June 10-11, 2024 - Learning to Fly Seaplanes
Jack Brown's Seaplane Base
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| Our first look at Jack Brown's Seaplane Base, located on the northeast shore of Lake Jessie. |
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Jack Brown's Seaplane Base was started, in 1963, by, you guessed it, Jack Brown. He started flying seaplanes at an early age, flying an Aeronca C-3 Float plane on the Kanawha River in West Virginia. This continued during WWII when he flew the Grumman "Flying Boats" and PBY's. Following the war, Jack was a civilian instructor and test pilot for the U.S Air Force station in central Florida. He put down roots here and became the fixed base operator at the Winter Haven Airport. Jack's affection for seaplanes gave him a grand vision for an overgrown area on Lake Jessie, located just southwest of the Winter Haven Airport. ?In 1975, Jack Brown passed away and his oldest son, Jon, carried on what his father started. In the next 42 years Jon established the solid reputation the base has today. In 2018, Jon's son-in-law, Ben Shipps, an instructor at the base, became an FAA Designated Pilot Examiner. In early 2019, Jon sold the business to Ben to carry on a legacy of sharing the wonderful world of floats. Jack Brown's has certified more than 22,000 pilots in the last 57 years!
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| We started off at 7:30 with ground school in this briefing room. They had long ago sent us the Course Guide. I read through it a few times. Ryan, the ground school instructor, basically took us through the course guide and added nuggets of information plus answered questions. He was very effective. |
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As you can see, there is a multitude of lakes around here.
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| The back wall of the briefing room. |
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| The maintenance hangar at Jack Brown's Seaplane Base. I'm not sure how many planes they have. I know they have two SuperCubs, a J-3 Cub, a Legend Cub. I believe they have a 172, all on floats. But there were other planes around including a Beaver on floats. |
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After an hour and a half or so of ground school, it was time to go flying! I had signed up to fly in the SuperCub and Nhu-An was flying in the J-3 Cub.
My ride for the next two days.
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Ready to go for my first seaplane training flight. I flew with Ryan, who had done the ground school.
My first flight lasted two hours. Ryan had me do a couple of stalls to get warmed up. Then he would demo a task, and I would do it. Multiple times. Of course, you learn how to do a basic takeoff and landing, but then there are a number of other types of takeoff and landings you have to learn how to do: crosswind, confined areas, heavy waves, glassy water. There are different types of taxiing you can do: idle, step or plow. Ailerons play a big part in turning while taxiing so you have to learn that. Then there are such things as sailing the seaplane, docking and mooring. All in all, it's a lot to learn. As always, reading and listening about it is one thing, actually doing it is another.
As I mentioned before, it was hot, mid-90s. Plus the heat radiating from the SuperCubs firewall seemed to increase as the flight progressed. So I was ready to stop after two hours! Nhu-An flew the same time as I did. They gave us an hour for lunch which was nice.
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| Nhu-An's ride is the classic J-3 Cub. |
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In the J-3 Cub, the pilot-in-command sits in the back seat.
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| Nhu-An doing an Idle Taxi out on the lake. |
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Nhu-An taxiis in while one of the SuperCubs taxiis by.
We each did another hour-and-a half training flight after lunch. The weather started deteriorating in the afternoon but we got the flights in. We would do two or three landings in a particular lake, then move to another one. Thankfully, the instructors did the navigating (and the radio work).
I did a third training flight Tuesday morning focusing on the areas I needed improvement. By the end I felt like I could do everything OK. Not perfect, but OK. Ryan said I was ready for the checkride.
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Another look at the SuperCub.
I did the oral exam followed by the checkride with Ben, who it turns out is not only the FAA Designated Pilot Examiner but also owns the business! I passed the checkride and am now a certified seaplane pilot!
All told, I ended up doing 38 landings during training, another four in the checkride.
I was impressed with Jack Brown's. Everyone I dealt with was first-rate. It was a most enjoyable experience and I would recommend it to any pilot.
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| A pretty scene Tuesday afternoon. |
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