Seaplane rating!

PhotoPilot

PhotoPilot

New Member
I just started working on my commercial ASES in an amphib Piper Supercub. It's been a blast! Not only do I get to fly and boat at the same time, but it's the first time in more than a year that the emphasis has been on me flying and learning. After a busy year of teaching, it's refreshing to be the one at the controls all the time.

After landing yesterday, we confirmed the old story about the Cessna pilots looking at the cargo guys looking at the airlines looking at the corp folks who are looking down at the Cessa pilots . . . We chocked the Cub and were walking by a very nice Lear and commenting on how much we would love to get in the front seat when the Lear pilot jumps down the stairs and starts asking about the float plane. He was so excited he could barely speak clearly! Turns out he had seen us the day before from a golf course by the lake we were practicing on. He stayed awake all night thinking about getting a seaplane rating. I tried to wrangle a hop in the Lear for a ride in the Piper . . . but no dice!
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I'm about 2.6 in and should be done in another 2 or so, but I guarantee that the only plane I'll be taking out for personal use this summer will be the Cub!
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If you have the opportunity, I highly recommend it!
 
That's on my to-do list one of these days....

Doing it in Cadillac, or somewhere else?
 
I lucked out with that this summer. An old student of mine wants me to use his super sweet 180 to get my float rating so I can BFR him on floats. He has offered to pay for the fuel and everything just so I can give him a BFR down the road. Fun stuff.
 
Just for an example, there's a guy here that charges $800, including the examiners fee, for your ASES...........Pretty sure it's in a Luscombe on floats. I've heard it's not terribly expensive, or time consuming......couple days should cut it most times.
 
What are you paying for an amphib Super Cub? I had a 172N on floats for a while when I lived on the lake and was toying with the idea of instructing in it. Problem was, there are only two local DE's. One pissed me off and the other went to work for the FAA, so getting the checkride done was going to be a problem.

With the right examiner and an established CFI, you could probably get away with 5 hours of training. Personally, I'd probably not sign a guy off unless he had 10 hours as I've experienced how much trouble a low time seaplane pilot can get into in the right situations and, if you have the ticket, you're legal you get yourself in a lot of trouble. I guess if you want the ticket for fun and for a BFR, 5 hours is okay. I your are really going to fly seaplanes by yourself, I think you need more than that.
 
WMU owns the Cub, so I'm doing the rating between students at KBTL. We've got a great staff development deal for in-house instructors: I pay a discounted rate for the airplane and the instructor pay is between the CFI and me. In this case, we're going to barter some photography and bike maintainence. I don't want to post the 'confidential' development rate, so I'll just say it's cheap.
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5 hours is about what it'll take me to do the rating, but I'll be getting another 5 hours dual beyond that so that I can take the plane for personal use. (We require 10 hours dual before being able to take it solo.) *Flying* the thing is a snap. Handling it on the water is the tricky part. It's a lot like sailing and kayaking - it seems easy until something goes wrong. As in all flying, I'll just have to be aware of my limits as I gain experience.

Finally, I have no idea what it would take to do your initial PVT in a float plane. In addition to all of the normal airwork, you'd probably have to tack 10 or 15 hours on for water handling and landings. But that's purely a guess.
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I did my PPASES in FL at Jack Brown's Seaplane Base. It was completed in two 1946 Piper J-3s on floats (not amphib). It spanned two days and about 6 hours of flight time, including the checkride. It was incredibly fun and I look forward to going back for my CSES.

I took a number of photos and wrote up a detailed account of my experience, which you can read/see here:

http://www.pbase.com/jlsphoto/aircraft_seaplane
 
4.3 hours to get mine....

Even though I'm rated and have about 8 whole hours now, I don't think I'll be taking one up by myself unless I get a few more hours with someone more experienced.
 
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