Winter Journal-A new year

Flying floats for the next couple of months can be really rewarding without the challenges of other lake users. You must plan a little more carefully for your cross countries. Fuel will be more scarce as fewer marinas are open and since lake levels are down there are fewer and more treacherous places to splash in. More importantly, you should use the extra power afforded by the cooler weather and lower density altitudes to carry the necessities for an unplanned emergency landing.

During the summer months shorts and light clothing are the norm, But in the winter, exposure could be an issue in a very short time. Carrying supplies, a first aid kit, and warm clothing and/or blankets for emergencies is more urgent for any cross-country flight. Chances of quick rescue are good during the summer months on a busy lake, not so on a deserted winter lake. Be safe, be prepared, and enjoy winter float flying.

A cold and busy weekend

Last weekend we trained three new seaplane pilots. The mornings were really cold, and we had a nice layer of frost all over the plane that seemed to develop just after dawn, but melted as we taxied out into the sun. My prefered plan would be to wait until the world warms a little more, but the short days require making the most use of the sunlight. Seaplane flying after dark is tough business even if you know the area. When lunch time came around we drove to Wetumpka where we enjoyed really great barbeque chicken, and it was declared that the chicken was well worth the 30 mile drive. We combined lunch with ground school.
After that I flew with the third student for a couple of hours and we enjoyed a really nice sunset. I met my student after a short break for a dinner at Cecil’s Public House in Alexander City, where I enjoyed a salad and an excellent blackened catfish. Then next morning started at 7am with more frost on the plane. Same plan- frost melted while taxiing in the sun. I flew with all three students to freshen them up for their checkrides. Gary Kitely met us at 11am, all students passed and are now among the ranks of seaplane pilots.

Interior Upgrade Part 1

I was giving a student, who happenned to be a plastic surgeon, his seaplane instruction when it happened. He commented that the interior of my plane had been measured and found lacking. He was refering to the plastic that all Cessna 150s of my vintage (1967) are blessed with. This plastic was probably fine in the late 60s. When you have the Beatles to listen to live and the war in Vietnam to think about, worrying about the new plastic in a Cessna 150 is probably low on the list. Anyway, back then the plastic was new, pliable, unstained, uncracked, and the screw holes that secure it were not a wallowed out. Well there is only so much that we can practically do about the fact that it is plastic. So we can update it. There are several companies that sell replacement plastic for these vintage planes. Vantage Plane Plastics and Texas Aero Plastics come to mind. http://www.buyplaneparts.com/ and http://www.planeplastics.com/ Unfortunately neither company sells ALL the parts that I needed. The prices seem high to me, but then again, since they go into an airplane.... I ended up replacing my door panels, the rear area side panels, and the panel that covers the rear fuselage. This really helped the look of the plane. Installing the door panels was easy, just pull out the little pins that hold it on, drill a new hole in the plastic and reattach the panel. The rear panel was very easy as well, simply drill new hole where the old one were and screw it in. The side panels are more of a pain, since there are more screw holes and they are blocked by the panel when you try to install it, so finding the place in the panel to drill is more of an art than a science. It is an art that I have yet to master. When I was done, the rest of the interior looked like it needed a lift, but that will have to wait for more time and money.

A winter tour of Alabama

I had the good fortune to ride with a very skilled student who was building hours for an Alaskan Seaplane job one December a few years back. He was already a fine seaplane pilot, so we decided to check out some of the state’s other lakes and rivers. We planned to start around 9 a.m., but frost on the wings kept us in for a bit. Eventually, we taxied the plane out into the sunny part of the lake to burn the frost off instead of waiting for hours for it to melt on its own. Sunshine has an amazing effect. It was gone in minutes, and it served to give the really cold engine time to warm up.

We flew from Lake Martin over to Lake Jordan on the Coosa River where we enjoyed a nice low level flight all the way up the river to Gadsden. It’s a wonderful way to see the state from 500 feet. We did splash and goes in each lake and many of the wider and safer river areas. The winter lack of folliage allowed us to see deep into the woods and revealed all kinds of interesting things along the way. The Coosa river is a bit murkier than Lake Martin; landings require a more careful fly-by to verify the depth of the water and the absence of floating or slightly submerged objects which can flip a seaplane.

From Gadsden we flew over to Lake Guntersville where we stopped for lunch after exploring the lake for a while. It was really nice to be inside the warmth of the restaurant at Covenant Cove Marina/Resort. It never really got much above freezing all day and the winds were 8-12 knots, a pretty intense wind chill for Alabama. We had a fine meal and headed home.

The next weekend we flew up the Tallapoosa river. We flew over Horseshoe Bend National Military Park and several very quaint small towns on the way. The Tallapoosa has some nice looking, easy rapids. A canoe or kayak trip may be in order in the spring. We flew up to Lake Wedowee, explored for an hour and did multiple landings.

Then we headed home for lunch at Sinclair’s restaurant on Lake Martin. It has nice seaplane access, with a nice sandy beach and good docks. They have some excellent specials on the weekends and the experience is almost always positive. We had planned on doing some more splash and goes on the lake, but a leaky prop seal made a visit from my mechanic necessary before much more flying could be done. We have a great state with some beautilul lakes and rivers. The unique view from the air is often breathtaking, always interesting