Floatplanes in Vancouver

As is usual when I go on holiday, I try to wangle some sort of flying. The wife is OK about this as long as it is ‘just the once’ and the holiday is not dominated by it. Of course with a driving holiday in the Canadian Rockies, there was only one sort of flying that would do – FLOAT PLANES!!!!

We would be landing at Calgary and driving through to and leaving from Vancouver with a number of stops on the way and a flexible itinerary. I had no idea where to go for float training, so I put a posting on the ever reliable Flyer Forum fishing for personal recommendations. It wasn’t long before an experienced instructor who used to do training on floats in Vancouver came back and recommended two places. One in Kelowna (a bit south of my planned track) and one in Fort Langley near Vancouver.

So I made email contact with Fort Langley Air Limited and received a friendly and prompt reply. I made a booking for Monday 26th March and was asked to contact them when I made it to Vancouver to firm up on this. We got to the area early on Sunday, so I thought why not drop in and introduce myself. We found the place easily (courtesy of Goggle Maps) and it had a lot of aircraft, both floats and conventional. It was very quiet, but I spotted a car at the far end so wandered down to search for life. The aircraft line up was great, there were all sorts! Meaty Beavers with huge radial engines on floats, one with tundra tyres that were so huge they looked like a cartoon!

I was greeted by the owner, ‘Pappy’ who lived up to his name. He was friendly and clearly vastly experienced. I introduced myself and we got acquainted. He gave me a quick tour and pointed out both the 4000’ grass strip as well as the piers for float planes. The place is right on the Langley River very near the historic Fort Langley, the first permanent settlement in British Columbia. The school itself is small and there are only two planes for float training. One is a Super Cub and the other is a Cessna 180. I opted for the Cessna 180 so I could get the wife in the back, that and I had not flown a C180 before, so double bonus.



He gave me a quick chat about the differences of float plane handling and I gave him a run down on my experience to date. He confirmed that I would be flying with one of his instructors and the weather looked good for tomorrow. So we made a time for 10:00.

I got there on time to be greeted by an extremely tall guy who was to be my instructor. He had to be 6’ 6” – I am 6’ 2” and he made me feel small! We got on well and brought him up to speed on my flying experience to date and said I wanted primarily a float plane training lesson, with sightseeing as a vague secondary objective. He was happy with this as he said ‘Great – so you’re doing all the work!’.

He again explained the techniques involved and that we would be doing mainly take-offs and landings, and lots of them! We did the walk around and climbed in while the plane was still on land. Pappy then appeared in a old 4x4 which had been cut in half (yes really!) and had a dolly wheel assembly welded on the front. This hooked up to the plane as he pushed the plane around and down the ramp into the water.



John helped me with the start procedures as I did not have a checklist for the plane. The controls were standard Cessna (vernier) but the flaps were the mechanical ‘Piper’ type (which I prefer anyway). We had to get the plane started and the rudders down fairly sharpish as we were now drifting downstream in the current – no time to hang around on floats!

Once the engine is running, you simply use the rudders as normal to steer, except of course they are turning water rudders not the nosewheel. We played with this for a bit while John talked me through the take-off sequence. We pointed out towards the middle of the river and did the power checks quickly on the move (there is of course no other way of doing them on floats – you can hardly use the park brake!). Power checks complete and we started the take off run. John had me do the first one while he followed through on the controls, which surprised me a bit as I thought it would be the other way around. However, he talked me through calmly, clearly and very professionally all the way.

First it’s 20 degrees of flaps then full power with right rudder to hold straight. The yoke is held back as the aircraft picks up speed and accelerates with a nose high attitude. Glance out of the side window to watch for where the wake is on the floats. Once the wake ‘comes back’ and reaches the ‘step’ in the float, relax back pressure on the yoke (i.e. don’t actually check forward, almost let it go to neutral) and allow the aircraft to nose down a bit into the ‘step attitude’. Then hold back pressure to keep the prop out of the spray and watch the airspeed as the speed builds up slowly. The water was pretty smooth, almost ‘glassy’ for the first run, so there was little bouncing or thumping. At about 60 mph (yes it was calibrated on the outside of the ASI in the dreaded MPH), the plane gently unstuck and started flying in ground effect – we were off!



As instructed, I held it level off the water while the speed built up and pulled the power back to 24” and wound the RPM on the VOP prop back to 2400. Water rudders up and once established in the climb at 90 mph, flaps off one stage at a time.

Well, that was the take-off. Different and vital to get it right as any nose level or down or mis-judgement while transitioning to the ‘step’ could result in the front of floats catching a wave and digging in and whole plane then tumbling ass-over-teakettle in the water! So no pressure then!

We climbed to a lofty 800’ following the course of the river so we would clear the power lines. John showed me how to turn the plane and graphically demonstrated that the plane would not turn with ailerons alone, all it did was continue to fly the same track but tilted over! With the ponderous and heavy pontoons and draggy rigging, the plane needs co-ordinated use of rudder and aileron. So I used my experience of flying the poorly harmonised Super Cub and found that worked a treat. John got me to do a few tight turns in the confines of the river valley, which was a lot of fun with an obvious incentive to get it right.

Then of course the landing. As we were flying upstream, John simply picked a patch of river and said ‘OK, we’ll land ahead towards the south bank of the river’.

The key to this as he explained was to always try to land near to the shore, not for safety as I naively thought, but to provide a peripheral visual reference, otherwise, it was very hard to judge height, especially with the dreaded ‘glassy water’. It is one of those things that until you have done it, you think ‘yeah yeah, sure!’ and assume they are exaggerating – a bit like how tough it is to fly in solid IMC and that your body cannot tell banked from straight and level – until you have done it you can’t understand how it can be that tough.



So we go into the landing sequence. Power back to almost idle. Prop to fully fine. Line up and click on two stages of flaps. Get and maintain 80 mph. Keep the descent going. Judge the height, start the round out and assume the ‘step’ position. The step position is the attitude of the plane when it was flying ‘on the step’ during the take-off run. For this aircraft that means a bit nose high, but nowhere near as nose high as a fully stalled landing or a taildragger landing – you just have to ‘lock’ the picture in your head. By now you are not far off the water and must carefully regulate the rate of descent using power so it eases down slowly (there are no shock absorbers on floats and water is hard!). Hold the position and play with the power and yes, it touches on the step. Power to idle and hold the back pressure. Under no circumstances ease off the back pressure. As the plane slows it comes off the step and you must have the yoke fully back as it does so or the plane can lurch forward and dig in. Hold back pressure until stopped. Once it has stopped, drop the water rudders and steer as normal – well as you would normally for a boat fighting a current that is. John made it clear that unlike a runway landing, you could not relax for a moment until the plane was shut down and securely tied up.



Well the first landing went fine, albeit with help and talk through from John. We then did several more take-off and landings with touch and go’s on the river. He asked if I fancied a lake landing – of course! So we climbed to a dizzying 1500’ and headed a short distance inland to hydro lake. The lower end was bristling with the remains of tree stumps – not a good place to land. As we headed for the middle of the lake, the valley was forcing a wind which was creating some whitecap waves. John thought it better not to land there, so we headed back to the Langley River.



We did a low approach to a more narrow part of the channel between an island and the south bank which had me setting it up for landing on base at 400’ and during the short final turn – fun!

Well basically we did about 10 take-off and landings with some tight turns other bits of handling. I think it was on only one of the landing that I ‘bounced’ it and that wasn’t too high and was fairly easily controlled. The others it seemed to me were pretty good and John agreed (after he peeked through the fingers he had firmly clamped over his eyes for most of the time that is!).



We taxied in and tied up at the moorings. John had to give me instructions as he leapt out to secure the line. There was no bump so I guess we got that right too.

I got a good de-brief and John seemed very happy with lesson – I know I was! Apparently, a conversion course is normally a minimum of 7 hours, six dual and one solo. I was up for 1.3 hours and I was certainly tired at the end of it. A lot of concentration and work, but wow – what fun! I was relieved of $CAN 360 odd but hell, it was great.

Would I do it again – yes! Would I try for a float plane rating – Yes! This was a really great session and I enjoyed it hugely. I strongly recommend that any pilot tries this at least once (along with aerobatics and taildragging and yes, possibly gliding, but I haven’t done that yet). If all you do is fly nosewheel tourers, you really don’t know what you are missing!

Who knows, one day?

Bimble to Norwich

With this the last weekend before a two week holiday, I did want to do some circuits, but decided to do these when I get back, so a call to Chris as we agreed to split the flying. I thought I would go for a decent run, an hour or so airtime. I hedged my weather bets and selected airfields I haven't yet been to West, South and East.

The weather looked best in the east and as Chris hadn't been there either, we opted for Norwich.

I was a bit early, so with the help of the lad working at Cotswolds, pulled three aircraft about until we could get at G-ATSR at the back of the hangar (of course!). I gave her a leisurely check over in my own time and had just finished adding a litre of oil when Chris appeared.

I opted to fly there and Chris to fly back. So in we hopped and trundled over to the pumps for fuel. After a bit of fun and games, we finally got one of the pumps to work and filled up the main tanks. We trundled off to the hold for 22 for the power checks. I got it right this time and my new checklist seems to say the right things. Called ready and got a 'depart immediate'.

I am now ready for the considerable right rudder required to hold the eager Bonanza on the centreline and was even ready for the rotate in an agreeably short length of runway, no doubt also flattered by the 1034 Mb pressure.

It really climbs well compared to anything I have flown before as I set course direct to DTY VOR. I climbed to 4000' and levelled off and configured for the cruise. By the time I had sorted this out, my mental picture for the Arrow meant that the Bonanza had climbed a further 500'! B*gg*r! Well 4500' it is then! I am starting to get used to the much lower nose picture of the Bonanza, but like all things, it will come with time. Meanwhile, keep a careful eye on the altimeter.

It trims out nicely at 23" MP for 2400 rpm and 13.2 USG fuel flow. This give a pleasing 150 kts IAS. This really is a 'go places' tourer (yes, yes a Cirrus would be nice but I haven't got £250,000 to spare!).

We were nicely on top of the thin cumulus with lots of ground visible below. After DTY, it started to thicken as the undercast came up to mee us at 4500'. Rather than shoot the ILS at Norwich (which would have been good practice) in an aircraft I am still becoming familiar with, I chickened out and found a 'hole' near Peterborough and descended through that to VMC below the clouds at about 2000'. Norwich were giving CAVOK over the radio (seemend unlikely with solid overcast at 2500' with 25 miles to run). We were given a direct to left downwind approach for 27.

Spotted the field at 10 miles and changed to TWR. They asked how long we would be staying 'Just long enough for the mandatory £100 hamburger' was my non-standard reply. That seemed to amused him and they gave us stand 7. Now I don't know about other pilots, but I have a serious attack of 'the stupids' once I have landed (that and I always forget to brush up on the airfield chart for taxyways etc.) and can screw up by taxying the wrong way, or missing the turnoff etc. So I bravely handed the chart to Chris and said 'you're telling me where to go on the ground'.

The approach was good, a bit of chop coming from somewhere. Nailed 80 kts. Chopped the power later than Chris would have done and flared. I held off, but still had a fair bit of speed, so floated and held off and landed reasonably. However, not on the stall warner and not with the nose nice and high (but still not a 'three-pointer'). I am still landing this like the slab-wing Arrow, where the speed bled off very quickly and the wing stopped flying fairly abruptly, probably a bad habit I have gotten into. Chris offer to show me how on the landing back at Gloucester later.



We parked up and were bussed to the check-in point with both of us thinking 'this is going to be expensive'. And so it was - £34-odd - ouch! We wandered to the terminal. This is an aspiring regional airport - small but a decent range of shops and quite a few people about and checking in. We treated ourselves to a Latte each and people watched.



Chris was keen to take his lady to Alderney that afternoon, so we didn't hang around and wandered back. But not before we had to go through the formal departures, complete with metal scanning and taking shoes off. I suppose I can understand it, it isn't a question of 'hijacking yourself' but more of letting people (pilots or otherwise) airside - so I don't object at regional airports.

We booked out and Chris was going to be P1 on the return leg so we boarded accordingly. Did the long taxy and held behind a very nice looking Cirrus SR22. We were lined up and away quickly enough. Chris then started a climbing left turn, which puzzled me a bit, but I assumed he was doing a climbing circle over the airfield to gain height before starting en-route. He then fiddled with the VOR and realised I had changed the GPS map orientation to 'north up' rather than Chris's preferred 'track-up'. We had a chuckle about that (sorry Chris!).

We went VMC on top to 4500' and the cloud began to break under us by Northampton. It is far easier to spot traffic against the backdrop of white clouds than against landscape.

We got the Gloucester ATIS about 22 nm east and were granted a direct approach to 27. We called at 5 miles and were given landing clearance. Chris carried out the downwind checks and prepared for final, putting the gear down, but leaving the flaps until the last mile.

Airspeed nicely nailed on the approach at 80 kts. Over the displaced threshold and Chris chopped the power pretty much just before the start of the round-out. Nice round-out with the speed bleeding off, but not that quickly, so that in the flare therre was still a good hold-off and a nice nose up attitude with the plane still wanting to fly. The stall warner sounded and the wheels touched - nice one. OK, I get it. Power off a lot earlier than the Arrow, the speed doesn't fall off that quickly and the wing is quite happy to keep on flying. Lesson learned.

We parked up and got out. I spotted a nice Stearman across the apron so said my goodbyes and took a few photos. Apparently, the chap cleaning it was going to fly it to Italy at the end of the month to its new owner.

So another flight in the Bonanza and I am starting to settle in. The controls fell to hand a lot better today and I am starting to get used to the picture. What I need now is a serious solo circuit session to nail the technique. I plan to do this on my return from holiday at the end of March, probably at Oxford or Kemble, who charge a lot less for touch and go's than Gloucester. I really look forward to touring in the Bonanza, it is a lovely machine, a real head-turner, comfortable and fast. Chris has it booked in for its annual while I am away, then I have to do the first of the monthly group accounts, which will be fun.

However, not before I sneak a quick floatplane lesson in in Vancouver on holiday. Can't go on holiday and not try to sneak a crafty one in can I?

Check ride in the Beech Bonanza

Well, my 'official' membership of the Beech Bonanza group started on 1st March, so of course I booked it for the next available weekend! Chris was free and we agreed to go to Tatenhill so I could have a check ride with his favourite instructor.

The weather was excellent, with the odd shower, but mainly cumulus with good visibility and lots of blue bits (sorry, getting a bit 'technical' there). Off we went. Chris flew up there while I watched carefully. I am not used to vernier controls and those in the Bonanza are placed a bit at random and not colour coded, so it will take some getting used to.

Chris asked for and got a zone transit of Birmingham (I was amazed, but then I confess I have never tried it as I assumed there was little point).



Tatenhill was very busy as Pilot magazine had offered free landing vouchers which most of the UK flying community seemed keen to use on the same day!

We met up with Dave, a vastly experienced instructor very familiar with the V-tail Bonanza. We swapped over and I took over the left-hand seat. The Bonanza has a 'throw-over' yoke, so I guess not ideal for instruction, but there you go.

Off we went as I puzzled my way around the controls like a learner driver looking at the gearshift every time they change gears. I was ready for the acceleration and pull to the left and made a reasonable take-off. We were three up with full fuel and it was still climbing at 1000 fpm.

We climbed to over 3000' as I tried to get used to the nose high / coaming low picture. Whenever I relaxed, my 'Arrow' picture took over and we started to climb. But then I did the same going from the TB10 to the Arrow, so it is just practice.

We did a clean stall. I was warned about wing drop as the right wing dropped. I held it with rudder and recovered, although a bit hesitant. So we did it again and I was smoother this time.

Then the stall in landing configuration. I was warned this would be 'interesting' - don't you hate it when instructors say that? As we slowed to a crazy slow speed, with Dave constantly telling me 'UP, UP, UP etc. - nose up), it finally stalled - BIG TIME! Wow - the b*gger heeled over to the right in a heartbeat and started a spiral dive. I tried to correct with rudder, which seemed to stop it getting worse and recovered. I don't recall how much height we lost, but it would have been a lot. Dave was laconic about it and merely commented that 'there were no screms from the back so it can't have been that bad' - personally I think its because Chris was too busy praying! Lesson learned - don't ever do that on approach!

We went back to the airfield to do a couple of circuits. First one was a high workload for me. Looking for controls, strange picture outside, running to catch up to the plane. Amused all present as I called 'downhill' instead of 'downwind'. I don't know where I got that from, I have never said that before! Got settled into an OK 80 kts approach. Chop the power over the threshold just before the flare. Over-controlled it and balooned a bit, the brought it in. Power on then off again.

Next one was better, didn't over control it, but I did 'hunt' for it in the flare a bit.

Last one was to land and this was OK, except that while I was back-tracking, I pulled a little too much throttle off and the engine died. Dave got it going again sharpish as we didn't want to hang around in the middle of the only runway at Tatenhill.

As the aircraft is that much quicker, climbs faster etc. and I was having to look at pretty much everything I was touching to make sure I was pulling back on the right thing, I found the workload pretty high. Familiarity is the key here.

Tatenhill was pretty manic with planes jostling for limited parking as the grass wasn't in use. After some quick refreshment at local tavern (orange juice for me), we mounted up and took off back for Gloucester. I was flying with Chris in the RHS. Again we asked for and received transit of Birmingham at 3000'. I couldn't resist a peek at Liz Hurley's bash at Winchcombe, but as we did an orbit, it looked pretty deserted, only the marquees to show for the wedding.

Back to Gloucester and a standard overhead join for 27. The ciruit went well as did the approach. Went to chop the power in the roundout but instead of pulling out the throttle, I pushed it in. I realised the mistake (as of course did Chris and pulled it out rather quickly, but apparently not all the way back, so I held it off while Chris pulled it back to idle. Of course I landed longer than normal and had to roll to the end to vacate. The landing on the Beech seems to be very smooth, I don't know whether it is me (probably not) or the excellent gear (probably!).

Good lesson learned as I felt somewhat sheepish trundling back to stand.

Overall, a very worthwhile day and a lovely aircraft. Certainly a major step up from the Arrow (although I am certainly still very fond of Arrows). So I will go away and 'internalise' the position and feel of the controls so I am not looking all over the place on the next flight.

Maybe another dual with Chris next weekend, then a few landaways by myself to get really comfortable.