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Taking Wing: Floatplane Fun in the Florida Sun

The author dropped by Jack Brown's Seaplane Base on a 24-hour Florida layover for some spontaneous seaplane training. Courtesy Sam Weigel
Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • An airline pilot, seeking a break from routine jet flying, spontaneously decided to pursue a long-desired Single-Engine Sea (floatplane) rating add-on at Jack Brown’s Seaplane Base in Florida.
  • He underwent an intensive two-hour training session in a J-3 Cub on floats, learning fundamental seaplane operations such as pitch control, step-taxiing, and specialized takeoffs/landings across various lakes.
  • The pilot found the experience exceptionally enjoyable and valuable for honing essential "stick-and-rudder" skills, vowing to return to complete his float rating despite other commitments.
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Flying a jet for a living isn’t always beer and Skittles, and if you doubt me, just turn a few pages and Les Abend and Dick Karl will set you straight. Between maintenance snafus, nasty weather, ATC delays, long days and short nights, sometimes it’s real honest-to-goodness work. This, however, was not one of those days.

Sam Weigel

Sam Weigel has been an airplane nut since an early age, and when he's not flying the Boeing 737 for work, he enjoys going low and slow in vintage taildraggers. He and his wife live west of Seattle, where they are building an aviation homestead on a private 2,400-foot grass airstrip.

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