[quote]
Hey Cat,

I don't mean to come down on you, I mean the pic's that you posted are crazy and I wish I could have that opportunity someday too. It's good to see you loosening up with your posts. I get so sick of this forum's constant whining and immediate attempts by computer nerds like corn-hole trying to slam anything anyone says. He spends so much time spewing hate on here that I'm starting to question if he's even a pilot or really a flight attendant riding a pilot. I'd like to see some more stories or pic's of your adventures as I'm sure most of us would.

As to the question yes I've done some instructing on floats and you're right there isn't an "hour" of solo requirement just the five take-offs and landings. Its funny how they stipulate that there has to be both five take offs and landings. Hopefully getting an equal amount of take-offs and landings isn't a difficult thing. You're right someone could send a student for five touch and go's and then call it quits. I always got my students to conduct a minimum of one hour of solo so that they wouldn't be rushed and could get to a point where they felt comfortable by themselves.

I know the times that I learned the most were those times that I didn't have someone in the seat next to me. It's a make or break time and with reference to the guy that freaked out during his solo. He should have been more forthcoming with the instructor, or the instructor should have felt out the situation more. I have had students with more hours than I have in a seaplane but were still freaked out to go by themselves and were amazed at the level of skill that I was teaching them. I got them to a point where they were doing one float turning take-offs and landings and sharp step turns or full slips to just above the water before they were comfortable enough to go on their own and get their rating. I guess my question for the guy that freaked out on his solo is why the rush? Obviously he wasn't able to handle a seaplane on his own so why attempt to give him the rating?

As for the Instrument/ Multi engine ratings, I think an hour of solo would be a great thing. I had my Multi rating with 3.5 hours of instruction. Would I be able to use it at that level? Hell no, so why should I be able to have my rating? Same thing with the IFR rating. I got that in minimum time but I also didn't use it. If the instructor had to build me to a level that he felt that I would be able to walk out the door jump into a twin and fly IFR by myself, I wouldn't be getting these endorsements so quickly. Why does TC allow ratings to be handed out well before they could ever be used?

You can't rent most twins or a seaplanes solo without 50 hours experience yet they offer ratings in 3.5 - 20 hours of actual experience.

Most endorsements have become a cub's badge. Look at me I have a seaplane, multi IFR endorsement on my licence. Oh, so you fly seaplanes and multi IFR? No but if I get another 40 hours of dual the school will let me!

Definately something wrong with that picture

Smartass :

No need to worry about my getting upset with any pilot who disagrees with me or gets fed up with some of my comments, at least you guys are working stiffs or trying to get started.

We all have our own little likes and dislikes but generally speaking we are in the same peer group. Even S&J.

The ones who I despise are the TC types like A. W. or Amanda or whatever he / it calls its self.

I am willing to bet one hundred dollars toward running Avcanada that some or all of A. W's. posts have a... tigger.tc.ca ISP. or some other TC ISP.

Any takers?

It would be easy to get a hacker to have a look.

Cat.

I think this is the latest on the fate of external loads.

After December 31st

No pax at all--that gets my vote as I never really liked them in the cabin anyway

STCed aircraft only--someone's gonna make a ton of money doing the STC.

Here''s the link
http://www.tc.gc.ca/CivilAviation/comme ... AC0232.htm

Hey Ian,


You are right about there not being many schools that let students go solo for their 5 and 5, its great to know that there are still a few honest schools out there.

A note for those of you doing the crooked float ratings, you don’t have a float endorsement! God forbid you ever crash and hurt someone and are investigated and that fact comes out because the insurance companies are looking for ANY reason to deny coverage these days and YOU could be the sued personally by some p.o.s. lawyer. And btw, the average payout for a death in an a/c is 2 million Canadian......and you thought it was going to take forever to pay off your cpl!

BTW, If the instructor is just on board as a passenger then he is not logging the time right?








[quote="ianwhite"]
yes after the rating all the time towards the fifty hours is logged as pic, the instructor is still on board but just as a passenger.

Neechi :

What is so important about five solo take offs and landings?

If the student did five quick touch and goes in a row, say land, take off, land, five times with say fifteen seconds in the air between each take off and landing would that meet the requirements?


You have some interesting ideas about flying, please explain why you think its safer to stay away from float planes?

Cat

Cat wrote;
'What is so important about five solo take offs and landings?"


Hey Cat,

I'm not saying that the 5+5 are important to public safety and I personally think its a stupid rule and will eventually HAVE to be taken out, but, that is the requirement now and if you do not do 5+5 solo you do not have technically have a seaplane rating. I know it’s kind of anal of me to point this out but TC has gone to town a few times and they have yanked peoples float endorsements that never went solo.



Cat wrote "If the student did five quick touch and goes in a row, say land, take off, land, five times with say fifteen seconds in the air between each take off and landing would that meet the requirements? "

I don’t know it would depend on the tc god’s interpretation of a take off and a landing. Ask 5 tc's get 5 different answers. They are the only people I know who can answer yes or no questions 5 ways


Cat wrote;

"You have some interesting ideas about flying; please explain why you think it’s safer to stay away from float planes?"

I'm guessing your referring to a previous post on the main board. I feel that flying a single engine float plane is more dangerous than flying a twin IFR for a great number of reasons.

First and most obvious is the fact that you have 2 engines and sometimes 2 pilots.

A lot of the time you are radar identified in the IFR world and get led around by the hand (note I said a lot, not always).

If you do have a problem someone will know a lot faster when your ifr than if your vfr, say for example if you flip a float plane on a lake somewhere and have to wait till you’re overdue for someone to come looking, this can be crucial to survival for obvious reasons.

If you crash at an airport, in most cases there will be someone to come to your aid, not to mention the fact that if you’re not on fire you have lots of time to get out (in other words you’re not submerged in the darkness of water trying to find your way with 5 other disoriented panicking people).

With floats, you are landing places where others may not have put a plane b4, there are rocks, reefs, logs, and other hazards, like big freaking waves and trees on either side of you causing wicked wind sheer in a crosswind.(you are not landing on a static runway in other words).

The conditions a float plane deals with are far less black and white. Take external loads for example; what do you have to do to fly an external load? A test flight right? So, you may be the first one ever to fly a 14 foot Lund or a fridge on a 185, in essence you are a TC endorsed test pilot as well. (BTW, I have personally seen a 185 fly a 14 foot Lund)

I could go on but I think you can see where im going. I am NOT saying that IFR is easy, but since switching to the multi ifr world I will say that having 2 engines, working instruments, deice, radar coverage, runways, and being on top of the weather instead of being pounded 50 feet below the weather and 50 feet over the trees and going around shit in 1 mile Vis, that I PERSONALLY feel much safer. One more thing, I like flying a plane that is newer than me.

As I mentioned on the other topic board, there is reason seaplane insurance and seaplane pilot hours are hitting the stratosphere, THEY CRASH more often AND KILL PEOPLE! Why? Because the risk factors (in most cases) are HIGHER than when flying wheeled planes strip to strip.

Just out of curiosity cat, are you disagreeing with me or are you just asking my opinion, I would be interested in hearing why you think float flying is not riskier than wheels if that is the case.

Cheers.
Neechi.

Neechi :

That was a very well thought out answer and I have no reason to argue your presentation because you are in effect correct.

My reason for asking was to draw you out and better understand your thought process...you did real well...

Except for the five landings and take offs in a straight line repeated every fifteen seconds.

Transport Canada must accept this as it fully meets the wording of their goofy rule.

Cat

Northern Skies wrote:
I thought that I could get a lot of "extras" to help me stand out. Now, I guess it's just the time in the logbook that counts (aside from character and work ethic) (and luck).

Is there any particular kind of training I could do that, in your opinion, would help me stand out from the rest? Or is it just the luck of the draw? I'm planning on using every good job tip i've ever heard (a lot from this site), and I want my training to reflect that I will stop at nothing short of dying to become a successful bush pilot.

For starters, you got it half right. It's character and work ethic and a whole truckload of luck. 50 hours in your logbook won't mean sh!te to a bush operator and it won't get you a flying job unless you have a jumbo horseshoe up your @ss. It's real hard to get a float job with less than 200 hours floats these days. Get a job as a dockhand with a company with a variety of aircraft that they'll give you some time on and let you work your way up. And be prepared to work your bag off.

The funny thing is, right now, you'd stop at nothing short of dying to be a bush pilot; you'll get there but by the time you do, you'll want to shoot yourself.

I almost forgot--dead moose heads--are they not the easiest things to secure to the outside of a Cessna or what!

Yeh, but a real bush pilot can tie a moose head to the airplane while the moose is still alive.

shimmydampener wrote:I almost forgot--dead moose heads--are they not the easiest things to secure to the outside of a Cessna or what!

I actually have a picture of that!!

I've still got the Moosehead.

Mmmmmmmm.........Moosehead..........getting..very..thirsty.............

Advice: Don't haul an eighteen foot alumunum canoe on a C185 with two hunters and all their gear on board. No problem with the weight, but the canoe is so long that when strapped on, it wraps around under the tail and causes the poor plane to wallow around. Both hunters lost their lunch. Also, front end loader tires (large ones) tend to cause a lot of drag and slow you down, thus causing high operating temps on the poor old Beaver, so make it a short haul.