Lakeathon (almost) Live

Postscript 4: Vacation and the trip home

2007-04-29T21:00:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned in prior posts, the main purpose of this blog was to keep Lake fans everywhere abreast of Lakeathon 2007. The postscripts are just extra info about me, my friends, my wonderful wife, Barbara, and the rest of our trip. I won't bore you with details, but here are a few shots of the rest of our trip.

Itinerary:

4/19-4/20 Miami Beach (plane at Homestead, FL, X51)
4/20-4/24 Key Largo
4/24-4/25 Key West (EYW)
4/25-4/26 Back to the good ol' Winter Haven Holiday Inn (BOW)
4/26-4/28 Savannah, GA (SAV)
4/28 Stop in Charleston, SC (JZI)
4/28-4/29 Hickory, NC (HKY)
4/29 Stop in Clermont County, OH (I69, Batavia, OH, home of world-famous Sporty's Pilot Shop)
Note: For more pictures of Sporty's click here. It's a great place to stop. Not only do they have a fantastic pilot shop, they have a cafeteria, observation level, product showroom, and--on Saturdays--a cookout for visiting pilots and passengers.
4/29 Arrive at home airport, Kenosha, WI (ENW)

The Miami seaplane landing area (X44):

Barb and me on South Beach:

Manatees out back of our friends' home, Key Largo:

Glass bottom boat tour, Key Largo:

Relaxing on the beach, John Pennekamp State Park, Key Largo:

Gator central, Everglades National Park (don't bring your dog):

Enroute to Key West:

Southernmost point in the continental U.S., Key West

In the Key West lighthouse:

Downtown Key West (note international airport, EYW, in upper right background):

Seven Mile Bridge (returning from Key West):

Barb's first Lake water experience--dining at Don Jose, Sebring, FL:

Sunset enroute to Savannah, GA (SAV)

Beautiful Savannah:

Savannah from the air:

The "Low Country" (Tybee, Hilton Head & Kiawah Islands) enroute to Charleston:

The bridge at Charleston:

Boone, NC, in the mountains, home to Appalachian State University, and our niece Sarah:

A Buccaneer visits Sporty's:

Click here for more pix from Sporty's.

All that fits in THERE?

Home at last:

Postscript 3: My sweetie arrives!

2007-04-19T21:00:00.000-04:00

Well, that's about it for Lakeathon/Sun 'n Fun 2007...

On Thursday, 4/19, I departed the Splash In at Lake Parker about 10:00 AM, bound for Homestead, FL (X51), where I picked up a rental car and...more importantly...at the Miami airport....

(Drum roll...)

Barb!

Of course, having the love of my life back with me makes it harder to find time for blogging, so that's going to be about it for this year. I'll post one more entry with some shots of our trip, but feel free to ignore it--personal travelogues can be a bore.

Thanks to everyone who's followed any of this year's Lakeathon (almost) Live!

And I look forward to seeing everyone next year for Lakeathon 2008!

Your faithful correspondent,

Steve Whitney
N8012D

Postscript 2: More practice & Sun 'n Fun Splash In

2007-04-19T20:00:00.000-04:00

[Note: This blog was meant as a communication channel for those Lakers who couldn't make it to Lakeathon to keep up on events at the convention. The prior posts cover that event, but there were a few items of possible interest that occurred afterward, so I'm posting a series of (hopefully) short postscripts to round out the trip. These are written after returning to the Chicago area on 4/29...]

Practice, practice, practice/Air boats (as opposed to "boats of the air" like Lakes)

On Wednesday, I finally slept in a bit and eventually made my way over to Aircraft Innovation, where Paul's crew had finished adding the vortex generators to N8012D' s wings, as well as a 2nd bilge pump behind the step.

I went out for more practice at Lake Mattie (of course), and over to Cypress Lake (with the alligator canals). In particular, I wanted to visit another waterfront restaurant Paul told me about, the Cypress Lake Restaurant (at left, located at N28 05.083 W81 18.221).

It's on the eastern shore of Cypress Lake, and also offers RV camping, fishing, and air boat tours of the nearby lakes.

It was a bit windy and I had a learning experience trying to get the aircraft securely beached without danger of it being twisted in the wind and blowing into the way of arriving and departing air boats. Fortunately, air boats turn out to be both maneuverable and able to drive right up on flat land, so it worked out OK.

The Philly cheese steak sandwich wasn't bad, but the gumbo soup was great. And I think a number of Lakes could be beached nearby, so it might be a fun fly-out destination for next year's Lakeathon.

The biggest problem was that in reboarding I wound up bringing about 5 lbs of bottom muck aboard with my sandals. It actually made it slippery to use the rudder pedals on landing back at Winter Haven. There's a problem I've never had with a land plane...guess it's what a Lake is designed for, tho. I'll consider it a badge of honor.

Sun 'n Fun Splash In

The last event of my stay in central Florida was the Sun 'n Fun "Splash In" at Lake Parker on Thursday, April 19.

In past years, Thursday had been the day for the homebuilts and experimentals, and Friday was for production seaplanes, but this year the days were switched.

I couldn't stay long, as I had to depart to meet Barb (finally!) down in Miami a little after noon, but I arrived about 9:30 and stayed 'til about 10:00.

The local school PTA provided coffee, fruit and amazing cinnamon rolls as a fundraiser and eye-opener...they really hit the spot. Again, there were a number of Lakes in attendance, along with a wide variety of other aircraft. One of the more notable was the blue and white 1993 Travel Air on straight floats, belonging to Weldon Ropp (above, left).

Above is a panorama of the waterfront early in the day at the Lake Parker Splash-In. I had to leave before she got there, but judging by Myron Mitchell and John O'Keefe's photos (sample, right), it looks like Julie Fetcko made it by in her Albatross, tho' the photos don't show her actually on the water...could have been a flyby.

Lastly, at left is a shot of John O'Keefe, Bob Stebbins & Myron Mitchell pretending to talk about flying-related stuff. (Can you tell Bob's a former TWA captain with lots of practice posing for cool-pilot pictures?)

Postscript 1: Sun 'n Fun

2007-04-17T20:00:00.000-04:00

[Note: This blog was meant as a communication channel for those Lakers who couldn't make it to Lakeathon to keep up on events at the convention. The prior posts cover that event, but there were a few items of possible interest that occurred afterward, so I'm posting a series of (hopefully) short postscripts to round out the trip. These are written after returning to the Chicago area on 4/29...]

Fun in the sun with Mitch and John

Well, Paul Furnee convinced me that vortex generators were warranted, so while N8012D was at his shop getting fitted with VG's on Tuesday (4/17), I took the opportunity to make my first-ever trip to Sun 'n Fun, getting a literal lift from Myron Mitchell and John O'Keefe, in N84 Papa Fox.

First of all, let me say that 3 long-legged guys in a Buc is a squeeze. Four would be a virtual impossibility. Fred Weber (N8012D's previous owner) tells me he once took 4 to the Bahamas in her. All I can conclude is that either Fred has small friends or they used a can opener to get out at the other end.

Second, it was fun to get to park at the seaplane section, and to see so many Lakes in attendance. I wonder if having Lakeathon just before Sun 'n Fun this year increased the turnout of Lakes at the latter.

As a regular Oshkosh attendee, I was looking forward to contrasting Sun 'n Fun with my own experiences.

Overall, it was very similar to OSH--thousands of planes in one place, with the event held together by the glue of volunteers. The scale is smaller--almost a little more "human-sized," mostly viewable in a day, and the pulse seems maybe a little more relaxed (tho' that might have been the first-day start-up effect.)

Plenty of cool planes to see.

My favorites included:

1) The Grumman Albatross belonging to Julie Fetcko, above (www.albatrosslady.com). You think a Lake as a complicated hydraulic system? Check out the wheel well of Julie's Albatross, right. By the way, she's a realtor, developing a combination airport/seaplane base/housing development. See her website for details.

2) The two 2-seat P-51 Mustangs (both dubbed "Crazy Horse") where you can take a ride (for over $2,000 as I recall) or get type-specific training before flying your own P-51 (for a lot more; visit http://www.stallion51.com).

3) The test bed Seawind being used to develop a certified version of the homebuilt amphibian. (Note the harpoon-shaped pitot boom, suitable for both flight data collection and high-speed whaling. They say they're hopeful of getting the certified version to do 200 mph in cruise...we'll see. It's not like extravagant claims of amphibian cruise performance haven't been made in the past!)

I am constantly amazed at fly-ins at the astounding array of methods that mankind has invented to get into the sky. Kind of reminds you how strong the pull of flight has been on human imagination for so long.

The last aircraft I'll note is the retired amphibian parked out back of the trade-show hangars. I don't know the actual history of the plane, but if you told me that somebody named Bubba had decided one day to turn his fishing boat and lawn chair into an airplane, I'd guess it'd look pretty much like this:

Thank you to Myron and John for the lift...if you'd like to see more of the photos from their Lakeathon odyssey, visit: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8BatmLluyZKM5Q)

Final day of Lakeathon...

2007-04-16T22:17:00.000-04:00

In Deep Water: Flying w/Paul Furnee

This morning, I skipped out on the briefing for flying to Sun 'n Fun, in favor of getting some instruction time on heavier seas.

The extreme wind of yesterday had died to a dull roar of 12 knots, gusting to 18 this morning, so I took off from Bartow, and picked up Paul Furnee at Winter Haven before setting out to try my hand at waves of 12" and more.

Let me say that--to this newbie's glance--winter in the North Atlantic would have had nothing on the waves on the leeward side of Lake Mattie at 9 AM today. Paul showed me a technique of flying low (5 feet or less) over the waves to gauge their character. It took me quite a while to get comfortable with them, landing in a full stall to minimize the pounding. It's particularly "interesting" (in the sense that narrowly avoiding being run over in the street is interesting) when you get a particularly large wave to kick you up, just as you're losing flying speed.

After getting a handle on that, we headed to a couple of other nearby lakes to work on some other methods of dealing with higher winds; landing in the lee of the shore, landing cross-wind at the windward end of the lake, etc.

What impressed me most was how much the character of the waves would vary from lake to lake, exposed to exactly the same wind. I guess it's things like the treeline, nearby topography, shore obstructions, lake depth, shore shape, etc. that make the difference, but one lake can have irregular heavy rollers and rogue waves while a nearby lake of similar size might show only a regular, moderate chop. It's the former that makes for an exciting ride; especially on takeoff with water sloshing across the windscreen, blocking your view of the next wave, not to mention anyone else dumb enough to be out on such a day.

Eventually, I was pretty comfortable, and--more importantly--had a good handle on what is my personal limit at this point in my learning. As time passes and I gain experience, I'm sure I'll be more willing to try challenging conditions, but for now--when it's past my capabilities--I'll stay on the ground or find a suitable airport.

When we returned, I guess I had impressed Paul enough that he signed me off in my logbook for water operations for insurance, so I'm good to go when Barb gets down here Thursday.

Maintenance sessions with Harry Shannon, or "Lessons in Hydraulic Accumulators and Other Mysteries"

When I returned to Bartow, the maintenance sessions at Amphibians Plus were already under way. Harry Shannon's Amphibians Plus, (like Paul Furnee's Aircraft Innovation,) is one of the world's foremost shops specializing in Lake Amphibians. Both facilities are unparalleled experts in the Lake, but their principals also have very different personalities.

Harry, I think, has a little showman in him. (The moustache is a dead giveaway.) He puts on an excellent presentation. I'd expect he'd be a good actor or maybe public speaker if he weren't so good at what he does already. At his hangar at Bartow, Harry had several different demonstrations set up, including one on changing spark plugs (I think...I didn't see this), bleeding brakes, re-bending misshapen canopies back into shape, and--the best, in my opinion--the mysterious Lake hydraulic accumulator.

When I arrived several days ago, Paul Furnee had helped me fix a number of minor glitches on our aircraft, one of which was that the hydraulic accumulator apparently was not correctly pre-charged with nitrogen. Paul explained to me how it worked, and I sort of got it, but Harry had a very thorough demonstration, complete with visual aids(!) that de-mystified it for at least the 20 or more rapt attendees.

I had hoped to use my digital voice recorder to post a recording of his demonstration--I asked Harry to slip it in his pocket while he talked--but I got there late, the sound quality wasn't good, and--frankly--it's hard to figure out what's happening without seeing him while he's doing it, so the recording isn't worth posting.

Suffice it to say that--if your hydraulic system drops in pressure rapidly (overnight with no action, or in just a second or two when operating flaps or gear), or cycles often (every time you move the flaps), it could very well be that your accumulator needs pre-charging (a fairly simple fix.)

Also, I should mention that the luncheon put on by Amphibians Plus was fantastic, particularly the chili, which was homemade by Harry's wife Cathy (left, with Crystal from Amphibians Plus, Harry and Cathy's future daughter in law.) The chili took 20 lbs of ground sirloin, Cathy said!

Amphibs Plus also sponsored the daily continental breakfasts, and co-sponsored the opening banquet.

Thanks so much, you guys! It was both terrific and appreciated...

Prop: Good to go

While at Harry's place, I had N8012D's Hartzell propellor eddy current tested, per the recent FAA Airworthiness Directive.

Marc Rodstein had arranged a package deal for anyone needing an inspection. I don't know the final cost, but it should be far less than the individual cost of around $200 being charged by many shops.

The actual procedure is less impressive than you might think. The technician moves a small probe over the surface of the propellor hub, and observes a display on a black box attached to the probe. (Technical explanation, huh?) When he's done, you find out if you're OK or soon to be much poorer.

We're OK.

More practice

In the afternoon, the wind had calmed a bit more, so I headed south this time to explore more lakes in central Florida. Paul Furnee told me about a lakeside restaurant in Sebring, FL. I set out to find it.

Eventually, I found the lake (Lake Jackson), as well as the restaurant (Don Jose, N27 29.152 W81 28.754), a nice Mexican place with a screened veranda overlooking the lake, a pier, and an nice wide beach to the right of the pier (as seen from the water.)

As with many Florida lakes, the water level was a low, so I grounded upon the sand about 100 feet from shore, in 12-15 inch water. No problem, but a new situation for me. After a phone consultation with Paul F., I dropped the gear part way to the sandy bottom, and also tied out an anchor. I (No sense taking a chance on swimming after a wayward airplane in the wind.) Then I waded in (too cold for shorts today, so instead I got my jeans wet and was probably just as cold.)

At the restaurant, I met two guys (left), Fred Brown, a former Seabee pilot and retired corporate pilot from Findlay, OH, and Don Adams, another pilot, from Fort Wayne, IN and Sebring, FL. Both own homebuilts, but had driven down in an RV for Sun 'n Fun.

They thought I might be having trouble...guess my newness still shows.

Sebring race course

Being so close to the famed Sebring endurance motor racing course, I couldn't resist seeing it from the air...and it turns out it's actually on the grounds of the Sebring airport (SEF, N27 27.403 W81 20.520), an old military base.

I took a photo, and made a touch-and-go on the original runway (jeez, they made them wide back then...it felt like landing on a stadium parking lot. Plays games with your depth perception.)
Then it was back to Winter Haven (many water landings later), where I'm having Paul install vortex generators--doesn't that sound like something from Star Wars? "Luke, engage the vortex generators!" --in the next day or two.

Tips and Tricks

Back at the Holiday Inn, I spent some time in the pool and then the bar, where I ran into several fellow Lakers who were swapping tips and tricks.

Here are a few. I can't vouch for the effectiveness, safety, wisdom or even logic of any:

- Myron Mitchell re-drew a diagram he had shown me some days ago of a way he says you can moor a Lake at a dock, using 4 lines, and never having the plane hit the dock once secured. Here is the actual "back of the napkin." (Tom Jadico and Myron Mitchell, left.)

- He also sketched for me a nose wheel dolly, made of 3/4" plywood, with a rectangle cut out of the middle, and 4 good sized casters. (Another napkin sketch:)

- A water takeoff technique in which, for the first short segment of the maneuver, the yoke is actually held FORWARD (!?) of neutral by an inch or two, and then pulled back as the nose rises, somehow causing the entire aircraft to lift out of the water more rapidly and get on the step. (If you're slow on the pull back, you get to pretend you're a submarine!)

The greatest value to me of my first Lakeathon has been--by far--the many "tricks of the trade" communicated by both the experts and other Lake pilots. I can easily say that the things I have learned have saved me well over the cost of the entire trip multiple times over.

General Aviation under attack

Yesterday, Paul Furnee made the point that general aviation is under serious threat by the current proposals in Congress to institute user fees and--in some ways far more importantly--change the way funds are controlled for GA airports and services.

Another friend of mine, Rob Mark (he flies corporate jets; not as cool as a Lake, maybe, but he's still pretty dang cool) is an aviation writer and publicist. He contacted me today about a piece he was writing for www.jetwhine.com, pertaining to local airports and the need to get involved in preserving our excellent national system of smaller aviation facilities. (Read Rob's column by clicking here.)

It's just astounding to me that the U.S. can somehow be spending more than a billion dollars a week in Iraq, but can't seem to find a few weeks worth of that money to maintain, preserve, and improve our GA airports. Instead, the airlines appear to be making a concerted push to raise fees for GA, cut spending on GA airports, and to wrest control from the FAA to their own private contractors for managing the aviation system.

Frankly, I can't see why it's such a big deal to them--there is no competitive advantage to any one airline for making the change, and the high competition in the industry will likely drive out any profit from the cost savings in the form of slightly lowered fares.

That is, unless the reason isn't to save costs, but to reduce competition. You see, when the airlines have excess competition, they tend to have to lower prices to the point where all airlines lose (lots of ) money. This happens until somebody goes out of business, or the economy and air travel pick up and the competition decreases. When that happens, (see recent news stories about the coming air travel crunch this summer), airlines raise fares and make money fast. That's the reason that the airline business is such a boom or bust venture.

So why should they care about GA airports as competition?

What's the single most revolutionary change in aviation in recent years? (I mean, after GPS.)

The introduction of the "personal jet" or Very Light Jet (VLJ) like the Eclipse Jet and the Cessna Mustang.

These aircraft, the first of which were certified just last year, are still pretty expensive ($1-2 million), but are getting to the point where even medium sized businesses can own them. More importantly, some companies are planning to use them to fly point-to-point, per-seat taxi services at fares not much more than airline first-class fares. (In other words, competing for the airlines' most profitable customers.)

The situation is not unlike when the transition took place in the U.S. from trains and buses to personal automobiles.

All of a sudden, instead of having to sit in a crowded bus or train station, climb aboard a packed aluminum conveyance with dozens of strangers, be carried to multiple intermediate stops, and finally disgorged at a terminal far from your ultimate destination, you were able to leave from a parking location close to your home, travel in privacy directly to your ultimate destination, and park close by.

No wonder trains and buses are practically extinct. Could the same thing be poised to happen to airlines (read: aerial bus companies)? At first it was only the more wealthy who could afford autos (personal jets). But eventually, the production volumes rose, the reliability and safety improved, and the costs came down to the point where the middle classes could afford it.

So, think about it. If you were an (aerial) bus company, what would you do? You'd try to eliminate the roads (airways), access ramps (airports), and parking facilities (tarmac) for individual (aerial) auto owners, so they'd have to wait in your lines instead.

How would you do that? You'd attempt to cut off funding for it from Washington. And you'd do it by playing the "rich elite" card, before the rest of the population realized that this new development would help them too.

Could I be wrong? Maybe. But even if I am, the result is likely to be the same: less access to the air for individuals.

So I suggest we do something about it.

NOW.

Contact your U.S. representative and senators, and tell them to oppose changes to the historically-successful system for funding the best aviation system on the planet.

It really does make a difference for them to hear from you, and if ever a difference were needed, it's now.

Lakeathon Wrap-Up

Today was officially the last day of Lakeathon 2007. Tomorrow, the shuttle will take attendees back to the airport and we'll start to go our separate ways.

I'm planning to stay for a couple of days of Sun 'n Fun (my first), and may post a little more about that. When Barb gets here Thursday, I think that'll be it for this blog.

But before I wrap this up I want to say: Thanks to everyone who makes this such a great event. Marc and Jill Rodstein, Harry and Cathy Shannon, Paul and Paula Furnee, John and Judy Staber, Jim Campbell; there are literally scores of others.

I have had a marvelous time, met some wonderful people, and learned an amazing amount about these strange aerial boats called Lakes.

Thank you for reading, and I hope to see you here next year!

Steve Whitney

Coming home from Sebring...

2007-04-16T16:56:00.000-04:00

....after a snack lakeside.

SGW (sent from aloft)

And on the Sabbath, the Lord saith "take the day off..."

2007-04-15T20:12:00.000-04:00

Well, for the first day in a week, my feet didn't leave the ground.

Seems like the heavens decided that today wasn't the day for flying. In the morning some pretty exciting thunderstorms rolled through. Throughout the day, the skies cleared, but the winds remained as high as 20 kts with gusts up to 30 kts. Flyable for some, maybe, but I'd rather work up to the big leagues gradually.

So instead, I enjoyed the morning seminars, lunch with a big group at the Harbor Side (via car this time), and a relaxed time at the airport puttering around the plane in the late afternoon.

The morning seminars were once again extremely informative.

Leading off was John Staber (punctuated occasionally by his wife, Judy), speaking about the history of Lake Amphibians, his project to restore "Skimmer One", the original XC-1 prototype Colonial Skimmer.

As many know, the Skimmer was the direct progenitor of the Lake Amphibian. Designed by David Thurston, it looked very similar to today's Lakes. In fact, as John pointed out in his talk, they share the same FAA Type Certificate, and many of the parts in his restoration are ones from more recent models that fit perfectly.

John is doing the project as a not-for-profit organization, and has received many donations of cash, parts, and help. One way that he and Judy are raising money for the project is by offering their new CD: "A History of the Lake Amphibian, 1946-2006" It includes over 1600 pages of scans of amazing material. Photos, original design sketches, brochures, articles, biographies, this compilation has it all.

They are offering the CD for free, but asking a suggested donation to the project of at least $60. If you're here at Lakeathon, I highly recommend it. You'll learn tons of stuff about your airplane and its development. If you're not here, contact John at jx2staber@taconic.net to order your copy.

Click here to hear John's presentation.

After John's talk, we were treated to one of the most informative sessions of the convention: the Lake Instructors Forum. Five highly experienced Lake instructors spent over an hour taking questions from the audience. Some of the tidbits I picked up:

Watching birds fly can provide clues to wind direction and speed. Birds will always take off into a significant wind.
Full-stall landings are to be used as a recovery technique, but only when the aircraft is too slow to fly, and only in LA-4's, not Renegades.
In preparation for a "dunking," you should have a plan: Keep things stowed and tied down in the cabin; have your life jacket on anytime you're operating on water; unlatch the door prior to impact if you know ahead that you are making an emergency landing; when underwater, find and hold on to a reference point like the throttle BEFORE releasing the seat belt; have practice at finding, unlatching and releasing the seat belt; do NOT inflate flotation devices prior to leaving the cockpit; do NOT use auto-inflating vests.
Towing by FBO's: Better not to...
Most common mistakes seen in recurrent training: not looking out the window to verify the gear position; holding the incorrect pitch attitude when landing on the water; not keeping the nose high; not allowing enough time to slow to descent speed prior to a glassy water landing; poor coordination during turns; not checking that the wheels are in the correct position, especially for water landings.

John Staber emphasized: "Amphibian pilots should be extremely uncomfortable whenever the gear is down." The all-star panel included: John Staber, Tim Kramer, Ken Lindsay, Art Stifel, and Paul Furnee.

Click here to listen to the panel discussion.

During the announcement of door prizes, Marc Rodstein mentioned that if you're looking for custom embroidered Lake Amphib stuff, you can visit: www.companycasuals.com/lakeairplane

Next up was Jim McManus, the new president of the Seaplane Pilots Association. Jim spoke about SPA's efforts on advocacy across the U.S. on behalf of seaplane pilots and our access to the nation's waterways. Jim is a hull kind of guy, flying what he calls a "baby Lake" (Searey). He was quite moved by the camaraderie and community of Lake owners and operators represented by the LAFC.

Jim encouraged all seaplane pilots to join SPA. He also provided 3 free one-year memberships, and copies of SPA's excellent Water Flying Directory as door prizes for the drawing. In addition, he presented a free 1-year membership to Jill Gardy of Walled Lake, MI, who just earned her pilot's license and is working on her seaplane rating. (Jill is shown here on the right, with new seaplane pilot Jamie Schoepflin, l.)

On a personal note, I strongly recommend joining SPA. They are working hard on our behalf to keep waterways open to seaplanes, and provide great support if you find yourself in a local battle over access. I speak from experience, having gotten involved when the City of Chicago recently proposed to ban seaplanes from within 3 miles of the Lake Michigan shoreline. With SPA's help we were able to put the brakes on this ill-advised proposal. If you need a more selfish reason to join SPA, be aware that Steve Reep's excellent book on Lake flying technique, "Go To Hull", is out of print, but SPA members can download it for free from the members-only section of the SPA website: www.seaplanes.org You can join online at that site.

Click here to hear Jim's presentation.

After Jim, Paul Furnee spoke for over an hour, answering audience questions on a wide variety of topics, and urged everyone to contact their elected representatives to oppose the user fee proposals currently before Congress. He related personal stories of absolutely crazy and unsafe situations that occur regularly under Europe's onerous user-fee system; things like people landing in IFR conditions after the tower closes to avoid fees; being charged $600 for an in-the-air instrument clearance to a major German airport, etc.

Some of the other topics Paul touched on:

The declining service provided by the FAA to GA, including the difficulty in getting field approvals on repairs

Wheel bearing life

Maintenance of hydraulic systems

Landing on the hull in snow

Landing on unprepared surfaces (e.g. emergency landings; do them wheels-up on most anything other than pavement)

Aux. fuel pump usage

Using GPS speed measurements for water operations (keep step taxiing at or below 30 kts)

Fuel bladders and filters

You can hear Paul's whole presentation by clicking here.

After the seminars, the wind was too high for practice work for me, so a group retreated to the Harbor Side for lunch (this time via car, see earlier posts.)

Late in the afternoon, I drove to the airport to putter around in N8012D, cleaning and organizing things. As the sun got low, there were some beautiful scenes on the ramp. A few shots appear below.

Tomorrow: Morning flying--hopefully the wind will still be strong, just a little less than today.

Gallery:

Ramp Panorama

Lunchtime...

2007-04-15T14:43:00.001-04:00

Some of the crew lunching at the Harbor Side...

SGW

Heavy seas...

2007-04-15T14:40:00.000-04:00

This photo, from the Harbor Side where we're at lunch, doesn't do justice to the whitecaps out on the (relatively small) Lake Shipp.

Steve

Whoosh....standing by...

2007-04-15T13:31:00.000-04:00

Well, I was hoping to fly with Paul Furnee this afternoon in some slightly higher seas (maybe a few white caps), but with it blowing 250 degrees, 18 knots gusting 30 at Bartow, discretion seems the better part of valor.

We're gonna go get a bite to eat and wait it out for a while...

Steve

PS -- Don't believe me about the wind? Click here...

Lakeathon IV! (Saturday...a busy day)

2007-04-14T23:23:00.000-04:00

Woke up this morning early enough to put together a little Powerpoint presentation on the new website, then headed to the morning seminars in the ballroom.

I missed the beginning of Ken Lindsay's talk on the Seawings program, but it sounds like a water-borne version of the FAA's Wings program, where seminars and recurrent training can substitute for a biennial flight review. I believe I understand that the seminars here at Lakeathon can count toward the program, as can any recurrent training under the Airsure Lake insurance program (see below.) Sounds worthwhile...

After Ken, (I think it was) Laura Beecher, Tammy Clark, and Steve ? from Airsure Insurance gave an interesting talk about the Airsure Lake insurance program. They had a number of interesting stats. The ones that caught my eye were:

# of Lakes registered in U.S.: 572
# in Airsure's insurance program: 142 (24.8%)

Lake "incidents" in the last 10 year period:
44 incidents (19 mechanical, 25 pilot error)
14% of the incidents were to aircraft in the Airsure program

Lake "accidents" (more serious) in the last 10 year period:
47 accidents (11 mechanical, 33 pilot error, 3 "other")
8% in the Airsure program, 92% out of program

Their point was that participants in the program are much safer--on average--than those not participating, and the reason, they postulate (logically, in my opinion) is the recurrent training requirement. As a result, participants also benefit with lower premiums. They gave an example of a "typical" pilot, 1,700 hours, $175,000 Lake LA-250, $1,000,000 overall, $100,000 per passenger (I missed the rest of the parameters):
Avemco: $8,292 per year
AIG: No longer writing new policies on Lakes (past rates: '05: $4,900 '06: $7,600)
Airsure: $4,391

Even with the lower premiums, over the 17-year history of the program, they have collected about $8 million in premiums, and paid out only $3.7 million in losses, or about 46%, a relatively low rate. Although they made the point that it would only take a few large claims to throw this off, they are pleased with the program. I know I certainly am. As a low-timer, when I first called to compare rates, I was quoted over $10,000 on an $81,000 aircraft from Avemco. I think I'm paying a little over $5,000 with Airsure, and that'll drop some as soon as I hit 50 hours in type (maybe this week.)

After the Airsure presentation, we were treated to a slide show of the winners of the 2007 "Capture the Spirit" photo contest, by Jim Campbell of The Lake Connection (http://www.thelakeconnection.com/)

Once again, I am blown away by the beauty of the photos in this annual contest. It is through Jim's largess and the talent of the contest photographers that the LAFC web site has so many excellent images of Lake aircraft in beautiful settings.

Jim was assisted in presenting the prizes by the lovely and talented newest member of the seaplane pilot fraternity (sorority?), Jamie Schoepflin. Jamie just received her Single Engine Seaplane rating last Thursday (in a Lake, of course.) Congratulations, Jamie, from all of us. (And now I don't have to be the newest newbie on the block any more!)

Next up was a short presentation by Nick Ryder on his new publication: "The Confident Blue Water Pilot--A Practical Guide, Corrosion Control & General Lubrication" designed to educate those who operate Lakes in salt water.

The presentation was very good, and the booklet, tho' short, is well worth the $35 special Lakeathon price he's asking. Since we're contemplating a splash into the Caribbean next week, I ponied up, and I'm glad I did. It's chock full of information, has excellent pre- and post-salt exposure checklists, and is laminated so you can use it "live" as it were.

I asked him for his contact info so those who missed him here at Lakeathon can get a copy (normally $49): Nick Ryder, Lucky Duck Aviation Services, LLC, 770-314-4431, nick@seaplanevalues.com

(My favorite part of the book is the photo of the swimsuit-clad beauty on the tiny Caribbean sandbar saying "Poor me...I was hoping some big, strong, handsome Lake Amphibian pilot would come rescue me from this dreary life of sun, sand, endless parties, and those fruity drinks with the little umbrellas in them that make me...so tipsy.")

Click here for a link to audio of Nick's presentation.

After Nick spoke, we got the highlight of the morning, in my opinion. Harry Shannon of Amphibians Plus at Bartow spoke for about an hour and a quarter. The first portion was on topics of general interest, and the latter was a Q&A.

Some of the tidbits:

Flotation devices--Use 'em. All the time. They do no good in the baggage compartment as the cockpit is filling with water. (He wore his suspender-type PFD during the entire talk. It impressed me so much that I stopped later in the day and bought 2 similar ones for our own use; much less bulky than many other types of vests.)
Medical certificates and how to be your own advocate with your physician to make sure you give the FAA what they need to keep you in the air.
The "hands-on" maintenance sessions he's planning for Monday at his shop at BOW. They'll include: Tool kits; brake bleeding; and canopy reshaping. (Our Buc needs this.)
Parts availability: What parts are becoming scarce (spar caps, for one.)
Hand propping a Lake.

Here are my notes on hand propping. Do NOT take this as gospel or attempt to do this just on the basis of my notes--I could have missed something important. Talk to Harry or another Lake expert before you try this. It's important to know in case you're stuck in "Lake Faraway" as he called it, with a dead battery or shot starter. (The latter happened to me last fall, tho' at an airport where I was eventually able to get it replaced.):

Have a TRUSTWORTHY pilot in the cockpit to manage the controls.

Start on only the "impulse magneto". Verify which this is BEFORE you need to know. (There was a long discussion about this, and frankly, I'm still not sure which is the correct one.)

Know your priming situation (cold start, hot start, or flooded start); consider waiting several hours to be able to use a cold start procedure.

Learn NOW the best combination of settings to get your engine started with minimum cranking.

Know the throttle position for ~1,000 RPM to avoid an overspeed on starting. (This could be disastrous, perched on the wing as the plane lurches forward at full roar.)

Use a glove on your right hand.

Kneel or crouch on the left wing facing rearwards.
Grasp the front of the cowling firmly with your left hand.
Find a well-balanced position, where--as you swing the prop down--your momentum will carry you toward the nose of the plane and away from the prop arc.
Swing the prop through the "click" of the magneto and the compression of the cylinder.
Do not attempt to swing the prop too quickly. A modest speed will be enough if it's at the right part of the cycle. A well-managed engine can be started with just a few pulls-through.
If the battery is completely dead and will not pump fuel for priming, a more radical technique is to remove a plug from each cylinder so the prop will freewheel, and spin it enough for the mechanical pump to prime the engine, then replace the plugs. (This is way more than I ever want to have to attempt.)

I'd add my own advice: wear slip-resistant shoes!

Click here for a link to audio of Harry's presentation.

The final presentation of the morning was your truly's about the new website. I won't bore you by trying to write the whole thing down. Instead, I'll bore you with an audio recording of it, and a link to the Powerpoint presentation I gave.

Click here for the Powerpoint.

Click here for the audio.

After my talk, I received a wonderful surprise. Marc Rodstein called me up again to present me with an Appreciation Award, and the present of a new digital outside air temp thermometer. I don't know how he knew I needed one, but I was planning to look for one at Sun 'n Fun this week. I'll also say that I've never seen such a fancy box for an aviation part in my life! Thank you so much, Marc. It's an honor to be able to put together the site for such a great community of flyers.

After the seminars, it was time for some fun. I made a stop at West Marine to get a couple of the suspender-type flotation collars, then headed to Bartow. I spent some time futzing with the airplane (installing the new OAT gauge, of course, plus other little stuff.) While at the airport, I finally got a look at Pete "Puddle Jumper" Hartmann's plane...NOW I get what all the hoopla on the forum is about:

When all was ship-shape with 12Delta, I took off for some more water practice.

Over at Lake Mattie, I met up with Myron Mitchell and John O'Keefe in N84PF (see prior posting for photo of them photographing me.) They were kind enough to take some shots of me practicing, in the air and on the water. Here's my favorite: (No it's not a bounce, it's an on-purpose skid to a stop...honest!):

Afterwards, we headed together over to Lake Shipp and the Harbor Side restaurant (see earlier post) for iced tea and deep-fried pickles. (Pretty good; better than I expected. Wait for them to cool off, first.) They were kind enough to beach before me and then ask the owners of the wakeboard boat on the beach to reposition enough for me to beach beside them.

We bought the wakeboarders a round for their trouble, and afterward compared notes on vehicles. I was amazed: their boat has something like 325 HP. We told them it would make a nice seaplane if it had wings. When we returned to BOW, I ran into Travis Marlatte, a fellow Lake pilot from the Chicago area. Travis was partially responsible for getting me and Barb into a Lake...he bought his about 4 years ago, and told me a lot about the brand when I was trying to make up my mind what to buy.

Travis invited me to dinner at the nearby Outback Steakhouse with Paul and Paula Furnee, Tom Frist, Bill Mistele (I hope I spelled that right) and Bob Brammer. I heard some amazing stories, including one about an impossible-to-access cave up a fjord in Oman that Paul visited by Lake Renegade. From his description, it sounded like there was no other way in the world to access it except by amphibious seaplane, and he and his companion may have been the first humans ever to see inside it. Amazing! (And, of course, he didn't have his camera with him.)

Small world: The last encounter of the night was back at the Holiday Inn bar, where I ran into Curt Martin from White Lake, MI. Curt recognized me from Meigs Field in around 1998, when the annual Michigan Air Tour added a stop at Meigs to show solidarity for keeping the airport open.

Curt flies an IFR Murphy Rebel on amphibs that he built himself. What's amazing is that he and his wife just happened to stop in Winter Haven on a trip down the east coast, just happened to stay at THIS Holiday Inn, and just happened to be hanging out at the bar when I stopped in to download the photos from John O'Keefe. Talk about a small world!

I invited him to join the Lakeathon activities, but they're already programmed. Anyway, it was fun to see another water flyer here, even if he doesn't taxi with his butt below the waterline.

Weather for tomorrow looks challenging: Scattered t-storms in the AM, followed by 20 kt SW winds in the afternoon. If all goes well, I'll finally get to try some whitecap work in with Paul Furnee.

Stay tuned.

PS -- Thanks to all for the nice comments about the website and the blog. I'm really enjoying it. I'm missing Barb a lot, but doing this stuff is keeping me busy and my mind off being a little lonesome. She comes down Thursday!

PPS to Kathy Duda: This guy said he was looking for you...I dunno, looks a little shady to me...

N84PF in Lake Mattie

2007-04-14T16:52:00.001-04:00

Myron Mitchell and John O'Keefe in N84PF taking pix of me practicing. (See post to follow.)

Lake Mattie (good practice spot; no homes on the shore except the inlet on the west side.)
N28 08.605
W081 46.902

SGW

Aerial blogging..who'd a thought?

2007-04-14T16:16:00.001-04:00

This was taken from 1,000 ft, 4 mi W. of Winter Haven airport, enroute to Lake Mattie...good seminars this AM...more later;

Gotta practice for now.

Steve

Lakeathon Blog Central

2007-04-13T21:29:00.000-04:00

Here is the nerve center...I'm testing sending entries from my phone.

Wow! This really works! I can post entries from my phone...

Tomorrow: Aerial blogging

Lakeathon III! (Friday evening)

2007-04-13T21:00:00.000-04:00

Lakeathon 2007 officially kicked off tonight with the Welcome Buffet Dinner, co-sponsored by AirSure Limited, Phoenix Aviation Managers, and Amphibians Plus in Bartow, FL.

Prior to that, I got in some more water practice time, mostly near Winter Haven, before heading the 10 miles or so down to the Bartow, FL airport--sort of the aerial center of gravity for Lakeathon. On one lake, I found myself on a parallel approach with a bright yellow Super Cub from Jack Brown's Seaplane Base, located adjacent to the Winter Haven airport. I've spent a little time doing recurrent training at Brown's, and highly recommend it for a basic SES rating--very organized and professional. Of course, "floats 'ain't boats", so learning the Lake has been an expanded education.

I tied down at Bartow, in front of Harry and Cathy Shannon's Amphibians Plus. The ramp is really starting to fill up with Lakes (above); I expect even more may show up by tomorrow. It's kind of like coming to your native land after living in a foreign country. At most airports a Lake is a curiosity. Here, it's the majority.

[Note: In an attempt to avoid conflicts with Sun 'n Fun traffic, some of the tiedowns have "reserved for Lake Amphibian Flyers Club" signs in them. If you're coming for Lakeathon, find any of these spots for tying down, but stay away from the easternmost 3 rows (on your right as you face the tower from the runways); they're reserved for the maintenance shops at that end of the field.]

After a Holiday Inn shuttle ride back over to Winter Haven to retrieve my rental car, I headed back to the hotel for a quick dip in the pool before the dinner.

During the cocktail hour I got a chance to meet a number of other Lake owners, including fellow "newbie" owners Rick and Diane Williams, from Bloomington, MN. They bought their LA-4-180 last summer, only a couple of months before Barb and I, and have been enjoying it a lot (tho' they, too complain of heater troubles...must be a northerner thing.) Rather than fly all the way from MN with a balky heater, they decided to let the pros do the flying. Rick's hopeful of getting to fly with others who have an aircraft down here at Lakeathon. I offered ours, but the back seat is out for the trip, so one of them would have to stay behind. Anyone else here who might have space, give Rick a shout.

Dinner was fine, but the highlight was Ed McNeil's video chronicle of his flight to Alaska with the Tuxills, Tom & Sue. Set to classical music, it was majestic, with expansive vistas and some really cool formation flying shots. (Someone said Ed was actually flying formation while doing the filming...I've done formation flying and I find it hard to believe. It takes enormous concentration to stay in position...I'd be hard pressed to handle a camera at the same time.)

The schedule has Ed telling more about his Alaska adventure, including a Q&A session tomorrow night. We're seeing if there's a way we can post his presentation on the blog for those who can't be here...if this isn't inspiring to Lake pilots, nothing is.

Sun 'n Fun Seaplane Changes for '07

After the presentation, Sue Stewart introduced me to Bill Gillespie and his wife, P.J. Together, they volunteer to run the seaplane operation at Sun 'n Fun. Bill asked me to make mention of the fact that the plans for the seaplane Splash-In are different this year than in past years.

In particular, the factory-built seaplane splash-in--formerly held on Friday--has been moved to Thursday, April 19, so that the Seaplane Dinner won't conflict with the Sun 'n Fun night airshow, Friday evening. Also, the specific location on Lake Parker has been moved.

Pilots must register and get a pre-flight briefing to participate. Details are available on the Sun 'n Fun website at: http://www.sun-n-fun.org/content/interior.asp?section=flyin&body=convsch/seaplanes

Bill also asked me to pass along the document below: Info for driving to the Splash-In at Lake Parker:

That's it for tonight. Big day tomorrow...first full day of seminars and LAFC flying. (Also, Marc R.'s got me making a noontime presentation on the new website. Guess I'd better get my stuff together before turning in.)

Below: Official program from Lakeathon 2007, for those who can't make it:
(Sorry for the quality...I don't have a scanner here, only my digital camera.)

Lakeathon II! (Midday Friday)

2007-04-13T12:45:00.000-04:00

Friday, noonish:
Well, setup is well under way, and check-in has begun.

I finally got to meet Marc Rodstein (left), our fearless leader, in person, after months of working with him on the LAFC website.

Marc was busy setting up the meeting hall, while his lovely wife Jill, along with Judy Staber and Barb Fioravanti are checking people in as they arrive.

John Staber is set up to sell Lake paraphrenalia in the hotel lobby; I couldn't resist a t-shirt, tote bag, and a copy of his new "History of the Lake Amphibian, 1946-2006". There is some tremendous stuff on it, and the $60 suggested donation goes to the project to restore Skimmer One, the original XC-1 Skimmer prototype that started the legacy.

I'm heading off to the airport to practice some more today, before the festivities begin tonight. Winds seem light and the sky is a beautiful clear blue. Tomorrow's looking good, too, tho' Sunday forecasts cooler temps, isolated t-storms and high winds. I'm hoping it'll give me a chance to practice the "high seas" techniques I haven't had a chance to experience yet.

Phase III: Lakeathon! (Early arrivals)

2007-04-12T22:00:00.000-04:00

Today (Friday 4/13) is technically the first day of Lakeathon, but yesterday was the day that many started arriving for the festivities.

I've traded voice mail messages with Marc Rodstein, and know he's here, but haven't connected up yet. I did, however, last night get to meet one of the "personalities" of the Lake Amphib Flyers Club forum:

The famous Pete "Puddle Jumper" Hartmann! (see above, with Paul Furnee)

Paul Furnee (another regular LAFC poster) invited me to tag along for dinner with him, his wife Paula, Pete, and Bob and Sharon Stebbins of Utah and Florida (see left).

We went to a great little seafood restaurant: Harry's Old Place. Wish I'd brought my GPS so I could give you the coordinates. It's on a lake, tho' it looked kind of small from where we are. The food was excellent, and so was the company. There really is something special about a community of aircraft owners and pilots, especially one that shares so many operational quirks as Lake owners.

I had a great time, and am all looking forward to meeting more of the "clan" this weekend.

Phase II: Getting My Water Wings

2007-04-12T18:00:00.000-04:00

As mentioned earlier, I've been a seaplane pilot since the 1990's, but had only accumulated about 20 hours seaplane time before last summer. After buying N8012D, I got checked out for land ops right away, but a series of glitches (hydraulic pressure, tachometer, etc.) combined with weather conspired to keep me from water ops training until winter came along.

When the ice around Chicago finally melted, I tried to schedule as much flight time as possible before leaving for Lakeathon, but managed only a single afternoon's worth of splashing around the Chain of Lakes. So ultimately, I decided to leave early for Lakeathon and spend time working on my checkout down here at Winter Haven, with Paul Furnee of Aircraft Innovation.

As most members of the Lake Amphib Flyers Club probably know, Paul (left) is one of the leading authorities on flying and maintaining Lakes. He used to live in New Hampshire and worked for Lake Aircraft, including helping to redesign the Buccaneer as the 4-6 place Renegade. More than that, he has thousands of hours flying and instructing in Lakes, and knows the pedigree and flight characteristics of virtually every Lake out there. I was amazed at the things he can tell me about my own plane.

When I originally contacted Paul for this trip, I had forgotten that I had met him back in 2003, when I first started to consider Lake ownership, and had gone for a familiarization flight with one of his instructors in one of his aircraft. (That had constituted all of my Lake time before buying N8012D.) I had also introduced myself (again, as it turns out) at Oshkosh last summer.

I arrived Tuesday, April 10 after an IFR flight from Tampa, with the airport at minimums for the VOR-DME A approach. After scrounging Paul from the hangar, we spent time with him looking over the plane and asking me about it. Within 10 minutes he had inflated my nose strut, and added nitrogen to my hydraulic accumulator, which improved the operation of the system immensely. He also had explained to me how the system works, and why it's so important to have a pre-charge of 350-400 psi in the accumulator to speed operation of the gear and flaps and reduce wear on the hydraulic pump.

As we talked, the weather improved, but never got terrific, with low scud and hazy visibilities. We took off anyway and spent a couple of hours flying into the numerous lakes surrounding the Winter Haven/Lakeland/Bowman area. (See day 1 flight, left).

Paul showed me numerous tricks for improving my water operations. Three in particular were very helpful:

I had always been nervous and uncomfortable doing step work, particularly step turns, because they feel so uncoordinated and unstable. He demonstrated for me how--if the speed is kept low, about 30 kts--the airplane can be trimmed to run on the step hands-off. He also showed me how the pitch angle on the step makes a huge difference in pitch stability (porpoising), and how you can use this to your advantage if you want to make a tight turn (putting the nose down carefully while on the step will tend to tighten the turn.)

After I was more comfortable on the step, he showed me a step-turn exercise where I made continuous figure-8's, crossing our own wake in the center with the wings level, and then turning to the opposite direction to do it again. This exercise has been very useful to me in getting comfortable with the plane on the water.

To get a flavor for the correct step-landing attitude and how power settings affect the approach, Paul had me choose a rather large lake, make a normal approach, and then fly literally inches over the surface indefinitely, finding the attitude and power setting that kept the aircraft just kissing the tops of the highest waves. The attitude and "picture" from the pilot's seat during this are those to look for when I'm doing a normal step landing, and the power setting is just a smidge (1-2" of manifold pressure) higher than the one to use when doing glassy water landings.

One lake that is excellent for practice in the area is Lake Mattie (N28 08.291 W81 46.924). No one lives on the lake, except on the south side of the inlet along the western shore. If you avoid flying over that house, you can practice to your heart's content without bothering anyone.

After a couple of hours, we headed back as noon approached. When we checked weather it was threatening for the entire afternoon, so Paul cut me loose and I got my rental car and checked into the Holiday Inn (Lakeathon Central) to unpack and catch a nap. (Remember, it'd been practically non-stop flying since Easter Sunday afternoon for me.)

The next morning, I headed back to the airport. We took off and headed north, splashing into numerous lakes along the way and practicing much of what I'd learned the day before. (See Day 2 map, below.) We also did some "high altitude" (high altitude in a seaplane is a relative term...maybe 3,000 feet) flying in which he demonstrated different flight characteristics of the aircraft.

Our plane doesn't have bat wings or vortex generators, so Paul demonstrated to me the pronounced "burble" that occurs power-on with flaps up at around 70-75 mph. It's not a stall, but it so disrupts the airflow over the wings that the airplane will neither climb nor accelerate in level flight. We also did some stalls and emergency procedures (extending the gear with zero hydraulic pressure, simulated engine failure with a turn back to the airport at 500', etc.)

[By the way, we found that if you lose your engine at 500' over the departure end of the runway (or in this case lake), you can execute a 180 degree turn back to the landing surface, but only if you dramatically lower the nose to build up speed to 80+ mph, and crank it around with 60 degrees of bank. The picture from the windshield is pretty dramatic (think diving sideways straight down for the shoreline), and you lose altitude like a wounded piano, but you do level out over the water with enough speed to be able level out and land. If you were trying to hit the runway you took off from I think you'd be in trouble. About the best you could do would be land in the grass parallel to it. In our case there wasn't enough altitude to execute the sidestep necessary to get back aligned with our original course. Fortunately, if you use a high bank angle, you don't move far laterally from your original course line.]

For lunch we landed in a lake and went to a restaurant called Gator Joe's (left, N29 02.412 W81 55.712; could be a fun fly-out destination this weekend). The food was interesting...I had the "Gator Philly" sandwich, sort of a Philly cheese steak sandwich made with deep fried alligator meat. (I thought it tasted more like fish than chicken.)

There's enough room on the beach for a few Lakes, and a ramp directly to the right (east) that could accommodate up to 3, if they reposition the old sailboat that's adjacent, as we suggested during our stop.

After lunch, we headed back to GIF, splashing into numerous lakes along the way.

After a couple of hour break, we saddled up again and this time headed east, to the lakes south of Orlando and Kissimee, FL. There are some fairly large lakes over that way, many of which are connected by a series of canals maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers. The canals are virtually deserted (an occasional fisherman was all I saw), and reportedly connect all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. They are dead straight for miles, wide enough to land on, and full of wildlife (including scores of real live gators!) They make an excellent practice are for river (constrained area) and crosswind operations. Plus you can watch in fascination as the gators swirl into the water from the bank as you step taxi along for mile after mile.

The three lakes we flew in (and the canals that connect them) are Lake Hatchineha (N28 01.417 W81 22.166,) Cypress Lake (N28 04.748 W81 19.531,) and Lake Tohopekaliga (N28 10.057 W81 22.048.) The two canals were the Hatchineha Canal (N28 02.806 W81 20.558) and the South Port Canal (N28 06.400 W81 20.837.) Be careful with the latter--there is a lock/dam at the northern end, with wires across it, and a radio tower with hard-to-see guy wires adjacent. Give it a wide berth.

On our way back, we also dropped into Lake Russel (N28 08.056 W81 25.005), a cypress-lined lake that is virtually impossible to access except by air. There is a nice sand beach on the eastern shore partially hidden behind the weeds. There, Paul demonstrated to me a technique for turning the aircraft around without effort:

If the bottom is relatively flat and sandy, drive up on to the sand, wheels-up, in displacement taxi, until the keel is firmly anchored on the bottom. Then just give it about half to 3/4 throttle while holding full rudder (left seems to work well). The aircraft can't move because it's anchored, and the airflow over the rudder will pivot you around on a dime! When you're ready to depart, just give it a blast of throttle and you're off!

Paul also demonstrated how you can taxi through weeds like an airboat. After all there's no water prop to foul!

When we got back to GIF, Paul suggested that the next day I take my time and come in when I felt like it.

I slept in a bit, therefore, on Thursday, and got to the airport about 10:30. I helped Paul with his website, and then he said to me, "What you need to do is go flying by yourself."

Yesss! It felt a lot like 33 years ago when my instructor stepped out to let me fly my first solo. Paul suggested a lunch stop in downtown Winter Haven at the Harbor Side restaurant. On the map, it looked a little scary, smaller in diameter than the length of the GIF runway, but he assured me I'd be fine.

I took off, and flew over to Lake Mattie for a while, to brush up on all I'd learned: step taxiing, glassy water landings, flying one inch over the surface, power off landings, full-stall landings, etc. When I felt ready, I headed south to Lake Shipp (N28 00.208 W81 44.505). After circling twice to get the full picture, I set up for a landing, came in over the canal north to Lake May, and landed, no sweat.

I taxied over to the beach adjacent to the Harbor Side (N27 59.907 W81 44.279), and tied up to a picnic table. The lake bottom is fairly steep there, and the light wind was blowing on shore. I didn't pay too much attention, but when I came out from lunch, I found that the aircraft had pivoted in the wind until the left wing was nearly against another picnic table. As Paul told me, "I'll learn a lot in the next hundred hours." Mental note: make sure there are no adjacent obstructions in case the aircraft moves in the wind...

After lunch I taxied out, and--given my nervousness about the lake size--decided on a step-turn takeoff to minimize space needed. Turns out I had plenty of room anyway, but it gave me good practice, and I was on my way.

I headed back east to play in and around the canals again, and spent probably an hour just puttering around doing takeoffs, landings, frog-hops over fishermen in boats, and looking for gators (see right, below). I got in some actual glassy water work on one lake--wow, can that be deceiving--and kept working on my step technique. I'm coming to appreciate how much a Lake is an attitude-sensitive airplane. If you get the landing attitude right, all's well, but if you land a little nose high (too slow) or nose low (too fast) you're in for a little excitement. One landing had 3 or 4 ever-increasing bounces until I transitioned to a full-stall landing to let it settle down.

Turns out you can get a cell signal out there on the canals (at least on Verizon), so I sent a couple of messages with photos to Barb.

On my way back, I literally landed in every lake that crossed my path, including the one right under the approach to runway 29 back at Winter Haven. (There wasn't anybody in the pattern at the time.)

When I got back to GIF, I had a smile on my face a mile wide (see left). Now THAT's the reason I became a seaplane pilot. It's the closest thing I've ever felt to being a bird.

Paul says that it'd be good to get some heavy-water work in if we can; other than that I'm pretty much good to go. The weather for Sunday's looking a little wild and woolly, so we may do some flying then. In the meantime, it's time for Phase III: Lakeathon!

PS -- The one thing that Paul impressed upon me is there's only one REALLY, REALLY important rule. Don't land in the water with your gear down. Everything else you can survive, but that's a real killer.

Phase I: The Trip from Chicago

2007-04-11T22:00:00.000-04:00

(actually from Kenosha)

About 4 years ago, I met an 11-year old young man from Chicago who wants to be a naval aviator. I met him at a Young Eagles rally at Meigs Field (boy, there's a whole other story), when I flew him and his mom. Turns out he's wanted to fly since he as 4.

Since he was a neighbor of ours, we flew over our neighborhood--we lived in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago at the time. Afterwards, I offered his mom to mentor him if he still wanted to become a pilot. Over the past several years, my friend Josh and I have had a number of exciting flight-related experiences together. (See picture of us looking kind of dorky in a Blue Angels cockpit at Oshkosh, left.) It looks likely he'll start his training this year, as he's now 15, and can solo when he's 16.

Anyway, during the planning of this trip, it occurred to me that Josh might like to see what a looonng cross-country is like. It required missing a day of school, but his mom said OK, and he and I departed Kenosha, WI on Sunday, April 8.

The trip was to be a Tuskegee Airmen retrospective.

Our first stop was planned for Freeman Field, in Seymour, IN, site of the famed "Freeman Field Mutiny" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeman_Field_Mutiny), an event that eventually helped lead to today's integrated U.S. military. As a result of my involvement with Friends of Meigs Field in Chicago, I've gotten to know quite a number of original Tuskegee Airmen, including men who were part of the mutiny at the southern Indiana airfield when they were denied entry to the "instructors-only" (read: white-only) officers' club.

We left for the airport after Easter church service, and departed Kenosha in mid-afternoon in near-freezing temps. About halfway to Seymour, we discovered that the heater was blowing cold air. We got to Freeman Field about 6:30 P.M., only to find it deserted and locked up. We're told there's a nice museum of the airport's military history, but we can only vouch for what we could see from the locked door. We refilled at the self-serve pump, ate (very) cold chicken (it had been sitting under the heater vent), shivered for a photo and jumped in again to take off for Chattanooga.

Because of the cold temps, we decided not to follow our original IFR plan and instead stayed low(er) where the air wasn't quite so frigid. Even so, our fingers and toes barely made it to CHA.

The next morning, we took off and headed VFR for Tuskegee, AL, where--thanks to Bennie McRae (http://www.bjmjr.net/ww2/taaf.htm) we had been put in touch with the current owners of the formerly abandoned Tuskegee Army Air Field. (Note: There is a National Park historical site being developed at Moton Field, the municipal airport for Tuskegee, but it was originally only an outlying practice field for the Airmen, who were based at the Army Air Field, aka Sharpe Field.)

Thanks to Mr. McRae, we were able to contact Mr. Guice Slawson, whose family now owns the property as part of their lumber business. Thankfully, Mr. Slawson and others in his family understand aviation, and have preserved the reconstructed single runway that prior owners had constructed on the site of the old runway 14-32 when they had hoped to develop it as a hunting preserve. The airport (AL73) is again shown on sectional charts, though it is listed as private, requiring advance permission to land.

We arrived over the field around noon on Monday, circled a couple of times, and made a low pass to check runway conditions. We then landed to the northwest, and taxied up to a black pickup, from which emerged a friendly and welcoming southern gentleman, Mr. Guice (Guy) Slawson.

Guy turns out to be not only pro-aviation--a pilot, actually--but a former naval aviator himself, who gave Josh some excellent advice about pursuing careers flying jets for the Navy. Guy used to fly A-6's (still in service today as E-6B's, I believe) and has over 300 carrier traps.

Guy graciously drove us around the grounds of the old airfield, most of which is now overgrown. Only two buildings with intact walls still exist; what he believes are the old post office and the water plant. Chimneys still stand where other buildings stood, but none of the hangars, admin buildings, or barracks exist, and even the streets--complete with curbs--are fading under the sand and debris.

It was a particular thrill to stand in the center of the traffic circle, where likely stood the base flagpole and where "Reveille" and "Taps" likely sounded every day the field was in use by the Army.

At the end of the tour, Guy showed us the hunting lodge the prior owners had built--now used for family gatherings--complete with a 15-foot stuffed alligator.

By the end of the tour, we were running short on time--Josh had to make an 8:30 commercial flight from Tampa back to Chicago. We made a quick stop at nearby Moton Field, originally pencilled in as a fuel stop, but no 100LL is available. Nevertheless, it again was a thrill to land on the same runway the original Tuskegee Airmen used for practice.

After that, it was "thottle to the firewall". A quick-turn stop in Eufala, AL (pr. "you folla?") for fuel preceded a pretty wet and choppy IFR flight into Tampa International. We made it by 7:30, and the crack staff at Tampa Jet Center ("voted best in FL" the sign says), drove us all the way around the field to the American Airlines gate, where Josh made his flight with about 15 minutes to spare.

When I returned to the plane for the last leg to Winter Haven, I was in for a rude surprise. All of a sudden the nav lights/instrument lights circuit breaker started tripping, indicating a short of some kind. Rudimentary debugging didn't help, so it was off to the airport Hilton for an unscheduled overnight. (Incidentally, TACAir in Chattanooga has a much better corporate rate at the local Hampton Inn than Tampa Jet has at the Hilton. And the Hilton dings you another $10 for internet access.)

The next morning looked great at TPA, but IFR at Winter Haven (GIF), so I filed instruments and was off. Enroute, a Saberliner in front of me had to make the missed approach a couple of times before he got in. I got real life holding practice (a rarity in my experience) over Lakeland VOR, but eventually got cleared in and made it, first shot. (Probably 'cause my cruise speed's way lower than the Saberliner...you couldn't see the airport 'til you were nearly on top of it.)

Upon arrival, I was directed to the office in the back and met up with Mr. Paul Furnee (Lake expert and fellow computer geek) for my intro into Lake water flying.

But that's the subject of Phase II: Getting My Water Wings

PS -- Paul showed me how to push the overheat reset switch on the heater, and now it works fine. If you own a Lake and don't know how to do this, either get someone to show you, or don't fly north in the winter!

About your correspondent...

2007-04-11T08:00:00.000-04:00

First, a little about me...

I'm a 49-year old, ~1,000 hour private pilot, Single Engine Land and Sea, who loves seaplane flying, but has never owned an aircraft before last year. For 30+ years I was able to get along by renting, borrowing or otherwise cadging other peoples' wings, but eventually the urge got too strong.

Turns out, you can hardly rent seaplanes (neither floats nor hulls), at least not around Glenview, IL (a NW Chicago suburb where I live with my favorite person, my wife Barb. More on her in a sec.)

So...I (read "we" meaning Barb and I) finally caved...after a long search and much research, we bought N8012D, Fred Weber's old Buc, a 1981 model, S/N 1066, with about 3,200 hours on it.

Initially a series of logisitics, mechanical glitches, and bad weather prevented me from getting checked out on water (for insurance purposes, that is. I've been a SES since the 90's, but mostly in floats, and Airsure gives Lake pilots a nice discount for training with their approved instructors.)

Eventually winter hit, and all of the water was of the very hard type. When spring rolled around, I tried (and tried) to get some hours in with George Mangel from Galt airport (10C), but we only managed one day with a couple of hours on the Chain of Lakes north of Chicago; nice, but not enough for a full checkout. (It got so bad that you could practically predict bad weather by the days I was planning to fly.)

I'd been planning to fly to Lakeathon anyway (and I've been checked out for land ops since we bought the plane), so I changed the itinerary to leave a number of days early, to get some water instruction with one of the best, Paul Furnee, of Aircraft Innovation in Winter Haven this week.

This required one major sacrifice: Tonight (literally tonight) is Barb and my 21st anniversary, and, because she has to work, we're 1,000 miles apart. Fortunately, she's wonderfully understanding about my obsession with (oops I mean interest in) water flying--she's not a pilot, but a happy and helpful co-pilot. So, we're planning a celebration next week, when she arrives in Miami and I pick her up for a week in the Keys. I love her (and miss her) tremendously!

So, stand by for Phase I of this blog: The story of the Trip from Chicago...

Welcome to Lakeathon (almost) Live 2007

2007-04-10T21:00:00.000-04:00

As the webmaster of the new Lake Amphibian Flyers Club website (www.lakeflyers.com), I've been looking for ways to take advantage of the 'net to help club members stay in touch, learn more about the "breed", and disseminate information on operations, maintenance, flight safety, places to fly and any other relevant info.

As most members know, this weekend (4/13-16/2007) is Lakeathon 2007, the annual convention of Lake owners, pilots, and afcionados held annually in Bartow, FL.

Lately, I've read several posts on the LAFC members' forum (http://forums.delphiforums.com/lakeamphibs/, c'mon join up so you can participate!) from Lakers who can't make it this year, so it occurred to me that a blog might be a way for members-in-absentia to follow some of the activities.

Hence, lakeathon.blogspot.com is born.

As I'm a relatively new Lake owner I'm hopeful that my "newbie" perspective will add something to the coverage for both Lakeathon vets and those who have never been to one.

This is also my first effort at blogging. Hopefully it'll be a balance of interesting stuff without TMI (too much information, a habit I sometimes have.)

Anyway, feel free to leave your feedback, and I'll try to take it into account.

Steve Whitney
N8012D