Also I thought that in Canada a TC certified flight instructor can teach sea plane flying as soon as they get their seven hour rating.
Nope; got to have 50 hours on floats.
I'd love to teach floats but I'd need another twenty.
A pilot who has been trained properly in anything should be adaptable to anything they sudsequently fly.
When we learn to fly we work towards that very important first solo and this normally occurs before 15 hours is reached.
In China students weren't allowed to go solo before 25 hours and frequently had over 30 hours dual before first solo. This had a bad effect on their training as they did not reach the point where they had to demonstrate self reliance until (too) late.
IMHO a solo at the right time and relatively early in one's training sets you up to take responsibility within your training. That early self reliance has a huge importance to the future training.
I sent one student solo at 17 hours in China. It caused an uproar from my bosses, but that student was excellent and there's a point where you start to ruin the progress he has made by engaging in rigmarole.
At every other professional school in this World, if the student is not solo by 15 hours there's a problem!
As we train we are confronted with solo and dual and solo, and we have to do a long solo cross country...
We develop decision making skills on our own.
Now, I want to talk about all this lore about float flying.
IMHO the requirements for Float Pilot experience is overstated, and float drivers often overstate their skills.
This has been proven many times in recent times by float drivers who could not handle a tailwheel aeroplane nor cope with ATC and navigation in the lower mainland.
I am sorry to say that float pilots are not necessarily better pilots than the rest of us.
A pilot who is properly trained in a landplane should easily check out in a seaplane within the seven hour requirement. I did my float rating when it was only 5, and I did 1 hour 5 mins solo.
It's not flying the aeroplane that is important, an aeroplane is an aeroplane in the air regardless of the alighting gear it has.
It is the knowledge you have that has been learned on the ground and perhaps experienced in the air that is important.
A float rating should include a fair amount of groundschool covering all the aspects of water flying...
In England you have to complete the same course as a yachtsman to get a seaplane rating, you learn the rules of the road, the water road! There is a written exam covering buoys, lights, and marine navigation.
Pilots are encouraged to learn decision making skills, and some of these skills are practiced when the student flies solo.
Whether you are doing a precautionary landing in a field or alighting in a remote lake, many of the decisions are the same.
Surface? Glassy or grassy. Obstructions? deadheads or ditches?, Wind?, Approach?
It is all very similar.
The most important thing a pilot can learn is to read, and to want to read, to read about anything to do with aviation whether it be the experiences of a WWII bomber pilot, the pilots notes for some strange aircraft, or float flying manuals... There's a lot to be gleaned to be stored for future reference when a decision has to be made.
I maintain that solo flying is an important part of a pilot's training.
A question for you float pilots who had to do that solo flight in the floatplane, how did that first solo feel?
Was it a boost to your morale?
