Seaplanes
 

So, I knew this would be dangerous to the budget. One hour, 185 euros, not a problem. The problem is that now I want to do the rating. I suppose that was only to be expected, going by previous experience of "just to see what it's like" flights.
Biscarrosse, not too far from home, go for a week and fly nine hours. Well, eight, as I've just done the first one. They reckon the legal minimum will be enough. Eight hours plus test.
A super cub on amphibious floats. Nice. Mention was made of a seamanship exam. Anyone know what this consists of?
Maybe something to read? English or French.

Think they might be talking about getting your powerboat permis? Instruction + handling test. Costs around €200-300.

Nope, they specifically said not. Is part of the rating. No requirement to be able to drive a boat

Seamanship exam not disimilar to air law. Warning - seaplanes are somewhat addictive. Please do post your experiences if you make it to Biscarosse.

For the above reasons - please do NOT share your seaplane flying experiences!

Tee hee. Well, I just booked a flight while I was on holiday. Just for the experience. And, well, it was such fun sitting in a super cub watching the little waves licking the floats, engine ticking over as I lined it up for takeoff, then swooping over the lake...
Five water landings, one runway landing, in an hour. Ok, I admit it, I was hooked. Boating in an aeroplane. Unless something truly dreadful happens, that's my autumn holiday sorted. Fly down with a tent in the back and camp under the wing. I'll tell you about it when I've been back. It's not really that expensive, compared to a boring DR400 at my home airfield. Sure, it costs more than flying my own cub, but someone has to buy and maintain the floats.
The airfield restaurant is pretty good, too.

Excellent, another life ruined after just one fix :ok:.

You think you will be happy just doing the rating, but within weeks you will be jonesing for another chance to experience the thrills of float flying, rationalizing the costs and time because it will only be just this one more time.....

I used to be a pusher......errr I mean float plane instructor. It started to get ugly when I started using myself:uhoh: (bought a Cessna 180 on floats I could not afford). Had to go cold turkey in the end.......

:):D:ok:


We're off to BC in the summer. We haven't got round to booking the hire car yet, but we've booked the floatplane tickets :ok:

one of my first flights before staring the PPl was in an aviat husky on floats. How much I loved it! , ever since i got the licence i ve wanting to get back to seaplanes. Does anybody know if they speak English in Biscarrosse,everything on their webpage seems to be in French, but it´s by far the best deal in europe for getting the rating( and ive looked at many many places) plus the location is great,

The one time I visited Biscarrosse airfield there was a restaurant, but I was told they only serve the local flying school. Has that changed or is there another restaurant, that I missed?

Regarding seaplane flying: there are precious few dedicated places in Europe, though it may be implicitly allowed in certain countries. Most "official" places seem to be in France! But recently my own country added one too.

Great fun, I did the rating in a C172 on straight floats in Canada and now have a Canadian PPL, I’m looking forward to adding more time and types to the log book.

ENAC may have their own, but there is a small restaurant open to all near to the tower.

I had 15 mins in a Jack Brown floatplane J-3 Cub quite a few years - one of the best flights I ever had. We went 'gator hunting on a couple of nearby lakes and I doubt we ever went above 200'. I am amazed 65hp could lift those wellies and a couple of portly gents like me and my pilot!

Me, as we scrape over a ridge at tree-top height: "Don't you have a 500' rule around here then?"

Floatplane instructor "Nah mate, I get a nosebleed if I go that high"

I think they all have upgraded to higher power Conti's than the A65 at Jack Browns. There is a J3 in Ireland flying with the A65 on Edo 1140's which would require a higher skill factor so I hear. Looking forward to getting mine back in permit. An aeroplane that can't land on water is only 50% as useful to me where I live.

Certainly sea/float planes can be addictive but isn't flying anyway?

Many years ago I did a water rating in a Lake Teal, nearly all of it in the Thames estuary and having got the ticket, never bothered to use it as I had no real need for it. Never became really comfortable with the absence of brakes . . . .

However, more recently, I sat in the right hand seat of a Cessna 206 on floats for a couple of days flying in the NY Finger Lakes and Adirondaks which, of course, are ideal locations for such an a/c. Quite wonderful but dangerously resurrecting old addictions. I went home before I got into trouble.:D

Quite apart from the fact that not all landplanes have brakes, who needs brakes anyway? Engine against wind, tide and current, dead easy dynamic vector sums to do in your head in real time, you've got lots of controls

• engine power (you can go below idle by using only one mag, or just blipping it on and off)
• remembering that left turns and right turns are very different on the water, so that's something you can use to your advantage
• all flying controls
• water rudders up or down
• wave the doors around to use them as sails

and probably some others I've forgotten ... point being that this is all dead easy because you don't have to worry about the slope, so that's one degree of freedom fewer!

Having said which, a sailing boat is easier to control on the water, and I have managed to bang a sailing boat into other things due to lack of brakes (which, fortunately, is usually vastly cheaper than banging an aeroplane into things).

Oh, and of course some floatplanes do have brakes, in that you can set the propeller pitch such that you can go backwards, but that's cheating really.

(FTAOD: this is a joke. I do have SEP(sea)(expired) but nobody has let me take one out on my own.)

Wing flaps and paddles.

But sometimes things just cannot be done on the water, where which brakes on land you'd be fine. I landed my flying boat into my friend's floatplane pond, which is a runway sizes slot, full of water. The wing was strong enough that I could not turn around to back taxi. There was just enough angle off of the wind that I could not sail backwards, without running the tail into shore (the rudder is delicate). Happily I do have an MT reversing prop, so I was able to back my way to the threshold, with the water rudder controlling my direction.

Seaplanes need a lot more space on the water than landplanes, which is usually fine, if you choose a larger body of water. A key element of water flying is that in most cases, the place you're going is not an aerodrome, and will have variables you have to detect and managed. And, you can land a seaplane into a lake with no land access, so if you have a mechanical problem, getting help to the plane is complicated. I have flown batteries and starters into remote lakes. And, in the worst case, you can end up floating injured in your runway.

Water flying is wonderful, but there are many new skills and disciplines to learn. And.... the insurance companies know this!

So load premiums accordingly??

Yes, insurance will be more expensive, if available at all. Higher deductibles, and probably the requirement for supplemental training. For this reason, it is sometimes the case that the flying school floatplanes may be rented dual, but not taken solo, or taken solo with restrictions as to where landings may be done.

I have been told that one of my amphibians would not be insurable at all, other than I have another of the same model already insured, so they could not really say no to covering the second one. But another fellow who bought the same model amphibian (I trained him) could not get hull insurance at all. When he wrecked the plane, he took the loss.