Further adventures in seaplane life! Lake-plane life? Amphibious life, certainly. What’s the word for an amphibian that also flies? It’s a boat, it’s a plane, it’s the Icon A5!
Here’s a photo-dump of more of my semi-aquatic adventures!
Back on the water, ready for some fun!A slightly damp and bedraggled Josh. When you turn too hard the water comes into the plane, you see. (We don’t fly with the windows installed.)Setting up for the next landing.It’s hard NOT to have a gigantic grin when you’re flying this thing.Taking a break to sit on the water. I liked this picture because it gave you more of a sense of scale. It’s not a BIG plane, you can see how narrow the engine inlet is right by my hand.Me grinning like an idiot, again, because you need to understand just how much fun I’m having.One last break on the water before we head home.
So after about 6 days of training, it’s time to take the test to become a seaplane pilot. Because I’m already a commercially rated pilot the test basically just covers the seaplane-specific stuff. We have to go out and prove we know how to scout a good landing spot, perform the various types of landings and maneuvers, and operate the plane as a boat while we’re on the water.
And here’s the picture of me with the examiner after passing the checkride!
Officially a commercially rated seaplane pilot!
This has been such an incredible amount of fun. The Icon A5 is an amazing plane to fly. It’s designed to be easy to handle, and incredibly safe. It’s actually first aircraft ever to be certified “spin resistant”, which means it’s verging on impossible to get it into an uncontrolled state. It also folds up so that you can put it on a trailer, or in a regular house garage. Really quite an incredible bit of engineering.
Later this summer Maddie and I will go out for some recurring practice in it, and learn to do some of the more advanced maneuvers, so look forward to more pictures later on!
So this week’s new adventure is all about putting a plane in new and exciting places. Namely, wet ones!
There’s a lake out the window! What’s that doing there?!
I’m getting my Seaplane rating added to my pilot’s license! The plane I’m doing it in is called an Icon A5, and it’s basically a jet-ski with a wing attached, with retractable landing gear so you can land it at a regular airport as well.
Learning to pre-flight the plane!You can see how low you would be to the water from this angle.We pulled back into the ramp just as one of the local business jets was leaving. The jet pilots were definitely checking out our plane.
To get your seaplane rating you have to learn a number of different landing and takeoff techniques on the water, as well as several different ways to taxi the plane around on the water, or even “sail” the plane by turning off the engine and letting the wind blow you.
Today we learned how to do that, and got out of the plane to sit on the wing while we floated!
It’s so wild just to to be floating out here.This view gives you a better idea of how low to the water we are when sitting on the wing. Out in the middle of Lake Lewisville, just sitting on an airplane!Looking down into the cockpit with the canopy open, just floating backwards with the wind.
My instructor, Maddie, is big on remembering why we do all this work and making sure we have fun and enjoy flying. Stopping in the middle of a lesson just to float in the lake and enjoy the experience was absolutely amazing. Then we took back off again and did a few more landings, before heading back to the airport!
There’s a lot about flying this particular plane to love. It really is like a jetski when you’re high-speed taxiing across water, because you’re so low down to the water. In the air it handles really well. Flying with the windows out is an amazing experience, both on the water and in the air.
I’ve got a couple more flights for practice before I take the test to become an official seaplane pilot, I’ll try to get some more pictures as I go!
(This post is backdated, because I’m terrible at remembering to post things!)
Seem to be sitting in an airplane again!
Where am I headed to this time? Well, I’ll give you a clue: There’s not a lot to look at, other than quite a lot of trees and swamp.
Just ‘cruisin.
I really didn’t take any pictures, because there really isn’t anything out there. For hours and hours. But sometime later, finally a landmark!
The great (and dirty) Mississippi.
She is not a pretty river, the Mississippi… I started singing “Roll on Columbia” for a bit though, missing the big river of my homeland.
Finally stopping for a break!
4.9 hours later it’s finally time to stop for a break. Having overflown all of Louisiana and Mississippi, I am now arriving in Troy Alabama. Spent most of the flight cruising along up at 9,500 feet, coming in towards Troy I had to duck down to get under some clouds, and then had to start dodging military helicopters! This area is a huge military training ground for hundreds of miles. Primary helicopter training, fighter training, all kinds of interesting traffic flying around out here.
In fact, on my way in, I heard regional ATC ask a military flight if they had a minute to do a low pass. The military flight said yes, at which point I started tracking them on my iPad to see what they were. When I found them they were doing 350 miles per hour, about 1500 feet off the ground. After they left the airspace my curiosity got the best of me and I asked ATC what they were. Turns out it was a flight of F-15s doing a training mission, and the tower guys wanted a little airshow. Very Top Gun, it was pretty cool!
Not sure what Sikorsky is doing here, but they’re the only thing on the field!Getting ready to head back into the sky!
After landing at Troy I take a look at the remaining flight, and I’ve got about 3 hours to get to my destination. I could technically make it with my remaining fuel, but without a lot of margin, so I get the tanks topped off, refill my water bottle, and back into the sky I go!
Headland Airport, the furthest east I’ve previously flown.
A couple minutes after takeoff I flew over KHDL, basically the far south-east corner of Alabama. I flew to Headland previously in order to help pick up a plane to bring back to Dallas for our school, and that was the furthest east I’d ever flown. So now I’m into the unknown territories!
Headland Airport, the furthest east I’ve previously flown.Dodging the clouds that form over the coastThe Elbow (armpit?) of Florida is in sight!Still cruisin’Florida looks pretty much the same as everywhere else along the way. Farmland, swamp, and what is either a prison or a factory farm.The map says that this is “Chocktaw City”. I call shenanigans.
As I came around the corner to start heading south down through Florida I ran into a weather phenomenon I was warned about: steady-state clouds form in this corner as water from the gulf rotates around over land and back out to sea again. I had to detour inland a bit in order to dodge these low-level clouds forming. (I could’ve filed a flight plan to fly right over them, but that comes with some additional difficulties and I wanted to stay VFR, so around we go!)
After that it was smooth flying all the way to Apopka, on the north west corner of Orlando. Landed straight-in to the runway, followed the person I was meeting to their hanger, and got a ride back to Orlando airport for my commercial flight home!
It feels weird to be going through these arches without so much as a Dole Whip or Disney pin to show for it!
Hopped on a Southwest flight about 45 minutes later and headed back to Dallas! Round trip all in one day from Dallas to Orlando and back to Dallas. 7.8 hours flying to get there, about 2.5 hours to get home on one of the big-boys.
The purpose of this trip was to take one of the planes from our school back to its owner, who’s going to be using it for personal flying instead of leasing it to the school. I’ll miss that plane, its the one I did my commercial cross-countries in, and it’s a real joy to fly. A Piper Arrow is definitely up there on my list of favorite planes!
Got home just after midnight, and back up the next morning to get to back to work, another adventure successfully completed!
And at the end of it all after arriving home there are a couple of cuddly cats wondering why I’m waking them up so late at night.
Finally have a minute to post an update on my latest adventures!
A beautiful morning to go fly
Leaving home on a beautiful clear cool morning with the sun coming up headed off for an adventure! What adventure could it be? Well, here’s a hint: I’m officially a commercially licensed pilot now!
Commercial Checkride passed!
I took the test to become a commercial pilot! Also I passed it! This means I can actually get a job flying airplanes, although not as a pilot for airlines. Next stop: becoming an instructor so I can teach other people to fly!
As of my checkride I have 330 hours of time as pilot in charge of an airplane. Somewhat higher than required, but while I was waiting for my checkride I spent a lot of time safety piloting with people who are working on their instrument certificate. Basically I’ve been playing junior instructor, just spending time with people while they’re practicing, helping make sure they stay safe and giving whatever tips and tricks I can.
Believe it or not, that’s probably the least exciting of the adventures I’ve had recently! As hinted in my last couple posts, I got to fly a small 2-seat airplane home, all the way across the continent, from Sacramento CA to Dallas TX.
There’s a bunch of pictures attached, so click the Continue Reading button to find out more about this adventure!
So 2024 is over. My first 6 months of flying are done. As of 6 months I’m ready for my commercial checkride, just waiting my turn to take the test.
I’m going to call that zero-to-commercial in 6 months, since the only factors slowing me down are out of my control. 😎
This is considered to be rather fast. The last several months I’ve flown more hours in a month than most of our instructors. Most students are going quite a bit slower.
Why did I do this? Well, I’m incredibly lucky. Between money saved up and available loans, I could afford to take the time off work and do nothing but flying. There’s no way I could have done this if I had to balance work in with it. I don’t fly Friday evenings or Saturdays, due to two board-game-night events we go to weekly, but every other day of the week I was trying to fly, and hanging around the airport trying to learn things when I wasn’t flying.
People do it faster than I did. They fly multiple times a day. You can do it in about 3 months, weather permitting. I wouldn’t do it that way though. I went into this wanting to get it done, but now that I have I’m glad I didn’t go faster. You need time to absorb things and spend more time talking to people and thinking through different scenarios and conditions. If I’d been done in 3 months I would’ve gotten done before the real clouds showed up and I would’ve graduated without ever flying in real weather.
So all in all I think it’s working out for the best.
The flying software I use tracks my year in review and has some interesting statistics:
My first (half) year of flying!
That 0.9 though… Just needed to fly a bit more and I’d have around-the-world in 6 months!
As a software engineer I’m a little disappointed in foreflight, their averages don’t take into account the number of months I was flying, they just assume it was all year. Oh well, still cool to see!
A couple of notable trips on that map are my jaunt up to 1K1 in Kansas. Flew up there to get a hamburger. Actually it was because getting your Commercial certificate requires you making a 500 mile solo trip, but the story is better the other way. 😉
So what’s next?
I’ll take my commercial checkride soon, which allows me to get paid to fly. Unfortunately there aren’t a lot of jobs you can get hired for until you’ve got quite a few more hours. Airlines for example are typically 1500+ hours required. So what most people do is exactly what I’m going to do: teach!
As soon as I get my commercial I’ll start working on taking my CFI, or Certified Flight Instructor, tests. Once I’m a CFI I’ll start looking for a job, and hopefully the school I’m at will be looking for someone! And then it’s just keep flying and building time, hopefully while getting paid, until I have enough hours to get hired for a big-boy job! (In this industry insurance rules, and companies can’t hire you until you’ve got the experience that their insurance policy requires.)
So this post is incredibly out of date now, I realized I had never actually posted it. Whoops.
Please pretend, for the purpose of this message, that it’s November 29th 2024, just over a month ago now, but also last year somehow.
Good mooooooooorning Texas!
Its a beautiful Texas morning. For them past two months I’ve been flying at night, with blinders on, staring at instruments and not looking out the window. We learn how to do this so we can go touch the clouds, but not the scary clouds. Imagine a day where you can’t see above the 4th floor of tall building because the clouds are so low. We’re practicing to take off, fly, and land the plane in clouds like that…
It’s way more fun than it might sound. Take a look!
Look ma’, no blinders, only real clouds!
Am I 400 feet off the ground or 7000 feet up in the sky? Only by looking at your instruments can you know! I seem to be having fun though, so it can’t be too bad.
So you take off and disappear up into “the soup” as we call it. Can’t see a thing. Air traffic control is telling you which way to turn on its your job to do what they want, they’ll keep you safe from other planes, big manmode objects, and mountains. (Not that we have any of those…)
When flying like this you don’t really get to pick anything about whot you’re doing other than your destination. You tell ATC where you want to end up, they tell you how to get there.
Sometimes though it works out, and their instructions put you someplace really cool.
Cloudsurfing for the very first time…You just want to hug them…
That’s what instrument flight is all about right there. Flying when you can’t see, and seeing really awesome views when you can!
One of the craziest things though is approaching an airport. We have a number of different tools to use that keep us right on track. Imagine that your car GPS that tells you “turn left in 500 feet” ALSO tells you “descend 200 feet, at a constant rate of 333 feet per minute”. It’s not quite that easy, but that’s the idea. You’re flying along, following your desired path, and then suddenly the clouds part and you’re about 300 feet above the runway and 20 seconds later you’re on the ground.
It’s a lot of fun.
Being allowed to fly in clouds requires passing a written test, an oral exam, and then a practical check-ride where the examiner goes out with you and watches you perform the necessary procedures.
Long story short: I passed!
Now I can go flying clouds, as long as they aren’t angry clouds!
Getting instrument is also an important step in getting to my Commercial license, which allows my to get paid to go fly.
As of passing my checkride I have 206.6 hours of total time as pilot in command. Time to start practicing the new maneuvers required for the Commercial checkride, which I can take when I get to 250 total hours.
(And a big thanks to my wonderful instructor Edwin for taking these videos. I was so busy flying I would never have thought of it, and I love being able to show them to you!)
I was reminded that I haven’t made any updates about the flying lately. Well there’s a reason: there hasn’t been anything to show off, or even really to see!
I’ve been training for my Instrument Rating, which involves doing a lot of flying with a view limiting device on. There are a number of different view limiters, everything from foggy glasses to big hoods, but they all do the same thing: prevent you from seeing outside the plane. The goal is to practice flying as though we were in the clouds and only have our instruments to guide us.
In order to practice this we need a second pilot in the plane to act as a safety pilot and keep looking out the window to make sure we don’t run into anyone. This doesn’t have to be an instructor, so in order to save some money (sorry instructors!) we go out with another student and one of us simulates being in the clouds while the other acts as safety pilot. And we’ve mostly been doing it at night in the dark because one of the other things that we need to build hours for is night flying time. And also it’s much cooler at night.( Yes, I’m aware that it’s October. Apparently the sun is not. Still, I’ve been getting to almost 100 degrees during the day here.)
So there’s not a lot for me to show off. All I’ve seen for the last 30 hours of flying or so is this:
It’s all about not staring at the same instrument for too long…
Instrument flying is super fun for me though. It’s very by-the-numbers, very precise, very Josh.
Because of the way training works we students simply need to go practice, or “time build”. We need to get to a certain number of hours to be able to take the next test. Currently I’m working on getting the necessary time under the view limiting devices for by Instrument Rating, and then I’ll need another 100+ hours to get to the minimums for the commercial rating. And after that is the long climb to 1500 hours to have enough that insurance companies will let you get hired by the big companies!
So we just go out and fly around and practice. The other night we went to 7 different airports all around the DFW area, just to practice our approaches to landing. While we were out I had my safety pilot, Breck, take a quick picture so at least I’d have something to show you:
Don’t worry, I can see the things I need to see…
Last night I did my required long cross-country (250 nautical miles, landings at three different airports) with my instructor Nathan. We were out for 4.1 hours, and we were on an actual flight plan for the first time. Between air traffic control telling us exactly where to go, and using the autopilot to stick to the path given to us, there’s not a lot of hand-on-the-yoke flying that actually happened. Seems like cheating, but in practice learning how to utilize the autopilot and stick to the dictated route is a large part of learning to fly the big planes!
On one of our night flights I did sneak a peek outside for a minute and grabbed a (blurry) picture:
I love flying at night, it’s just pretty.
I’ll be done with the required simulated-instrument time after just one more flight, and we’ll go to taking turns, so I should get the chance to appreciate the view a bit more soon. (I took Bevin out for her first night flight on Sunday and it was great to be able to look out across the city while we flew over it.)
Back to work on preparing for the instrument rating test, coming up soon!
