As is the case with many other private pilots, I love to fly and look for any excuse to get up in the air and learn something new. When I read a great article about Jack Brown’s Seaplane Base in Pilot Getaways, I was hooked. I had to try flying a seaplane, and where else but at one of the oldest and greatest, Jack Brown’s.

By way of introduction, I earned my private pilot’s license more than 30 years ago through the U.S. Air Force Aero Club on the island of Guam. But even with all that water around, we were pretty much restricted in where we could fly. Since we didn’t have a floatplane, we certainly didn’t relish the idea of an unplanned water landing. And with all the B-52s and KC-135 tankers around, a close encounter of the worst kind could spoil your whole day.

So after 20 years away from flying because of the usual demands of family and business, when I returned to it a couple of years ago, I wanted to make up for lost time. I found a great flight instructor, Larry Uzelak of Horizon Aviation based at Auburn Municipal Airport near my home in California. Larry helped me regain currency. I then bought a Piper Warrior, flew it almost 200 hours and moved on to a different plane. But I still wanted to fly a seaplane at least once.

The article in Pilot Getaways put me into action. I called Jack Brown’s, got on the schedule and made arrangements to take a long weekend break and head to Winter Haven, FL. The seaplane base, located on Lake Jesse, is immediately adjacent to the Winter Haven Municipal Airport. A taxiway connects the two. I was told to arrive early the first morning and to come ready for some old-fashioned stick and rudder flying, some rigorous training, and most of all, to be prepared for loads of fun. I got all three.

Upon arrival, Michele, who had taken my reservation and followed up to be sure I didn’t forget to bring my private certificate, medical, picture ID, and birth certificate, gave me a tour of the seaplane base and a warm welcome. Michele had also suggested I get a copy of John Renne’s book, Step up to Floats, and read it before arrival, which I did. She was friendly and professional, like everyone else I met at Jack Brown’s. This is a real family-style operation.

In the Classroom

Rich, a young flight instructor from Michigan, started us off with an hour and a half of ground/sea school. As always, there were just two of us in the class; the other student, Ed, has a ton of helicopter time and a fishing lodge in Alaska. He wanted to be able to use the large lake adjacent to the lodge to fly in guests. Rich walked us through the materials slowly and was patient with our questions. For an Air Force guy who had never been around boats and is a bit suspicious of sailors, there were a lot of new concepts for me. But the written materials were well organized, as was the ground school, and everything tracked with Renne’s book.

Even so, there is a lot to learn before you take off in a seaplane. The “step,” plow taxi, idle taxi, rough water operations and glassy water operations all have fine points as well as general concepts that must be mastered. I was definitely in information overload during the ground school and for the first couple of hours of flight training.

The Lessons Begin

Once we completed the ground school, we headed out to the lake and got a look at a real, live floatplane. This is where the fun began. My instructor, Shannon, another young flight instructor from St. Louis, showed me the basic elements of seaplane configuration and how to use the equipment to my advantage. Our plane, N3470K, was an early model Piper J-3 Cub on floats with no radio and no electric starter. It was a wonderful airplane in which to regain touch with the elements of pure stick and rudder flying that drew us all to it in the first place.

Shannon emphasized that he did not want me looking at instruments all day; he wanted me to fly by feel. The fact that Shannon is nearly seven feet tall and that, as in land-based Cubs, you fly from the back seat, left little doubt that I would not be relying on instruments. I could barely catch a peek of the tach on the left side of the panel and the altimeter on the right around Shannon’s shoulders. So, it definitely was a “fly-by-feel” experience.

To add to the excitement, I had never flown a Cub or, for that matter, any other tandem airplane or one with a stick instead of a yoke. It was a real learning opportunity.

Once we completed preflight of the airplane and sailed out from the dock, Shannon propped the engine; it lit right up, and we were off. Shannon is a great pilot, and like all good instructors, he knows how to make a point when the student blows a maneuver. I gave him many opportunities during that first session to make those points. Getting the plane “up on the step” for takeoff and long distance taxi came to me quickly, but leveling off at a consistent and correct height above the water for landing eluded me most of the first day.

And plow taxi turns and step turns take a few repetitions to get the hang of. But Shannon was patient, and as we went from lake to lake, perhaps 20 different lakes in all, things got better.

After a great lunch at Kazbor’s Grill in Winter Haven, over which we did a critique of the morning’s progress, we returned to the base, took off and practiced all the maneuvers again. That particular afternoon, I had no trouble reading the water surface and wind direction. The gentle morning breeze had risen to about 12 knots, which can produce some pretty substantial waves in a big lake. We headed for smaller lakes, but still got in a good number of real-time rough water landings and takeoffs. It was too rough for the “glassy water” work we needed to do, so we called it a day at about 4:00 p.m. and planned an early start the next day.

Shannon reminded me to do some “chair flying” and to study the ground school materials, so I would be ready for the checkride and oral exam. There is no written test for a seaplane rating, so I was warned that the oral exam would be detailed and comprehensive.

We enjoyed an exceptionally fine meal at Christy’s Restaurant in Winter Haven that night. The menu was extensive, the food was excellent and the service was outstanding. After dinner, we enjoyed a beverage as we watched the thunderstorms close in around us and heard the rain pounding on the roof. But what a difference a day makes; the storms blew themselves out during the night, and the rain gave way to a clear sky.

The next morning we had a nice, gentle breeze, and the conditions made for a perfect classroom. We ran through all the maneuvers we had practiced on day one, and I think we were both surprised at the remarkable improvement I had made. The calmer winds and previous day’s practice paid off in terms of improved performance.

We then did our glassy water work, including both takeoffs and landings. You might be surprised, as I was, that smooth, glassy water is one of the most difficult conditions for a seaplane pilot. The lack of movement on the surface of the water makes it very difficult to judge just how high off the water you are during landing, and also, the smooth surface makes the floats stick to the water during the takeoff run. There are special techniques for handling these problems, but they take a bit of practice and visualization. It was, at first, very unnatural to raise a wing to lift one float at a time off the water’s surface.

Test Time

Once Shannon concluded that I wasn’t likely to drown him or anyone else, he had me return to the base and signed me off for my checkride. Again, because there is no written exam for a seaplane rating, I expected, and got, an extensive oral exam from Jon Brown, son of the founder and an FAA-designated examiner. When you meet Jon, you immediately know that this man is a master pilot and a teacher, as well as a tough examiner. He covered nearly every item in the book during the oral exam, and even after a correct answer, he took the time to explain something that I might not have noticed. When he was satisfied that I knew the basic theory and rules, we went out to fly.

Our Cub, N3470K, was gassed up and ready to go. And as always happens during a checkride, I botched the start of the first maneuver, a simple straight ahead step taxi and had to “save it” down the stretch. But Jon let me complete the run, and then we turned into the wind and the fun began. We went through every maneuver in the book with me alternately “executing” or “killing” them.

Once, as I was planning a rare, perfect landing, Jon pulled the power on downwind, and we went through our emergency procedures checklist. It really felt strange to actually carry the maneuver all the way through to an actual landing on a nearby lake. I expected to be given power back and told to recover at some point, as we do in land planes. But taking the landing all the way through was good practice to get the feel of emergency procedures if you really don’t get the power back. That lesson will help me both on land or sea if the need for emergency procedures ever arises.

We returned to the base and Jon went through the list of things I needed to practice more, but then he congratulated me and awarded me the Single Engine Sea rating I had come all the way to Florida to get. You really can earn a seaplane rating at Jack Brown’s Seaplane Base in two days and for $995 for the complete course.

And the real topper was that I got to fly in what might qualify as the great-grandfather of my Warrior, a J-3 Cub. The fact that planes from the 1930s and 1940s are still safely flying and training pilots today is a testimonial to the longevity of properly maintained equipment. I felt like the hands of time had been turned back to a simpler time. No radios, no electrical, only basic flight instruments, the door open and the wind beside us took us back to those thrilling days of yesteryear when people still marveled that humans could fly. It was a real privilege to fly a piece of history like N3470K. I couldn’t help but wonder how many pilots have learned a thing or two in this old but solid trainer.

So, to sum up our trip, we had two great days of flight training during which I learned to fly a Cub, got back to basics, worked hard on the new concepts related to seaplanes, and earned a new rating. At the same time, we met some really great people and had wonderful meals at Christy’s Restaurant, Kasbor’s Grill, and Café 92. But we also had a lot of fun, and that was part of the point of it all. As they say, “It was a good day”–both of them!