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I don't know if there are 10,000 lakes in Central Florida to match Minnesota's famous license-plate claim, but I wouldn't be surprised. As I flew over the region in the Saratoga on my way down to Sun 'n Fun, I looked down at a landscape freckled with lakes, lakes big and small, blue and green, many of them perfectly round, or very nearly so. Unlike in some states, where it's virtually impossible to find a place to land a water plane, the vast majority of lakes in central and northern Florida are publicly owned, and many are perfectly suited for float flying, which was just what I was heading down there to do.
I'd been wanting to get my seaplane rating for some time, and to fly the Aviat Husky on floats. So when Stu Horne, the owner of Aviat Aircraft, invited me to try out his company's latest float plane, an Aviat A-1B on Baumann BF 2150A amphibious floats, I didn't hesitate. We agreed that Sun 'n Fun would be the ideal time to do it, since all of the major characters-Aviat's chief pilot, Mark Heiner, myself and the float-equipped Husky-would be there for the fly-in.
I'd flown float planes before, including a few spiffy little Experimentals, though I had not logged any actual instruction time. Unfortunately, it turned out that I couldn't get my float rating, or any other instruction, for that matter, in the Husky at the show, as it was temporarily registered as an Experimental while the new floats and bigger prop went through the certification process. We still had all day to go flying, however, and I figured the time spent would be valuable experience, not to mention a lot of fun.
Sitting tall on its amphibs in the grass next to Lakeland's south ramp, the Husky towered over the other, nearby airplanes. After a walk-around of the Husky, Mark asked if I wanted to take the front seat (the solo position and the one with the brakes) or the back seat. I've taxied amphibious seaplanes before and was surprised at how easily, despite their tiny little wheels, they taxied, so I opted for the front seat.
One wouldn't normally think of the Aviat Husky as being a complex airplane, and by FAA standards, it's not. Neither is it technically a "high-performance" airplane. No matter what imprimatur the FAA puts on it, the Husky on amphibious floats, with retractable gear and constant-speed prop, both demands a lot of a pilot and rewards him with remarkable performance.
First built by Christen in the mid-1980s, the Husky has been through a few upgrades since Aviat took over. Today the A-1B model is the top of the line. From a distance, the airplane looks like a Super Cub, and it does share the basic design scheme and materials with that old Piper, but once you get beyond the silhouette, the Husky is an entirely different beast, both literally and figuratively. Aviat's airplane has a more modern engine (a 180-hp fuel-injected Lycoming), the aforementioned constant-speed prop and a redesigned airfoil. The Husky carries 50 gallons of fuel in its wings (the Super Cub carried 35 gallons in wing and header tanks), and it does this while slightly bettering the Super Cub's excellent useful load of around 700 pounds. The Husky is also a significantly better performer than the Super Cub; Aviat's taildragger cruises faster (around 120 knots with wheels compared to just over a hundred knots for the Super Cub), climbs better (1,500 fpm compared to 960 fpm) and maintains the Super Cub's remarkable short-field (or small lake) capabilities.
