Skimmer & Lake Aircraft Operations (IV)

Lake Amphibian operation, Part 4

The water landing. There is nothing quite as thrilling as making your first water landing in the Lake or Skimmer. While parked at the airport, step back about 10 feet from the amphibian and look at the hull. The lowest point is at the step directly under the engine. The hull then slopes up to the nose and the tail. This is the perfect attitude for a “step landing” on the water. Now sit in the airplane and note where the tarmac level is below and remember the attitude of the aircraft. This is exactly what it will look like shortly before a water landing.

Pick a day with a slight steady breeze (enough to tell the wind direction from the ripples on the body of water), and warm enough to pull up to shore and hop out. Upon reaching your landing area (beginners should give themselves at least a couple of miles of obstruction free water), fly overhead at a safe altitude (at least 1000 feet) and survey the area. Fly overhead with the flaps down and the throttle reduced to 20 inches of manifold pressure and trimmed properly. At this point do your second landing checklist, saying out loud, “This is a water landing, the gear is up!” Look out and visually confirm same, along with noting the internal gear light. The first check having been shortly after the land takeoff when you know you are off to do a water landing. Note your wind direction, wave action, approach area, departure area, obstructions (WIRES, ROCKS, floating debris, boats), and your go-around point should something not go as planned.

Much more is seen from this altitude than from a 100 mph low pass which does nothing more than warn the non-seaplane pilot homeowner of your impending arrival. Fly a normal downwind, turn to base leg, reduce power to about 15 inches and start a fairly steep descent, trimming as necessary. Airspeed should be around 80 mph. Check gear up again visually and out loud. Turn to final, reduce power more, lower the nose more, clear the shoreline comfortably, check the gear again, level off close to the water in the proper attitude and wait for it to land itself. For every power change and attitude change, there should be a trim change. Hence, nose down trim when reducing power. A small amount of power during the landing goes a long way. Excess power will tend to prolong the landing and results in a totally different “feel” upon reduction. When you are sure that you have made a good landing, reduce power to idle while simultaneously relaxing any back pressure on the yoke and let the aircraft slow down until it settles into the water “off the step”. Steering in the water can be done with just the air rudder and a small amount of power, or preferably with the water rudder extended for more positive control.

Most water taxiing should be done with the power at idle to keep the noise and spray at a minimum. The other type of water landing is the full stall. The procedure here is to flare just a bit higher and bleed off all the airspeed without ballooning and drag the tail in first with power off and the wheel full back. This method is also used as a recovery from a “botched” step landing or a bounce or skip. That is the third type of landing which should be avoided. Anything between the step and the stall landing will result in a skip out of the water due to excess speed coupled with a nose too high attitude.

Content and pictures courtesy and copyright of John Staber, Owner of Colonial Skimmer SN #1; John has flown and worked on Colonial Skimmers since 1964. In 2011 he published a book on the restoration of N6595K which can be purchased on his website: http://jstaber.com/books/skimmer/ If you are interested to learn about Skimmers and Lake Amphibian Aircraft, come visit and chat with John on www.seaplaneforum.com

Skimmer & Lake Aircraft Operations (III)

Lake Amphibian operation, Part 3

Rather than go into details of checklists and run-up procedures, we will skip over to taxiing and takeoff. Since the nose gear is castering, steering is done with differential braking and one must be moving before the Lake can be turned. It helps to have the nose wheel pointed in the right direction before moving, especially in a tight spot. A healthy push on the side of the nose will usually do the trick. Using enough power to move forward, apply brake and rudder in the direction of the turn, and the opposite for changing direction. A little extra taxi speed helps maintain direction. Do not “ride” the brakes. A bit of practice in an open space will soon have you comfortable. There is a damper to stop nosewheel “shimmy” located just above the nose wheel fork. Too tight makes for difficult steering and too loose results in a “shimmy” at faster speeds.

There are springs attached to the pilot’s control yoke to enhance “feel” and the normal position is slightly nose down elevator, so for takeoff we want the elevator held slightly up. The trim tabs should be set in the top of the green arc, or visually about 40 degrees up. Bear in mind that there is considerable nose down thrust from the engine at full power. Flaps should be in the down position for every takeoff and landing, land or water. Increase the throttle smoothly forward for takeoff. Stay off the brakes since you will have immediate rudder control. A bit more back pressure should have you flying at about 60 mph. Assume a positive climb angle, maintain 65 mph and retract the gear, and climb at 65 to 70 mph. The flaps are the slotted type, or slow speed, high lift variety. If you try to climb with very little angle of attack, the climb rate is poor. However, by increasing the angle and climbing at the above speed you should see a respectable climb. After reaching about 500 feet of altitude, lower the nose to increase the airspeed, raise the flaps, trim down immediately, and climb at 85 or 90 mph. The main reason for not retracting the flaps until 500 feet of altitude is attained is to give the pilot time to select flaps down in the event of a forced landing after takeoff.
Control direction, thrust and “P” factor with the rudder only. When the desired cruise altitude is reached, lower the nose to level, allow the airspeed to increase to cruise, trimming nose down as speed increases. Finally, reduce the power setting to cruise power. If you should reduce the power before the proper attitude and cruise speed is reached you will be half-way to your destination before proper cruise airspeed is attained.

Landing gear, flaps and trim are hydraulically operated and reasonably trouble-free with a little preventive maintenance. Pressure is maintained by an electric pump operated by a pressure switch set to turn on at about 700 psi and off at about 1100 psi. There is a hand-operated auxiliary hydraulic pump in the event that the electric pump fails. An accumulator in the system assists in rapid gear retraction and extension. Preventive maintenance generally consists of occasional “O” ring replacement and periodic replacement of flexible hoses.

The Lake is a “rudder” airplane and one of the best aircraft to demonstrate adverse yaw with. If one attempts to turn with aileron alone, the nose immediately slews in the wrong direction and stays that way throughout the turn. Almost perfectly coordinated turns can be made with the rudder alone, and due to the dihedral of the wings will remain in a turn when properly trimmed with no input from the pilot.

Content and pictures courtesy and copyright of John Staber, Owner of Colonial Skimmer SN #1; John has flown and worked on Colonial Skimmers since 1964. In 2011 he published a book on the restoration of N6595K which can be purchased on his website: http://jstaber.com/books/skimmer/ If you are interested to learn about Skimmers and Lake Amphibian Aircraft, come visit and chat with John on www.seaplaneforum.com

Seaplaneforum.com – 2.5 Year Review

Almost 2.5 years – and we’re still around!

Who would have thunk it? Not too many, as I seem to recall but that’s OK with this guy. All the naysayers somehow disappeared into the frivolous world of utter insignificance. Not because their opinion on our outlook didn’t matter – but really, because their lack of understanding for this endeavor had no consequence on anything, after all.

Travels to the past…

What a lesson I have learned throughout these last ~30 months. On April 16th of 2010, I stepped out of the (then sufficiently hot and embarrassing) spotlight of being the  Seaplane Pilots Association’s  Forum Administrator. I knew the circumstances under which I had decided to leave would be unlikely to ever afford me the slightest credit or acknowledgement from the association, nor would a public word of appreciation ever cross the lips of any of the groups representatives. I left, knowing that I had done everything I was able to do, to help SPA to get on the right path with their online forum, website and social media conduct. I also left, knowing that those challenged by my actions, letters and statements would look less than kindly upon me, from that point forward.  I was burned out and very tired of wasting countless hours in battle with characters who had absolutely no understanding of what I did. I certainly felt as if I could no longer try to bridge the gap between a disconnected leadership team and a enthusiastic member body wishing to see a flourishing discussion forum.

Conception and Birth

At or around the end of March, I spent several days in Massachusetts visiting with friends. During a luxury McDonalds meal before our visit to Foxwood Casino in Connecticut I discussed stepping down from my volunteer role to start an independent discussion forum for seaplane pilots. A napkin served as the paper of choice to explain my idea, concept and plan. The receipt from McDonalds and the napkin went back home to Maine with me for further thinking. To this day, I remember my friend telling me:

Look, Jason –  you can either continue to run your head in and complain, or set yourself free from all of it and start your own show! You have great passion for this cause, you understand the concept of what members want and you are an excellent communicator. If it fails, it fails, so what? At least you did something and didn’t waste your time trying to whisper to people who won’t ever hear you anyways…

The idea was firmly planted. I knew I had internally given up on SPA and that the only way to go for me was FORWARD. I didn’t know when and how, but I knew I would. The next few weeks were spend researching options and fielding interest with fellow enthusiasts, many of whom are still with us these days.

The Big Bang!

On April 13th I announced my stepping down, soliciting a new volunteer to step forward and wrote several emails to SPA operatives about my impending departure. Effective April 16th., I was done, without a single response from SPA. I purchased and registered a domain name (back then it was jasonjamesbaker.com/seaplaneforum) that very night and shortly after that, secured seaplaneforum.com as the permanent name of the site. It took me several days to decide on the best software, install and test certain features. Just a short seven days later (marathon nights!) on April 22nd., I launched the site. From this point forward, I spend several days inviting pilots and acquaintances made throughout the years to my site. And they came!!!

Here’s probably the point to thank my parents, Tim McCormack, Daryl Doherty, Glenn Guilfoile, Robert Kittine,  Mike Ski, Ford Wilson and Steve Riggins as well as John Staber for being my bounce buddies, confidants and advisers – but also for being the forums recruiters. Be that in letting me ramble, worry, or predict the sky to fall, today I feel that these guys had more confidence in this forum and me than I had. One of today’s really helpful parts of the site is our new moderator/ co administrator known by the name of S Robichaud. From posting countless news articles, helping members, to help and tactical advisory to me, nothing is out of the question and the workload relief for me has been a refreshing thing. Thank you, S!  Without each one of these people (two are missed from our group these days), I would have likely given up for the sheer frustration of having technical issues. Thank you also to all the active members and those who stuck it out, staying as patrons and supporters, posters and friends.

Today – Growth – Goals – Plans?

We have grown to 383 members with a bold goal of reaching 500 before 2012 is over. Ha! I admit, the goal seems unrealistic. We started 2012 with 282 members and have subsequently gained 101 new ones from all over the planet at the time of this writing. This excludes roughly 35 accounts that were deleted due to misuse, or lack of ever logging on to our site upon registration. Our active member ratio seems to hover (much like the supporting member ratio) at or around 10%. This means, we need to recruit and retain 10 members to gain one fairly active or supporting member. We have proven that more talking among ourselves causes others to join in and it certainly causes many more readers to follow us. 343 Twitter Followers! plus 87 Facebook Like’s. Compared to the early days, we are well visited. Do we really realize our reach?

To continue our success and reach more pilots and enthusiasts, the site will have to continue growing. Seaplaneforum.com depends on sound financial support from our industry partners, but also on the tremendous support from our membership body. This support is meaningful not only from a revenue aspect, recruiting and referring pilots to us is extremely important too. Think of this website as a networking & enthusiasts website – and while you’re at it, think of this site as a “Potential Advocacy Allie“. We successfully raised a lot of attention in support of C-SPA with its Waldo Lake Issue, when no-one else spoke a word about it, at least initially. Yet, the seaplane industry is hesitant to acknowledge discussion boards as viable for advertising and marketing. We experience extremely limited support from our industry, despite the fact that we are representing a lot of general aviation pilots. It will remain to be seen for how long expensive magazine advertising (to shrinking membership numbers) within the associations will suffice. I personally think that advertising in print magazines is on its way out the door, but I am young enough to be able to wait for others to realize it too.  Sponsoring our site isn’t a click scheme as on other sites and it is more involved. This is a deliberate choice by me, because I believe our industry needs a new approach to communication and community involvement.  In other words:  “I don’t want your banner any more than I want you to be an actively involved part of our community“. If you are in this industry and think Seaplaneforum.com is “too small” for your worthy dollars, or doesn’t deserve your support for political correctness reasons – please think again.

The site isn’t about Jason Baker, the alleged “Anti Association Guy from Maine” and it isn’t competing with any association or other message board out there. Our sites role and job, but also our opportunity is as multifaceted as our international membership. I have personally verified 95% of my members, many of whom carry tremendous experiences, expertise and know how our industry and youngsters could use. Each one of them is worth talking to! True story…

The journey continues and it isn’t over until the fat lady sings! Join us today!

~JJB

Australian Seaplane Flying

Some of the most amazing shots from Australia.

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New Sponsor on the Seaplaneforum.com

Click to visit SeaplaneAdventures.ca!

Seaplaneforum.com is proud to have welcomed it’s newest supporting industry member, providing seaplane instruction, dry lease and consulting as well as block time rentals to interested pilots and students. I am proud to have this operation in my industry supporter network, helping me to provide more services and a better, more modern services to our community while at the same time enjoying an affordable way to share the word.

Welcome SeaplaneAdventures.ca!

Opinion + Discourse = Discussion

The Seaplane World

Seaplanes have been around for decades.

On March 28, 1910, the first successful seaplane take-off from water at Martinque, France, occurred. The seaplane or Hydravion was flown by its inventor, Henri Fabre.

That’s 101 years of heritage we are rightfully proud of. Seaplanes have contributed a lot to societies and economies, and even though the ‘sport’ remains as a microscopically – tiny niche product of aviation, seaplanes are flown by people who want to connect H2O with Lift. This is done very passionately and usually at great financial sacrifice.

For the most part seaplane pilots stay to themselves here in the U.S. of A. Entrance into the ‘special’ club is usually granted through acquisition of a seaplane rating and that does usually not occur very early in a aviators life. People generally start flying land planes, get the opportunity to ride in a seaplane, or see one on a nearby lake and get nosy. Even when the seaplane rating is finished, many turn back to land planes and put seaplanes on the back burner, until the flying budget allows for such ‘escapades’.  Consequently, when the average seaplane pilot arrives in the cockpit of a seaplane, they are financially settled, rather successful in their trade or profession and also experienced enough to have built their own opinion on things.

Exclusivity is rather well established in our industry, which can make entrance and existence for younger people (as a valuable partner) very hard. When a greenhorn enters the stage, reactions can range from smiles and cheers to downright embarrassment for the greenhorn. Questions may or may not be answered, the quality of answers may be affected by the mood of the person answering them, and is generally affected by what the individual considers important. It is entirely possible to learn how to fly seaplanes in Maine or Minnesota and never find out where else there may be another individual going through the same thing, just with access to different information. If we stay local and close our eyes to our surroundings, we tend to lose a lot of valuable input from others. Especially when it comes to advocacy and training, exclusivity and local focus is very dangerous – as it creates homogenous environments.

To counterbalance this phenomenon and to start working on getting seaplane pilots into a more communicative mood, the seaplaneforum.com was born. Worldwide online communication between seaplane pilots has been limited to non-existent. Many aviation associations have become corrupted with financial greed and lobby-ism power and no longer have the capacity to focus on small issues and people. Some associations remain small and powerless bottom feeders, but none of them really focus on Joe the Pilot. In the grand scheme of things, the opinion and perception of a single member or group of members does not really matter, as everyone hunts for the “BIG PICTURE”. In digital photography, we come to realize that a big picture is made of many pixels (dots) which all have to interact and match each others characteristics to make the picture look good. In a human communication environment, this cannot happen without talking to each other and exchanging opinions.

When we have opinions and communicate them, we take a risk. Maybe nobody will run us over with their dump truck, but in stating opinion and sharing thought we must be comfortable with the fact that not everyone will agree with what we have to say. Discourse is born and that can be very uncomfortable for people who have not been conditioned to welcome it and embrace it as something good. Many times I hear complaints about the rough tone in communication with fellow pilots. People simply LOVE to get offended. Pilot A shares his practice to shut the engine down completely to simulate engine failures, Pilot B disagrees and calls the behavior unsafe and irresponsible. Pilot A now has several options: Option 1: Yell “Whatever” and walk away – Option 2: “Ask for clarification and back up from Pilot B and engage in meaningful discourse, or; Option 3: Do nothing. After a little over 9 years in the forum moderator business, I am comfortable saying that the majority of seaplane pilots choose options 1 & 3 more often than not. “Normal” pilots are more used to discussion.

In my opinion this is not caused by ignorance, or arrogance, it is caused by a lack of exercise in communicating with each other. While many think their opinion doesn’t matter or that they cannot answer unless they are able to speak expertly on subjects, many are very afraid of embarrassment. When I ask members of my forum why they don’t post, I find that 75% of them enjoy to read what others write, but do not wish to engage in discussion. The fear of controversial discussion keeps them silent. How sad, considering what’s at stake!

An inviting environment is incredibly important to new member retention. Engaging people who have shared something with the group enables them to become part of it. Currently, we are burning the candle from both ends. The dinosaurs are dying out, while the youngsters are denied access. Very limited learning and exchange of opinion is allowed to happen. Next time you visit the seaplaneforum.com site and read around (because you’re interested) please take the time to ask the following questions:

NON Members:

1. Does my reading here accomplish anything for this forum?
2. Do I, or have I learned something on these pages that was valuable to me?
3. If I became a member/ contributor to the group, are there questions I could ask or maybe even answer?

If the answer to any of the questions above is a yes, then we really need you to sign up and become part of the group.

MEMBERS:

1. What on this forum interests me?
2. Where could I possibly contribute? Help a newcomer? Answer regulatory questions? Share an advocacy concern? Start a picture contest? Vent about something?

If you find yourself as a member just looking to read for your own entertainment, start realizing that everything you read had to be written by someone. Someone who was willing to take the risk and put their piece of opinion out there. Someone who may or may not be comfortable with discourse but is there, trying to be part of the group, nevertheless. Unless you take them in, they will go belly up like a dead fish and disappear.

Communities are incredibly hard to build from scratch. Again, I am asking for help with it from those on our side. It cannot be done by me alone or just a handful of people.

Discuss!

Greenville Seaplane Flyin

 

Seaplaneforum.com still alive and well…

Secret Birthday Party!

The Seaplaneforum.com discussion board spent most of it’s first birthday in the maintenance pit. While this could be regarded as a genius mistake in resource management, it is really just the result of  scheduling conflicts. So, the “other forum” will of course remain in the market, no matter what you’ve been told. Jason has not fled the country, has not taken off with all your money and neither has he bowed to “legal pressures” from certain Muppet’s. So far, nothing is scheduled to disappear, be lost, or unrecoverable.

Thanks for all the emails with reports and concerns of the site being down, which has shown anything from “Maintenance” to “GENERAL ERROR” during the last several hours. Our “Forum Gang” will hopefully get to celebrate it’s own 1st year of existence once we return to full business. We look forward to many new members during 2011 and hope to remain the REAL network for seaplane enthusiasts! ;o)

Thank you to Victoria Neuville for her very nicely written Anniversary Post on her blog! Check that one out here!

Jason J. Baker, Owner/ Administrator of  The Seaplane Pilot Network!

Seaplaneforum.com – One Year Anniversary!

Dear Seaplaneforum.com Members and Guests,

Against all odds, our forum is set to mark it’s first year anniversary on April 22nd of 2011.
It has been an exciting and quite stressful first year, with some expected and some unexpected challenges. For the most part, it was a lot of fun, though.

Fifteen supporting members and four industry sponsors have allowed me to secure a new hosting company and to have necessary repairs and improvements to our software performed. Clearly, without them, we would have not survived the rough waters of the major part of 2010.

My sincere thanks to our founding and supporting members for their commitment to this cause and to our “normal” members who have participated and produced 3.000+ posts within the first 12 months. We counted roughly 68.500 visitors to our pages within this first year and being on Twitter helped us to get the word out to the flying public quite a bit.

Seaplane pilots are a special breed and its definitely not easy to reach them. Magazine advertisements are simply too expensive at this point.
Some associations continue to challenge our right to exist and/or simply ignore the forum, regardless of countless attempts to work hand in hand with them.

The biggest challenges for our second year will be to:

• Find affordable ways to get the word out to the seaplane pilot community;
• Invite inactive members back and;
• Get the existing membership of our forum to go out and recruit new members;

For these three small points to take place, I will definitely need your help and support, it simply cannot be done by one person or just a few.

Our referral system and registration procedure will remain the way it is. For the largest part it has helped not to collect ghost members and even though this means increased workload for me, it is well worth it on this end. With a little luck our alert features will be enabled again, soon, helping members to remember the forum.

If you have not been on the site in a while, please pay us a visit, introduce yourself or share with others what you are up to.
Within 2011 and beyond we will see increased challenges for seaplanes and general aviation. Creating an effective “Seaplane Pilot Network” and increasing/ improving our way and speed to communicate will be what keeps us flying.

Please take part in our growth and success in reaching more seaplane enthusiasts, help to make their eyes sparkle and get them to be part of our world of water flying.

Thank you for your patronage and continued support!

Fly Safe!

Here is how to become a member:

The continued success and existence of this forum is the result of active & supporting members making it what it is. To avoid collecting large amounts of inactive members, our automatic registration features are no longer available and inactive accounts/ profiles are subject to deletion after 45 days. This is done to protect our existing membership, and keep our forum from filling with ghost members which never participate. If you wish to join our group, feel free to contact seaplaneforum@gmail.com and enter “Seaplaneforum.com Membership” in the subject line. Please provide your desired user name and password (6 characters minimum, you may change it later) as well as an active, functional email address. Your account will be established and working, usually within less than 12 hours. Thank you! We look forward to having you as member of our forum.

Jason James Baker, Owner/ Administrator – The Seaplane Pilot Network!

New President @ Wipaire

Wipaire Names Chuck Wiplinger President

Chuck Wiplinger South St. Paul, Minnesota, January 21, 2011 – Wipaire, Inc. announced that it has appointed Chuck Wiplinger as President. In a meeting to employees on December 23, 2010, Gene DePalma, Assistant to the CEO, announced that the Board of Directors has elected Chuck to the new post. “Chuck is now ready to begin taking on more responsibility,” stated Mr. DePalma.

Chuck Wiplinger began working for Wipaire in 1996 in the aircraft maintenance department while attending school. He has held various positions in Wipaire since graduating from the University of Minnesota in Aerospace Engineering. Most recently, he has served as Executive Vice President in charge of operations. Chuck is the third generation of Wiplingers to lead the company.

In addition, Chuck has established his executive team to be Pat Garfield as Vice President of Operations, Rich Adler as Vice President of Engineering and Fred Vagts as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. “Pat, Rich and Fred bring a wide range of experience and expertise to Wipaire and will provide the company with excellent leadership,” stated Chuck Wiplinger.

Edo Floats History

Cool narrated photo collage, made by David Quam & J.J. Frey! Almost all of David’s videos are proudly presented in the  Seaplaneforum.com History & Heritage Center Feel free to subscribe to this blog through the menu bar on the right, to stay up to date with it. Thank you!

Clearlake Splash In – Success!

Submitted by Chuck Kimes

The 2010 Clear Lake Splash-In is a wrap and was a great success. 31 Seaplanes and 1 Amphicar attended, the weather was near perfect with calm winds and warm temperatures while the friendship and flying was spectacular. As we receive photos of the event from our amateur and professional attending photographers, we will post them on the website, www.clearlakesplashin.com.

The Sacramento FSDO capped the evening awards presentations by presenting the Charles Taylor Master Mechanic Award posthumously to Jim Sorensen, long-time seaplane pilot, mechanic and Splash-In Contributor. This an honor presented by the United States Federal Aviation Administration in honor of Charles Taylor, the first aviation mechanic in powered flight. The award recognizes the lifetime accomplishments of senior aviation mechanics.

The Seaplane Pilots’ Association was well represented, with Executive Director Jim McManus announcing Walter Windus’ election as Chairman of the Board of the SPA and Bruce Hinds’ election as a member of the SPA BOD.  There are now two new western members on the SPA Governing Board, providing our western pilots with much-needed representation. Local pilots also announced their intention to form the “Southwest Seaplane Pilots’ Association”, representing the interests of seaplane pilots in California, Nevada and Arizona as we face the challenges to seaplane access throughout this region.

As always, the efforts of our stalwart volunteers made the event possible. Terry Campbell, Kathy Carmichael and Andrea Edge worked the registration and sales table so well that we were able to fully cover the costs of putting on the event. Mike and Lolita Dunlap handled the ramp operation smoothly without any need for a County Permit or my attention. Lyle La Favre and Lee Cook worked tirelessly to shuttle landplane attendees to and from Lampson Field. Bruce Stewart, Dave Linde and Tyler Orsow back-filed all the jobs that weren’t pre-assigned. All of these individuals are responsible for the continuation of the annual Clear Lake Splash-In and you owe them your thanks. Our outside contributors, including the Sea Scouts, Upper Lake HS FFA, Skip Simkins, the Lakeport Regional Chamber of Commerce, Disney Watersports, Pollywog Winery and the staff of the Skylark Shores Resort also contribute to our success. Thank you all.

We are now attempting to start having more casual splash-ins under the umbrella of the “Southwest Seaplane Pilots Association”. Next Saturday, October 2, local pilots are sponsoring a Splash-In on Donner Lake near Lake Tahoe. Here is the needed information:

Who: All who want to drive-in or splash-in
What: Pot luck lunch. Grills available, charcoal and soft drinks provided by local supporters
When: Saturday, October 2, 2010, 11am
Where: Donner Lake West End Beach
Why: If you need an additional reason to fly your seaplane to a beautiful location, please don’t come

Requirements: You are responsible for all your flight planning and performance requirements. You must have liability insurance for your aircraft in effect to attend

CTAF: 122.9 Avoid overflying homes or boats! If you need to take off to the West, please taxi to the far East side of the lake. This way we avoid turning over the neighbor’s homes

2010 Clear Lake Splash-In
Promoted by SeaPlane Operations, LLC
Sept. 24 – 26, 2010
Lakeport, CA
(c) 775-781-1434
(f) 775-546-6029
chuck@clearlakesplashin.com

www.seaplaneops.com
www.hu16.com

2010 Events Schedule – Events Promoted, Organized or Sponsored by Seaplane Operations, LLC

Mike Brown Memorial Seaplane Splash-In May 31 – www.mikebrownsplashin.com
2010 Grumman Amphibian Fly-In June 4 – 15
Annual Clear Lake Splash-In, Sept. 24 – 26 – www.clearlakesplashin.com

Good things… New sections… Seaplane Egress

New sections added, for seaplane enthusiasts

It has taken a while and much experimenting to get the seaplane forum out of its baby shoes. My belief is, that with a few minor modifications (as hopefully implemented by the membership) the forum will be able to stand on its own. While many of the founding and early members went though the obligatory changes and technical difficulties with me, some may have jumped ship. My initial idea to furnish a virtual home and information exchange platform to local and state seaplane associations and interest groups, but also my attempts to make the forum available independent of a membership to SPA or any other association may have caused some misconceptions, but that’s normal and to be expected. When I changed course, away from the associations and stopped trying to cater to them, things improved. As this is the first forum I have launched as a “total one man show” many of my actions where attempts to see what works and what doesn’t. For sure an interesting and sometimes utterly frustrating process! Except for a few, the feedback on changes and additions has been either positive or non-existent. Those who have provided feedback, had the opportunity to mold and shape this forum into it’s current form and content. Thank You! Important to remember is that the group remains, or attempts to remain, in partner like relationship with other forum providers, who may only furnish one section for seaplanes. The future will hold the clues, as to the need and acceptance on a more broad level.

With that, a few more new sections have been added. The goal: Completeness! Making the seaplaneforum.com site a one stop shop requires a broad spectrum of seaplane specific interest areas. A decision was made to offer members the opportunity to share experiences with their particular float brand, but also a “non certified” section for all the experimental and LSA’s which are all gaining footing in this market. The newly created  Seaplane Employment Opportunities section will hopefully prove beneficial to those who are looking for and offering employment in this industry. Further, I do hope to have done a good thing by providing the For Sale & Want To Buy section free to all signed up members. With the end of the season only a few months out, I know that people will be looking to share information on technical issues. Hence Technical Seaplane Talk is available.The forum domains & hosting is secured for quite a while to come with the help of some individual & industry supporters. At this point, all we need is solid activity, fun and networking, mixed in with growth.

Bryan Webster, a long time veteran in everything pertaining to Seaplane Egress Training / Knowledge joined us last week and I do hope the forum will benefit from this important aspect of seaplane flying. Bryan may be able to give us a first hand look into this sector, but members are invited to join in with sharing their particular measures to increase their chances for survival in seaplane upsets. This blog has been a tremendous indicator that people do care for this kind of information and if we can make one pilot think and get training or read, we have already done more than we could have ever wished for. Members are invited to share everything, from safety gadgets to personal technique, procedure or style.

Last but not least, the updates on Jim Poel have become less frequent, and that is due to good progress and developments. From what I hear, Jim is on solid food again, has used a telephone and is other than that already planning to be active with upcoming events. A few thousand visitors to this blog came here looking for updates on his status and recovery and I am honored to have forwarded all the comments and well wishes to Lovada. My sincere thanks to Bruce Hinds, at the Washington Seaplane Pilots Association who has kept many of us in the loop!

Soft Docks & Fly Safe!

Association Magazines – Politics and What?

How do your association magazines travel, and what do they do for YOU?

As pilots somehow we all belong to a pretty small group of people, who are either in the process of learning, at the verge of, or beyond our best days in mastering flight.  That’s natural, normal, acceptable, totally fine. As a perk of flying, comes the sheer endless availability to associate ourselves with interest groups, created to enhance our joys of flying, but also as a tool to funnel our collective efforts towards a common goal. Existence. Hardly a secret, these days, without lobbying and political representation by associations, General Aviation as such would no longer exist. If some sensational politicians or some mind numbed press writers had their way, flying small airplanes would be a major boo boo. For years and decades, politicians, citizen groups and the press have done their best to shine a dim light on what used to be one of the biggest successful adventures of recent mankind.  Today,  hundreds of millions of people travel this planet on the very same principles and physics which allowed Clement Ader (1890) to launch into the sky, entirely unaware and blind to the fact that Aviation itself was not made possible by the Airlines! It was made possible by people who watched birds fly, and started to scratch their heads, wondering: “How can I do that?” While many of them may have reverted to simply spreading their arms and jumping off a barn, some sat down and tried to find out what makes stuff fly. It took years and years to create flying structures. Those early aviators had heavy chips on their shoulders, after all – they had set out to accomplish what no one had done before. While the “normal” citizens in their hometowns may have scratched their heads too, wondering what may have happened, others watched in amaze as flying machines became reality!

These true hero’s of aviation made much of what we see today, possible. Flying was a grassroots thing. It caught on, developed, developed some more and then rocketed off, like barely any other science. In these short 120 years we have gone from fabric covered stick structures to fully automated cockpits, taking off, flying, and if necessary landing hundreds of living bodies almost entirely without any help (other than programming) from its pilots. Looking into today’s cockpits barely leaves a hint, everything is full electronics, a few hundred people shifting from one cheek to another back in the cabin does not cause death, as it may well have, by the early flying machines single occupant, just 110 years ago.

Moving from the spartan history was accomplished by consistency and respect for the very physics, which allow heavier than air structures to fly. People got together, brainstormed and developed, pushed and pulled, built and crashed, all kinds of  “Aeroplanes”. When Governments finally adjusted to this form of “collective insanity” in travel and started to regulate and license pilots, machines and new developments, things changed in a hurry! With the Governments intrusions and the subsequent rules came great hassle. People are funny animals and so it was only logic that regular, non flying citizens, without the slightest clue about flying and aviation, would increasingly turn towards the government to regulate such pioneers and their machines away from their back yards. Ernst Udet (a long gone German Flying Ace) once picked up a hanker-chief with his right wing while flying low enough to scare a common Ant into paralysis, today he would need a multitude of waivers, permissions, background checks and he would likely go through a four-week administrative ordeal to do it again. Our history is full of such hero’s, unfortunately many of them remain unseen and unacknowledged by the new generation of Aviators.

As a group, we Pilots needed a way of funneling our voices to avoid extinction, and created Associations to represent our interests with policy makers, politicians and the public, but also to keep each other in the loop on developments and new accomplishments. Today a multitude of such Associations exist, some very large, some very small, some even smaller! It is possible to belong to  many of them and all of them initially served these two purposes: NETWORKING & ADVOCACY!

Many of these Associations prevented General Aviation from certain DOOM and still do so! Without some of them, we would have no Gas, no Airports, and no way to develop and approve new machines for flight. The bureaucracy of such feats, today – is too much for the average business who may spend years and years and MILLIONS of Currency, trying to get something they developed approved and permitted for use. Once they do, they depend greatly on the NETWORKING opportunities to let others know what they have! Today it has become IMPOSSIBLE to spread the word to a collective pilot community without facilitating the available advertising spaces in these associations member magazines, forums and newsletters. And heck, did we make a business out of that?! Wow!

Associations have become very, very powerful not only in their way of advocating – but also in enabling fellow members to spread the word about a grassroots effort. A huge monopoly exists, largely unnoticed by the average pilot, who may want to buy or sell a plane (readily available for free or fee). While much of todays upright walking individuals facilitate the internet, many more of our pilot population can only be reached  by paying tremendous amounts of money. For example: I could build an airplane, get it approved for a few million dollars, fly it successfully across the country for a few thousands of dollars more, without ever being noticed by the majority of people who happened not to be on the airport that day, or sitting in their bathroom, thumbing through a bunch of strategically placed advertising’s in their favorite association magazine! Scary!

3 inches, 1 issue = $150, 3 inches, 6 issues $650….. :

When little people set out to develop new things, they depend on networking, help, support and sometimes goodwill of fellow aviators, to reach others, who may be interested in such things. If you decide to build something from scratch, you will need the help of your fellow pilots to get it out there. If you cater to only a very small population of pilots you will face INCREDIBLE headwind – while doing so. Why? “Just pay the money and put an ad in the magazine…” right? Wrong! When we little people join associations our interest is in the benefits of being represented (for better or worse), the common cause and the subsequent ability to see what our fellow aviation nuts want! Many times, the decision to push and pull  something new is based on PASSION and may, just like the Seaplane Forum – I launched ~ 4 months ago, be aimed at the very values and mindsets which run today’s Seaplane Industry. It’s ultimate goal is to bring people together, free of the political downfalls and stonewalling and sometimes the associated censorship that may arise from the sometimes all to prevalent “big boys vs. little boys”  attitude portrayed and lived by some. Suddenly the politics and “keeping up appearances” game becomes a hindrance, a hassle. The membership fee no longer gives us an option to spread the word without paying big bucks. Next time you thumb trough your favorite aviation magazine, do yourself a favor and look at the advertising’s and hints, placed in such magazine. Count them. Divide them in Small, Quarter Page, Half Page and Full Page advertising’s. Then add them all together and see what percentage of your magazine is composed of advertising. Then, go and read a few articles. See how many hints and links and company names appear in these articles. Mark them! Articles who are aimed at educating you or helping you understand certain subjects better. Read the “Letters to the Editor”. Realize that everything in this magazine is aimed at a certain goal. Every article, be it a news brief or an advertising, or a letter to the editor, has (supposedly) been carefully read, evaluated and found to be in compliance with the associations goals, mission profile and values. Compliance with such is oftentimes no longer regulated by the members of such organizations, it is left to the elected or staffed professionals and subject to their personal or professional opinion. If such is affected – your chance to spread the word with that association has ceased. It’s almost an equivalent to “pay to play, but not everyone is equal”…

Suddenly – the magazine and it’s associated political message or purpose becomes clear. It’s either a money-making machine or it’s a personal playground for the big guns. If there is not much else available to the associations membership; to share a word or news, the true value of the membership itself becomes $0.00. Especially small organizations, like the local “Cucumbers Growing Club” can really make a difference. The Question: How do you get local cucumber growers interested in what you have? I have recently researched all the aviation associations, (newsletters and magazines) I belong to, in terms of my ability to reach fellow members. Woof! Surprise! Except for AOPA: I can’t! Back to the local cucumber growers club…

Fly Safe!

The Dream On Floats

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I guess some of us may need new computers after reading this? I hear drool destroys keyboards…

http://www.aopa.org/aircraft/articles/2010/100603dreamlife.html?WT.mc_id=100604epilot&WT.mc_sect=gan

Enjoy and fly safe!