A Sea pilot has a few more things to check on, too. Not only does he check everything on the normal checklist, but he must also check to make sure that all of the cables that connect the rudders to the tail and pedals are free and untangled. But preflighting isn't the only thing that's weird about these beautiful airplanes.
A Seaplane handles slowly, almost as if it were a boat. After pushing off from the dock, running up to the cabin and starting the engine (away from the dock) the Seaplane begins to sail. It's interesting stuff, really. You expect a quick response when you begin to control the pedals, but instead, you receive a slow and large radius turn on the water. Wind plays even more of a factor, pushing the pilot to get the engine started even more quickly and getting under way sooner than possible.
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I began my day on Christmas Eve (Dec 24) at home, waking up a little after 9 and getting picked up by Bob, my Sea instructor at 9:30. Eager to get on the water, we headed downtown to Seattle Seaplanes. (SS)
At the Port, or FBO, or what-have-you, we let out the air of the sinking dock at SS and watched N5721T, a Cessna 172 with a constant speed propeller. But not before I went for a swim in the frigid waters of Lake Union; As I was jumping on the sinking dock to untie the floats, I slipped on the wet wood and my left leg went straight into the water. Luckily, SS had an extra pair of pants that I could borrow.
The weather wasn't too bad. BKN deck at 6000, so good enough for Seaplane Flying. We moved the plane over to the passenger dock and began to preflight. After turning the plane by grabbing the tail and moving the plane in a child-like fashion, we were able to preflight both sides of the plane.
Pushing off from the dock and running up the floats and into the cabin, I started the engine with Bob in the right seat. A bit of a cold start, but the plane still started. We began our water taxi into the bay.
After talking for a few minutes and taxiing to the south side of the lake, we began our run-up. A run-up in a Seaplane is quite an unusual thing to experience. The plane has no brakes, so in order to do the run-up, you have to move. In essence, the left seat will complete the run up while the right seat steers and avoids water traffic. And then the pilots will switch and the right seat will check the left.
With the Run-up completed, I made the proper radio call on 122.8 (Lake Union CTAF) and we began our take off roll. Take-off is similar to a soft-field, except instead of hovering in ground effect, the pilot tries to get the floats "on a plane" in the water to reduce the amount of drag. The Plane, at the correct airspeed, will begin to lift off of the water. At this point, the object is to stay in ground effect until Vx, then pull back and climb.
We crossed over the Ballard Locks and headed over towards the West side of Bainbridge Island at 1300 feet. Upon crossing over the bay, I began a descent and planned a spot to land. Lowering to 1000 feet, I slowed the plane down and added flaps.
On short final, I began to round out. The idea is to create more ground effect and let the plane settle down on the water at a vertical speed of 100 fpm. When the plane touches down, the normal instinct is to let off on the back pressure and let the plane slow down, just as a land plane. In fact, that's exactly what I did. Apparently, not a good idea. The correct way to continue the landing roll is to continue the back pressure until the plane was come to a walking pace.
It seems like everything in Seaplane Flying is back pressure, at least when you're on the ground.
We decided to beach the plane. My first Seaplane Beaching. An interesting concept. I set up for the beaching, coming toward the planned beach at a 45 degree angle. While we were 25 feet out, I put the plane in idle and cut the engine. Hoping out of the plane and standing on the front of the float, the plane came up onto the beach. I hopped onto the rocky beach and pulled the plane in, pushed it out a bit, and turned the plane with the tail facing in.
After beaching, we had a quick photo op and were on our way again.
After a few more touch-and-gos on Lake Union, we called it a day. But not before figuring out how to work the Bendix-King radio.
A lot of pilots have experienced this, but I had never thought to figure it out. On these interesting radios, when turning the large knob, the numbers before the decimal point will move up or down. Therefore, you can move from 123 to 124 to 125. By using the smaller knob, the two numbers to the right of the decimals will change in intervals of 5 hundredths. Therefore, you can get the result of 123.45 to 123.50 to 123.55.
But what if the frequency needed is 127.275? How do you get to that frequency? The answer? Simple. Pull on the little knob until it pops out. Then, turn it. The result will look like 127.27. Interesting, right?
As you can see from the photo below, Com 1's radio is set to 135.17, utilizing this "pull out the smaller knob" idea. You learn something new everyday!
