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.
