial training the next morning with the instructor with somewhat of a plan. He taught to me in a slightly different way this time:
Total hands off stick.
Full power. Plow. Airplane rises to the step, settles down, pull power back to 2100, and PRESTO - I'm step-taxiing without touching the stick. After a few seconds, just a tiny bit of back pressure stabilizes the nose and that's it. Easy-peasy. And passed the checkride just fine later that morning.
Confined Area takeoffs are unnerving the first time you do them - it's a completely unnatural act to take off in a turn like that, and feel those lateral forces as you're coming around into the wind, but it's a very handy tool to have in the box. Step Taxi turns are similarly weird.
But as I found (and they say this is true of all Cub flying) you don't fly it so much as guide it.
Definitely a worthwhile experience - both for the fun of flying float planes and the lesson I learned from the bust.
Go get a float rating. You won't regret it.
