Seaplane adventures and challenges, with Steve McCaughey

We're gonna get into some nitty-gritty of seaplane flying and what SPA does, but I wanted to start with the why part, because lots of people who've flown seaplanes will gush about how fun it is.

I'm certainly in that camp.

Help a non-seaplane pilot understand.

Y- y- I've heard you describe seaplane pilots as the ambassadors of adventure.

So for somebody who hasn't done it, what is the appeal of seaplane flying? Why is it so addictive?

Well, I think you said it perfectly.

You know, w- as seaplane pilots, we get to go places and experience things that many people don't even realize exist.

Um, we go beyond where the roads end, and in most even metropolises, we can find places to access that there's no roads to going to a certain lake, uh, 10 or 15 minutes from even a major metropolis.

So seaplanes will give us the ability to go do things and go to places that are, are fairly remote, even close to big metropolises and, and big, uh, population centers.

But, you know, for me, when I go back and especially working in the industry my entire life and having, you know, been a pilot since I was 15 years old, I believe that when I look at the new pilots coming on board today, that I see a real, um, lacking of, of s- basic stick and rudder skills.

I think that the glass cockpit generation, for me, glass cockpits are a new, new, uh, venue still.

Uh, and yet the, the G1000 has been around, what, 25 years now.

And for me, uh, uh, flying seaplanes, uh, flying tailwheel, flying gliders, gives pilots an ability to develop basic stick and rudder skills that they might not be developing in their day-to-day flying or their primary flight training today.

That's a great point you raise, and I, I think, you know, I love the rigid world of IFR flying procedures and all that, but this is one of the last places where it's really about feel.

There's no runway markings.

There's no VASI.

There's no approaches.

It's, uh, we're gonna land where it works, and we're gonna use the technique that works for today on this lake with these conditions.

So walk us through that.

If I'm learning to fly seaplanes, how do I develop that sense? Because there, there isn't necessarily a playbook, right? It's not a, "This is the profile, this is the procedure, hit this waypoint." So how do I learn that as a seaplane pilot?

Well, I think one of the things that attracts me to seaplane flying, and many of our p- you know, fellow seaplane pilots, is just the dynamic nature of the flying.

We're making decisions on the fly at a very rapid rate, especially when we're coming into a landing zone.

You know, when you're flying a, a land airplane to a paved runway, a predictable surface, you have a cleared glide slope coming in.

Our, our runway is moving.

Um, as we're on downwind, we're looking for power lines, we're looking for antennas, we're looking for trees, terrain, all of the things that you're pretty much assured as a land pilot that you don't have to contend with.