Hi Fernytickles,

that's the chap!... must have been a while ago. I can also second the kelly kettle experience! :) Absolutley fantastic! Neil's running a husky (G-WATR) on Amphib floats now from the other end of the loch. A superb machine!

www.neils-seaplanes.co.uk

I think Caladonain was sold to someone and it's all gone the shape of the pear now.

BigAl's

It's a low res version of the video at the moment, but this gives you some idea of what Scotland on Floats offers :ok:

YouTube - GDRAM - around Scotland by seaplane

Having done my first lesson, I'm hooked !!

When I moved to the US I needed to resurrect my FAA ATP that had been gathering dust. It was MEL only at the time but I figured at some point while living & working here I'd need or want to use a single. I'd always wanted to do a seaplane rating so I did a combined ATP-SEL & SES in a C180 amphib at Flagler County Airport in Florida. Close enough to home to drive there each day so convenient too.

Never having done a US PPL or CPL, damned if I wanted to have to muck around with chandelles, turns around a point & pylon 8's and the like from the PTS for those licences. An ATP test is really just an IR test and I've lost count of how many of those I've done over the years. Add the floaty alightings part to the terra firma landings and we met the PTS for both SEL & SES.

The bloke got a dispensation from the FSDO to do my checkride even though he did my training. It probably helped that it wasn't an initial issue ATP.

Jack Brown's again -
 

Quite right. Jack Brown himself has been flying on a higher plane since l975!

His son Jon Brown currently owns and operates the base, keeping his Daddy's name alive.

It must have been Jon who saw me through the course, and also dispatched a water moccasin that was lingering near the launchpoint. That was NOT a shoe.

Michelle's phone number is 863 956 2243, if you fancy trying a glassy water landing or two.

dispatched a water moccasin that was lingering near the launchpoint

That aul carry on just sends shivers down my spine. I live/eat/sleep to float fly, but not if Florida was free would I share the water flying environment with one of them snakes... Jon Brown can come over here to me if he wants but wont be the other way round.

Wouldn't get too caught up in the politics around Loch Earn. Always been like that and it spoils the whole thing in my mind. No politics around Lough Erne and "The Amphib Flying Club" can even put your other half in the back seat which surely makes the rating an easy sell at home.

Look out for Pilot Magazine covering how it should be done - shortly!

Irish