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Adventures in Hydrodynamics

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So this week’s new adventure is all about putting a plane in new and exciting places. Namely, wet ones!

A view out the window of a Icon A5 floatplane on the water
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 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.

Icon A5 on the ramp during preflight inspection
Learning to pre-flight the plane!
Icon A5 viewed from a low angle
You can see how low you would be to the water from this angle.
Icon A5 nose-to-nose with a Falcon jet.
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!

Josh standing up in the cockpit and leaning on the wing while floating
It’s so wild just to to be floating out here.
Josh and Maddie sitting on the airplane wing again
This view gives you a better idea of how low to the water we are when sitting on the wing.
Maddie and Josh sitting on the airplane
Out in the middle of Lake Lewisville, just sitting on an airplane!
The canopy open while we sit on the wing
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!