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.

FMI: www.seaplanes.org/spa, www.searey.com