1 00:00:10,765 --> 00:00:11,640 PHILIP GREENSPUN: Hi. 2 00:00:11,640 --> 00:00:14,570 We're going to talk about seaplanes. 3 00:00:14,570 --> 00:00:17,960 And there's two different designs. 4 00:00:17,960 --> 00:00:20,090 You can have a boat hull seaplane, 5 00:00:20,090 --> 00:00:22,970 or you can have a conventional airplane on floats. 6 00:00:22,970 --> 00:00:27,470 So there at the bottom left is part of the Grumman series. 7 00:00:27,470 --> 00:00:30,733 They made a huge number of these around World War II, 8 00:00:30,733 --> 00:00:32,150 and many of them are still flying. 9 00:00:32,150 --> 00:00:36,680 You can see always probably 15 or 20 of these at Oshkosh 10 00:00:36,680 --> 00:00:38,903 every year in different sizes. 11 00:00:38,903 --> 00:00:40,070 The Widgeon is the smallest. 12 00:00:40,070 --> 00:00:42,470 The Albatross is the biggest. 13 00:00:42,470 --> 00:00:45,590 I forget if that's a Martin Mars up there on the top left. 14 00:00:45,590 --> 00:00:47,970 There are some truly huge seaplanes. 15 00:00:47,970 --> 00:00:50,390 Boeing, Sikorsky, and Martin, I think, 16 00:00:50,390 --> 00:00:55,610 all made huge seaplanes during World War II and just before. 17 00:00:55,610 --> 00:00:59,270 The bush pilots don't like the small boat hull seaplanes, 18 00:00:59,270 --> 00:01:01,460 like the Lake Amphibian. 19 00:01:01,460 --> 00:01:02,990 And I guess the Icon they probably 20 00:01:02,990 --> 00:01:07,250 wouldn't like if it ever did ship out there to Alaska. 21 00:01:07,250 --> 00:01:10,310 I think one issue with the boat hull planes is 22 00:01:10,310 --> 00:01:12,530 they are very hard to dock. 23 00:01:12,530 --> 00:01:15,110 You have to design some special dock for them. 24 00:01:15,110 --> 00:01:18,130 They're really designed more for beaching, 25 00:01:18,130 --> 00:01:21,530 whereas the float planes very naturally 26 00:01:21,530 --> 00:01:24,380 come up to a dock like a boat. 27 00:01:24,380 --> 00:01:26,428 That's one issue. 28 00:01:26,428 --> 00:01:28,970 So yeah, you might think those float planes look so unstable, 29 00:01:28,970 --> 00:01:31,340 but the bush pilots love them. 30 00:01:31,340 --> 00:01:33,410 It's hard to get on and off the water, which 31 00:01:33,410 --> 00:01:38,480 is why a practical seaplane really should have, 32 00:01:38,480 --> 00:01:40,520 in most cases, a turbo prop engine 33 00:01:40,520 --> 00:01:44,750 to get enough power to really get off the water. 34 00:01:44,750 --> 00:01:46,550 So we do have, in Alaska, locally-- 35 00:01:46,550 --> 00:01:48,060 it's called Maine. 36 00:01:48,060 --> 00:01:51,058 There's a fair amount of seaplane flying up there. 37 00:01:51,058 --> 00:01:52,850 These are a couple of US government planes. 38 00:01:52,850 --> 00:01:54,433 If you want to know why your taxes are 39 00:01:54,433 --> 00:01:56,690 going in the direction that they're going, 40 00:01:56,690 --> 00:01:57,770 look on the bottom right. 41 00:01:57,770 --> 00:01:59,630 That was the government's. 42 00:01:59,630 --> 00:02:02,060 I saw these two plane side by side on the ramp. 43 00:02:02,060 --> 00:02:03,710 Portland, Maine has a wonderful FBO 44 00:02:03,710 --> 00:02:06,590 called MAC Jets, which is very hospitable. 45 00:02:06,590 --> 00:02:10,520 They have crew cars, reasonably priced 100 low lead. 46 00:02:10,520 --> 00:02:13,920 They're really just operating it as a gift to the piston crowd, 47 00:02:13,920 --> 00:02:14,420 of course. 48 00:02:14,420 --> 00:02:16,160 They're really there for the turbine-- 49 00:02:16,160 --> 00:02:18,350 as a business, they're there for the Jets. 50 00:02:18,350 --> 00:02:21,080 But it's a great place that you can use, and jump 51 00:02:21,080 --> 00:02:22,610 in the crew car, go into town. 52 00:02:22,610 --> 00:02:24,068 But anyway, on the ramp, I happened 53 00:02:24,068 --> 00:02:27,770 to see there's a little Piston Cessna on floats that they 54 00:02:27,770 --> 00:02:32,298 bought 15 or 20 years ago for Fish and Wildlife patrol 55 00:02:32,298 --> 00:02:32,840 or something. 56 00:02:32,840 --> 00:02:34,868 I think this is a federal government airplane. 57 00:02:34,868 --> 00:02:36,410 And now, they have this monster thing 58 00:02:36,410 --> 00:02:38,600 that they're replacing it with, that has 59 00:02:38,600 --> 00:02:42,020 a fire-breathing turboprop engine that probably costs five 60 00:02:42,020 --> 00:02:44,690 times as much per hour to run. 61 00:02:44,690 --> 00:02:46,010 OK. 62 00:02:46,010 --> 00:02:49,640 Every year in September, there is the Moosehead Lake Seaplane 63 00:02:49,640 --> 00:02:50,880 Fly-in. 64 00:02:50,880 --> 00:02:54,950 And you might ask, can you fly in the air in the East Coast 65 00:02:54,950 --> 00:02:57,663 Aero Club plane that you've rented? 66 00:02:57,663 --> 00:02:59,330 The answer is yes, although you probably 67 00:02:59,330 --> 00:03:03,290 can't fly back out if you choose the lake as your landing 68 00:03:03,290 --> 00:03:03,980 destination. 69 00:03:03,980 --> 00:03:06,710 But there is a wheeled airport there as well 70 00:03:06,710 --> 00:03:08,040 that's pretty reasonable. 71 00:03:08,040 --> 00:03:11,110 I think it's about a 4,000-foot runway. 72 00:03:11,110 --> 00:03:13,370 So if the weather's nice, that's a great place 73 00:03:13,370 --> 00:03:14,810 to go, up in Moosehead Lake. 74 00:03:14,810 --> 00:03:15,690 It's a long drive. 75 00:03:15,690 --> 00:03:18,080 It's about probably a five-hour drive from here. 76 00:03:20,610 --> 00:03:23,070 The hard thing about seaplanes is 77 00:03:23,070 --> 00:03:25,560 if the float is all the way in the water, 78 00:03:25,560 --> 00:03:26,580 it will never take off. 79 00:03:26,580 --> 00:03:27,690 There's so much drag. 80 00:03:27,690 --> 00:03:30,000 You have to get up on the step, which 81 00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:34,260 if you're a boater corresponds to getting up on the plane, 82 00:03:34,260 --> 00:03:36,930 I guess, of a planing haul. 83 00:03:36,930 --> 00:03:39,900 So basically, you can't have the entire float in the water 84 00:03:39,900 --> 00:03:41,940 if you ever want to take off. 85 00:03:41,940 --> 00:03:44,040 Let's just show a short YouTube video here. 86 00:03:51,300 --> 00:03:52,310 We have no sound. 87 00:03:52,310 --> 00:03:54,340 Oh well, that's fine. 88 00:03:54,340 --> 00:03:56,190 So you can see this Caravan on floats. 89 00:03:56,190 --> 00:03:57,960 I think it's a Caravan. 90 00:03:57,960 --> 00:04:00,930 It's beginning to get up on the step. 91 00:04:00,930 --> 00:04:02,430 And finally, it can break loose. 92 00:04:05,602 --> 00:04:06,810 Anyway, that's how it's done. 93 00:04:16,820 --> 00:04:18,320 Crosswind landing-- this is how it's 94 00:04:18,320 --> 00:04:19,460 done, according to the FAA. 95 00:04:19,460 --> 00:04:20,930 So the FAA's mission-- 96 00:04:20,930 --> 00:04:22,922 [LAUGHTER] 97 00:04:25,910 --> 00:04:27,320 The FAA's mission is, in addition 98 00:04:27,320 --> 00:04:29,750 to regulating aviation, they're explicitly 99 00:04:29,750 --> 00:04:31,670 supposed to promote aviation. 100 00:04:31,670 --> 00:04:32,750 It's a rare agency. 101 00:04:32,750 --> 00:04:35,510 So part of their mission is to encourage people to fly. 102 00:04:35,510 --> 00:04:38,750 And this is the best that they can do for seaplanes. 103 00:04:38,750 --> 00:04:39,870 So it does tell you-- 104 00:04:39,870 --> 00:04:41,953 Like I was telling you, the problem with seaplanes 105 00:04:41,953 --> 00:04:47,870 is if you make an error on Hanscom on Runway 29, first 106 00:04:47,870 --> 00:04:49,580 of all, it's 150 feet wide. 107 00:04:49,580 --> 00:04:53,060 And the gear on your airplane might only be 10 feet wide. 108 00:04:53,060 --> 00:04:55,790 So you can slide quite a bit, left or right, before you even 109 00:04:55,790 --> 00:04:56,930 leave the pavement. 110 00:04:56,930 --> 00:04:58,430 If you do leave the pavement, you're 111 00:04:58,430 --> 00:05:00,950 skidding along the grass, and the owner 112 00:05:00,950 --> 00:05:04,880 is going to have some harsh words for you, perhaps. 113 00:05:04,880 --> 00:05:09,440 But otherwise, nothing too dramatic is going to happen. 114 00:05:09,440 --> 00:05:13,350 Glassy-- this is the FAA's glassy water landing 115 00:05:13,350 --> 00:05:14,400 demonstration. 116 00:05:14,400 --> 00:05:17,230 So if there is no wind at all, you might think, that's great. 117 00:05:17,230 --> 00:05:19,290 That's perfect for seaplane flying. 118 00:05:19,290 --> 00:05:21,703 It's hard to judge where the water is. 119 00:05:21,703 --> 00:05:24,120 A little bit of wind that causes some ripples on the water 120 00:05:24,120 --> 00:05:26,403 makes it much easier to judge your distance. 121 00:05:26,403 --> 00:05:27,570 So here's your alternatives. 122 00:05:27,570 --> 00:05:32,095 You can not flare at all, and crash into the water that way. 123 00:05:32,095 --> 00:05:34,470 Or you can flare too high, and then crash into the water. 124 00:05:38,090 --> 00:05:38,590 What's that? 125 00:05:38,590 --> 00:05:39,560 AUDIENCE: Those are the only possibilities. 126 00:05:39,560 --> 00:05:41,685 PHILIP GREENSPUN: Those are the only possibilities. 127 00:05:44,380 --> 00:05:47,500 What's the question, radar altimeter? 128 00:05:47,500 --> 00:05:48,820 AUDIENCE: No. 129 00:05:48,820 --> 00:05:51,730 So hello. 130 00:05:51,730 --> 00:05:56,780 For seaplanes, do you wait until you have seen VR before while 131 00:05:56,780 --> 00:06:00,940 taking off, or do you have the floats clear the water 132 00:06:00,940 --> 00:06:02,163 and [? take ?] [? off? ?] 133 00:06:02,163 --> 00:06:03,580 PHILIP GREENSPUN: The question is, 134 00:06:03,580 --> 00:06:05,543 do you wait until VR to take off, 135 00:06:05,543 --> 00:06:07,960 or do you just wait till the floats have cleared the water 136 00:06:07,960 --> 00:06:08,530 and take off? 137 00:06:08,530 --> 00:06:10,480 That's a good question. 138 00:06:10,480 --> 00:06:12,640 It's so inefficient to be dragged into the water. 139 00:06:12,640 --> 00:06:15,550 I think you lift out of the water just as soon as you can. 140 00:06:15,550 --> 00:06:19,540 And then you'll probably float-- you'll 141 00:06:19,540 --> 00:06:21,760 fly along the ground effect for a little bit, 142 00:06:21,760 --> 00:06:23,200 and then finally take off. 143 00:06:23,200 --> 00:06:27,940 But yeah, just like on a soft field, like slightly muddy 144 00:06:27,940 --> 00:06:30,610 grass or something, the best thing you can do 145 00:06:30,610 --> 00:06:34,960 is to get away from the surface that's dragging on you. 146 00:06:34,960 --> 00:06:36,610 Great question. 147 00:06:36,610 --> 00:06:37,570 All right. 148 00:06:37,570 --> 00:06:41,110 Here's the docking and beaching. 149 00:06:41,110 --> 00:06:43,540 So one challenge with a seaplane, 150 00:06:43,540 --> 00:06:48,310 if you're all by yourself, is you have to be tremendously 151 00:06:48,310 --> 00:06:53,110 agile and nimble to get out of the plane, kill the engine, 152 00:06:53,110 --> 00:06:55,558 scramble around usually the front of the airplane 153 00:06:55,558 --> 00:06:57,850 and the propeller-- because you're sitting on the left, 154 00:06:57,850 --> 00:07:00,880 and the passengers are going to get off on the right-- 155 00:07:00,880 --> 00:07:02,380 and tie up the airplane to the dock. 156 00:07:02,380 --> 00:07:03,280 It's very hard to do. 157 00:07:03,280 --> 00:07:05,200 That's one of the hardest things, 158 00:07:05,200 --> 00:07:06,340 I think, about seaplanes. 159 00:07:06,340 --> 00:07:09,460 And also, if the magnetos aren't perfectly grounded, 160 00:07:09,460 --> 00:07:12,190 airplane engines can start by themselves. 161 00:07:12,190 --> 00:07:16,540 After saying we shouldn't tell you stuff that's scary-- 162 00:07:16,540 --> 00:07:18,970 if it's not perfectly grounded by that switch, 163 00:07:18,970 --> 00:07:21,190 and you don't starve the engine of the fuel 164 00:07:21,190 --> 00:07:23,200 by killing it with the mixture, it 165 00:07:23,200 --> 00:07:26,020 may be able to start all by itself, at least run 166 00:07:26,020 --> 00:07:30,640 for a half a rotation or full rotation, and hurt somebody. 167 00:07:30,640 --> 00:07:34,540 So you always want to be cautious around propellers 168 00:07:34,540 --> 00:07:35,290 and not spin them. 169 00:07:35,290 --> 00:07:37,165 But of course, if you're trying to get around 170 00:07:37,165 --> 00:07:38,970 the front of your seaplane, the propeller 171 00:07:38,970 --> 00:07:43,120 is the most obvious thing to grab onto. 172 00:07:43,120 --> 00:07:47,080 Anyway, I don't think I would ever 173 00:07:47,080 --> 00:07:50,470 want to fly a seaplane unless there were dock handlers who 174 00:07:50,470 --> 00:07:54,145 were going to deal with that part of welcoming 175 00:07:54,145 --> 00:07:56,020 the airplane to the dock and tying it all up. 176 00:07:56,020 --> 00:08:00,060 But of course, the folks in Alaska do this all the time. 177 00:08:00,060 --> 00:08:03,990 So have respect when you see a seaplane. 178 00:08:03,990 --> 00:08:06,210 So there are a lot of bad things that you can do. 179 00:08:06,210 --> 00:08:08,880 Believe it or not, landing in the sea is something 180 00:08:08,880 --> 00:08:11,040 that's almost-- in practice, it's almost impossible 181 00:08:11,040 --> 00:08:14,780 on a seaplane because there's too much in the way of waves, 182 00:08:14,780 --> 00:08:18,630 that really-- for harbors, rivers, lakes, 183 00:08:18,630 --> 00:08:22,035 if you have more than a foot of-- 184 00:08:22,035 --> 00:08:23,910 if the waves are more than about a foot, 185 00:08:23,910 --> 00:08:31,350 it just bangs up the seaplane so much that it will be damaged. 186 00:08:31,350 --> 00:08:33,480 Landing the amphibious plane with the wheels 187 00:08:33,480 --> 00:08:35,220 down is one of the most common mistakes. 188 00:08:35,220 --> 00:08:36,750 You might think software would fix 189 00:08:36,750 --> 00:08:41,130 this, that if you have a database of where 190 00:08:41,130 --> 00:08:48,330 all the runways are in the US, you have a database of where 191 00:08:48,330 --> 00:08:50,080 the lakes are, and other bodies of water-- 192 00:08:50,080 --> 00:08:51,580 but you don't even really need that. 193 00:08:51,580 --> 00:08:53,143 So you could have a lot. 194 00:08:53,143 --> 00:08:54,810 You could have a camera out in the front 195 00:08:54,810 --> 00:08:57,287 that can tell the difference between water and not water. 196 00:08:57,287 --> 00:08:59,370 So you would think that the airplane would provide 197 00:08:59,370 --> 00:09:04,800 significant assistance in configuring an amphibious plane 198 00:09:04,800 --> 00:09:10,530 with having their wheels down for a hard surface or just 199 00:09:10,530 --> 00:09:12,390 the bare floats for water. 200 00:09:12,390 --> 00:09:14,992 And there's very little of that, unfortunately. 201 00:09:14,992 --> 00:09:16,950 There's certainly nothing like the intelligence 202 00:09:16,950 --> 00:09:18,330 that I'm describing. 203 00:09:18,330 --> 00:09:20,250 You might be able to press a button 204 00:09:20,250 --> 00:09:22,860 and have the plane tell you, with the synthesized voices 205 00:09:22,860 --> 00:09:27,360 and aftermarket thing, "the wheels are down for runway 206 00:09:27,360 --> 00:09:28,780 landing" or something. 207 00:09:28,780 --> 00:09:31,440 So one common thing that people forget-- 208 00:09:31,440 --> 00:09:34,710 not that common, but this is an illustration of why you 209 00:09:34,710 --> 00:09:36,397 might want a two-pilot crew. 210 00:09:36,397 --> 00:09:37,980 But there's a video that's linked here 211 00:09:37,980 --> 00:09:40,033 from the slide about a father-- 212 00:09:40,033 --> 00:09:42,200 so he sounds like a good pilot, and a careful pilot. 213 00:09:42,200 --> 00:09:44,720 He was with his son, and he left the wheels down, 214 00:09:44,720 --> 00:09:47,820 landed in the water, flipped it over, and the son was killed. 215 00:09:47,820 --> 00:09:49,650 Really tragic. 216 00:09:49,650 --> 00:09:54,117 So watch that if you want to cry. 217 00:09:54,117 --> 00:09:55,950 But anyway, I think it's a good illustration 218 00:09:55,950 --> 00:09:59,070 of a seaplane-- an amphibious seaplane operation is 219 00:09:59,070 --> 00:10:02,360 a great example of where a two-pilot crew with a checklist 220 00:10:02,360 --> 00:10:05,910 would be very unlikely to have that kind of accident. 221 00:10:05,910 --> 00:10:09,900 So it also illustrates how it's too bad 222 00:10:09,900 --> 00:10:11,580 that these manned airplanes don't 223 00:10:11,580 --> 00:10:17,877 have one one-hundreth of the intelligence of a DGI drone. 224 00:10:17,877 --> 00:10:18,960 There are rare exceptions. 225 00:10:18,960 --> 00:10:22,440 Like I said, at Burning Man, the terrain warning system had 226 00:10:22,440 --> 00:10:25,650 to be silenced because it was freaking out that we were not 227 00:10:25,650 --> 00:10:27,900 going to make it, even though there was a 5,000-foot 228 00:10:27,900 --> 00:10:30,660 temporary runway that had been rolled out there 229 00:10:30,660 --> 00:10:31,780 by the Burners-- 230 00:10:31,780 --> 00:10:34,060 the uber Burners. 231 00:10:34,060 --> 00:10:34,640 OK. 232 00:10:34,640 --> 00:10:37,770 Salt waters-- people do this commercially, 233 00:10:37,770 --> 00:10:41,160 but the airplane has to be hosed off 234 00:10:41,160 --> 00:10:44,450 every day because the saltwater is corrosive, even to aluminum. 235 00:10:44,450 --> 00:10:44,950 Question. 236 00:10:44,950 --> 00:10:45,988 AUDIENCE: Lakes and harbors tend to have 237 00:10:45,988 --> 00:10:47,143 a lot of people on them. 238 00:10:47,143 --> 00:10:50,113 How do you avoid hitting a swimmer or a boater? 239 00:10:50,113 --> 00:10:51,530 PHILIP GREENSPUN: Yeah, how do you 240 00:10:51,530 --> 00:10:56,790 avoid hitting swimmers and boaters in lakes and harbors? 241 00:10:56,790 --> 00:10:58,890 Yeah, that's one of the challenges of seaplanes. 242 00:10:58,890 --> 00:11:00,557 If you're cleared to land in an airport, 243 00:11:00,557 --> 00:11:02,925 the air traffic controller has looked out on the runway 244 00:11:02,925 --> 00:11:05,520 and made sure that there's no other aircraft, pretty 245 00:11:05,520 --> 00:11:09,210 sure that there is no deer on the runway. 246 00:11:09,210 --> 00:11:12,408 The seaplane you have to orbit around. 247 00:11:12,408 --> 00:11:14,700 It's a little bit like landing a helicopter off airport 248 00:11:14,700 --> 00:11:18,000 to really make sure that there's nobody in a canoe. 249 00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:20,760 I will tell you that for my seaplane training up in Maine, 250 00:11:20,760 --> 00:11:24,330 I have a seaplane rating that I got up in Maine. 251 00:11:24,330 --> 00:11:28,210 And there's a great school up there called Twitchell's. 252 00:11:28,210 --> 00:11:31,620 But anyway, yeah, kayakers can paddle 253 00:11:31,620 --> 00:11:35,140 pretty fast when they see a seaplane in their vicinity. 254 00:11:35,140 --> 00:11:36,197 Head towards the shore. 255 00:11:39,470 --> 00:11:41,700 But yeah, there could be a log in the water. 256 00:11:41,700 --> 00:11:44,910 So there's just-- there are hazards that you 257 00:11:44,910 --> 00:11:46,170 can't control and get rid of. 258 00:11:46,170 --> 00:11:48,217 So the accident rate does tend to be higher. 259 00:11:48,217 --> 00:11:50,550 In the military-- I think there's a slide later where we 260 00:11:50,550 --> 00:11:51,480 talk about that-- 261 00:11:51,480 --> 00:11:54,690 they've gotten away from seaplanes and into helicopters 262 00:11:54,690 --> 00:11:55,600 for that reason. 263 00:11:55,600 --> 00:11:57,017 Just so you know, the helicopter-- 264 00:11:57,017 --> 00:12:00,720 you can be down to within two feet of the ground and say, 265 00:12:00,720 --> 00:12:01,720 I don't like what I see. 266 00:12:01,720 --> 00:12:04,930 I'm going to go somewhere else. 267 00:12:04,930 --> 00:12:06,570 The propeller tends to get beaten up. 268 00:12:06,570 --> 00:12:08,670 You'll see some seaplane designs where 269 00:12:08,670 --> 00:12:11,370 the propeller is up high and in the back, 270 00:12:11,370 --> 00:12:13,730 and that's to keep the water-- 271 00:12:13,730 --> 00:12:16,960 the propeller's going near supersonic speeds at the tips. 272 00:12:16,960 --> 00:12:20,550 So if it gets water on it, it'll be eroded. 273 00:12:20,550 --> 00:12:23,140 Same deal with flying your airplane in heavy rain. 274 00:12:23,140 --> 00:12:26,370 You can get erosion on the leading edges of the wing 275 00:12:26,370 --> 00:12:28,800 and on the prop. 276 00:12:28,800 --> 00:12:29,710 All right. 277 00:12:29,710 --> 00:12:33,400 So yeah, the seaplane pilot skills 278 00:12:33,400 --> 00:12:36,575 include a lot more judgment. 279 00:12:36,575 --> 00:12:39,760 To some extent, they'll be the dimensions of these lakes. 280 00:12:39,760 --> 00:12:43,360 And in Alaska, there's even a lighted water runway. 281 00:12:43,360 --> 00:12:46,330 But generally speaking, you don't have a lot of information 282 00:12:46,330 --> 00:12:46,930 to go by. 283 00:12:46,930 --> 00:12:51,393 So you've got to evaluate all this stuff by yourself. 284 00:12:51,393 --> 00:12:52,310 One thing you can do-- 285 00:12:52,310 --> 00:12:54,520 I'll use this coffee cup as an example. 286 00:12:54,520 --> 00:12:57,170 You can usually see where the wind's coming from. 287 00:12:57,170 --> 00:13:00,640 If there's trees all around the lake, 288 00:13:00,640 --> 00:13:03,130 the lake will be calm right next to-- let's assume 289 00:13:03,130 --> 00:13:04,950 this coffee cup is a tree. 290 00:13:04,950 --> 00:13:09,580 The lake will be calm and glassy right next to the tree. 291 00:13:09,580 --> 00:13:12,190 And that tells you the wind is coming from this direction, 292 00:13:12,190 --> 00:13:15,373 because that part of the lake is being sheltered from the wind. 293 00:13:15,373 --> 00:13:17,290 So you can actually read the wind off the lake 294 00:13:17,290 --> 00:13:20,080 by looking at which parts are rippled 295 00:13:20,080 --> 00:13:22,360 and which parts are glassy. 296 00:13:22,360 --> 00:13:24,766 But you still have to decide, right, 297 00:13:24,766 --> 00:13:27,190 are there floating logs in the water? 298 00:13:27,190 --> 00:13:28,630 Are there swimmers? 299 00:13:28,630 --> 00:13:30,820 Are there boats? 300 00:13:30,820 --> 00:13:34,142 Here are some unusual skills that you have to have-- 301 00:13:34,142 --> 00:13:35,350 well, you might have to have. 302 00:13:35,350 --> 00:13:39,160 After maintenance-- or to get the airplane maintained. 303 00:13:52,492 --> 00:13:52,992 Ah! 304 00:13:57,450 --> 00:13:58,230 All right. 305 00:13:58,230 --> 00:14:00,000 So that was straight floats in the grass. 306 00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:01,470 So at the end of the season, if you 307 00:14:01,470 --> 00:14:02,970 want to get the airplane maintained, 308 00:14:02,970 --> 00:14:04,928 there's not a lot of airplane mechanics hanging 309 00:14:04,928 --> 00:14:05,975 around the typical lake. 310 00:14:05,975 --> 00:14:07,350 So you just land it on the floats 311 00:14:07,350 --> 00:14:08,618 in the grass at an airport. 312 00:14:08,618 --> 00:14:10,410 And what about when you want to get it out? 313 00:14:30,360 --> 00:14:30,860 Yeah. 314 00:14:30,860 --> 00:14:32,402 To get the sound, watch that at home. 315 00:14:48,860 --> 00:14:52,710 So as I said earlier, the problem with seaplanes 316 00:14:52,710 --> 00:14:55,830 is that it's just a lot less forgiving than a hard surface 317 00:14:55,830 --> 00:14:59,550 runway, which is the most forgiving environment. 318 00:14:59,550 --> 00:15:01,830 You can enhance that safety with a two-pilot crew, 319 00:15:01,830 --> 00:15:05,682 especially an experienced seaplane pilot, or-- 320 00:15:05,682 --> 00:15:07,540 fair stuff, it'll be on the test-- 321 00:15:07,540 --> 00:15:09,840 you can learn about accident reporting. 322 00:15:09,840 --> 00:15:12,660 So this is a different part of the federal regulations. 323 00:15:12,660 --> 00:15:20,400 This is the part that regulates what the NTSB does-- 324 00:15:20,400 --> 00:15:22,940 National Transportation Safety Board. 325 00:15:22,940 --> 00:15:25,310 So first, they define what an accident is. 326 00:15:28,100 --> 00:15:31,280 So there has to be a serious injury. 327 00:15:31,280 --> 00:15:33,650 And if you go in there, they define 328 00:15:33,650 --> 00:15:36,200 what a serious injury is. 329 00:15:36,200 --> 00:15:38,460 And I think substantial damage to the aircraft-- 330 00:15:38,460 --> 00:15:41,040 if it's just the landing gear that's a bit trashed, 331 00:15:41,040 --> 00:15:44,060 I don't think that qualifies. 332 00:15:44,060 --> 00:15:46,190 If somebody dies within 30 days of the accident, 333 00:15:46,190 --> 00:15:48,890 it becomes fatal. 334 00:15:48,890 --> 00:15:54,320 Here's your definition of serious injury-- 335 00:15:54,320 --> 00:15:55,070 not too much fun. 336 00:15:58,440 --> 00:16:05,430 You have to immediately notify the NTSB if the flight controls 337 00:16:05,430 --> 00:16:06,060 malfunction. 338 00:16:06,060 --> 00:16:08,820 They don't really care if the Lycoming or continental piston 339 00:16:08,820 --> 00:16:11,293 engine fails in some way. 340 00:16:11,293 --> 00:16:12,960 But if the flight controls fail, and you 341 00:16:12,960 --> 00:16:16,467 can't bank your Cessna or Piper or Cirrus, 342 00:16:16,467 --> 00:16:18,300 that's something they'll want to hear about. 343 00:16:21,420 --> 00:16:26,942 If more than half of your glass cockpit goes dark, 344 00:16:26,942 --> 00:16:28,150 they want to hear about that. 345 00:16:33,010 --> 00:16:37,310 I think 830.15 is in the test something. 346 00:16:37,310 --> 00:16:39,563 There's time periods, like report 347 00:16:39,563 --> 00:16:40,855 within 10 days of the accident. 348 00:16:45,450 --> 00:16:48,640 Oh yeah, and required info when notifying. 349 00:16:48,640 --> 00:16:50,530 OK. 350 00:16:50,530 --> 00:16:52,570 So the bottom line on seaplanes is 351 00:16:52,570 --> 00:16:56,583 that it does combine the hazards of a boat and a plane. 352 00:16:56,583 --> 00:16:58,000 And therefore, you need the skills 353 00:16:58,000 --> 00:17:02,980 of both a sailor and a pilot to manage those hazards. 354 00:17:02,980 --> 00:17:05,560 On the other hand, I think it's a lot of fun. 355 00:17:05,560 --> 00:17:08,992 When the Icon first came out at $100,000 and change, 356 00:17:08,992 --> 00:17:10,450 I thought, oh, this would be great. 357 00:17:10,450 --> 00:17:11,920 We'll just get one of these. 358 00:17:11,920 --> 00:17:13,089 We'll split it four ways. 359 00:17:13,089 --> 00:17:15,490 We'll keep it at Hanscom, and we'll 360 00:17:15,490 --> 00:17:17,680 go up for a 15-minute flight to New Hampshire-- 361 00:17:17,680 --> 00:17:20,859 splash and dash, come back, and it'll be really cool. 362 00:17:20,859 --> 00:17:26,226 Now that it's a $400,000 airplane, it's not enough-- 363 00:17:26,226 --> 00:17:29,035 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] seven days. 364 00:17:29,035 --> 00:17:31,740 [? But ?] [? that ?] said, what does overdue mean? 365 00:17:31,740 --> 00:17:33,040 PHILIP GREENSPUN: Overdue. 366 00:17:33,040 --> 00:17:36,900 The question is-- go back to that slide. 367 00:17:36,900 --> 00:17:39,640 Yeah-- file a report within seven days 368 00:17:39,640 --> 00:17:41,090 if an aircraft is overdue. 369 00:17:41,090 --> 00:17:43,420 So that means you expect an airplane to come back 370 00:17:43,420 --> 00:17:48,222 from the fishing camp in Alaska and it hasn't returned. 371 00:17:48,222 --> 00:17:49,930 So you don't know if it's crashed or not. 372 00:17:55,810 --> 00:17:56,890 That was like me. 373 00:17:56,890 --> 00:18:01,390 Remember I told you that story about landing a PBK in Atlanta? 374 00:18:01,390 --> 00:18:04,090 And I forgot to close my flight plan. 375 00:18:04,090 --> 00:18:09,070 And so my Diamond Star was considered overdue. 376 00:18:09,070 --> 00:18:13,180 And I kept rejecting calls from an unfamiliar phone number-- 377 00:18:16,302 --> 00:18:18,190 not my proudest moment. 378 00:18:18,190 --> 00:18:19,030 All right. 379 00:18:19,030 --> 00:18:21,590 So insurance is kind of expensive, as I noted, 380 00:18:21,590 --> 00:18:23,580 especially for the amphibs. 381 00:18:23,580 --> 00:18:26,440 An airplane on straight floats isn't that much more expensive 382 00:18:26,440 --> 00:18:28,783 to insure than a regular airplane. 383 00:18:28,783 --> 00:18:30,700 Actually, that's a great way to evaluate risk. 384 00:18:30,700 --> 00:18:32,492 If an insurance company is willing to write 385 00:18:32,492 --> 00:18:38,410 a policy for a Cessna on floats, it can't be all that dangerous. 386 00:18:38,410 --> 00:18:40,750 But like I said, the military has decided, 387 00:18:40,750 --> 00:18:43,540 let's do most of the things we used to do with seaplanes 388 00:18:43,540 --> 00:18:44,600 with helicopters. 389 00:18:44,600 --> 00:18:45,896 Question? 390 00:18:45,896 --> 00:18:49,862 AUDIENCE: Insurance [INAUDIBLE] delayed [INAUDIBLE].. 391 00:18:49,862 --> 00:18:52,150 What about-- so our insurance-- we 392 00:18:52,150 --> 00:18:54,280 [? haven't ?] had personal insurance. 393 00:18:54,280 --> 00:18:56,820 So if we fly, but we hurt ourselves, 394 00:18:56,820 --> 00:19:00,180 is our medical coverage going to cover that? 395 00:19:00,180 --> 00:19:01,528 So you're saying [INAUDIBLE]. 396 00:19:01,528 --> 00:19:02,570 PHILIP GREENSPUN: Oh, no. 397 00:19:02,570 --> 00:19:04,150 I think-- so the question is, does 398 00:19:04,150 --> 00:19:06,770 your regular medical insurance cover an injury from flying? 399 00:19:06,770 --> 00:19:07,270 Sure. 400 00:19:07,270 --> 00:19:09,098 Yeah, there's no exclusion for that. 401 00:19:09,098 --> 00:19:11,140 I think somebody if you get an umbrella liability 402 00:19:11,140 --> 00:19:13,540 policy they say, well, that's great 403 00:19:13,540 --> 00:19:15,520 but we're not going to like to add $5 million 404 00:19:15,520 --> 00:19:20,353 if you injure somebody with your Cessna. 405 00:19:20,353 --> 00:19:21,520 So they can have exclusions. 406 00:19:21,520 --> 00:19:23,740 AOPA has a big insurance business, actually, 407 00:19:23,740 --> 00:19:26,920 selling life insurance at pretty reasonable rates to pilots. 408 00:19:26,920 --> 00:19:29,650 So there, again, that tells you-- 409 00:19:29,650 --> 00:19:33,460 when your friend says, you're stupid, 410 00:19:33,460 --> 00:19:37,630 why would you fly a Piper or a Cessna? 411 00:19:37,630 --> 00:19:38,390 That thing's old. 412 00:19:38,390 --> 00:19:41,110 It doesn't look safe. 413 00:19:41,110 --> 00:19:43,990 You can say, well, insurance companies aren't stupid, 414 00:19:43,990 --> 00:19:46,420 and they have a huge business marketing life insurance 415 00:19:46,420 --> 00:19:48,220 to the members of AOPA, who are all flying 416 00:19:48,220 --> 00:19:49,960 little airplanes like this. 417 00:19:49,960 --> 00:19:54,160 And it's only a 10% higher rate than what you can 418 00:19:54,160 --> 00:19:57,510 get in the market elsewhere. 419 00:19:57,510 --> 00:19:59,890 Of course, pilots are healthier than the-- 420 00:19:59,890 --> 00:20:01,360 that's one issue, right? 421 00:20:01,360 --> 00:20:04,713 Since pilots by definition have passed a medical exam, 422 00:20:04,713 --> 00:20:06,880 they tend to be a little bit healthier than average. 423 00:20:06,880 --> 00:20:09,730 Same reason, like the military-- the death rate 424 00:20:09,730 --> 00:20:11,657 of people who serve in the military 425 00:20:11,657 --> 00:20:13,990 is quite a bit lower than the death rate of the same age 426 00:20:13,990 --> 00:20:16,030 people who are in the civilian workforce, 427 00:20:16,030 --> 00:20:19,810 partly because not that many of them are actually in combat, 428 00:20:19,810 --> 00:20:21,880 and partly because the military rejects 429 00:20:21,880 --> 00:20:23,780 people who are unhealthy. 430 00:20:23,780 --> 00:20:26,230 So you're not going to die of cancer at age 23 431 00:20:26,230 --> 00:20:28,930 if you're in the military, because they would have not let 432 00:20:28,930 --> 00:20:31,630 you enlist, probably, if they saw 433 00:20:31,630 --> 00:20:36,020 that you were suffering from the beginning stages of cancer. 434 00:20:36,020 --> 00:20:36,520 All right. 435 00:20:36,520 --> 00:20:38,380 Light sport flying boats-- 436 00:20:38,380 --> 00:20:39,830 Searey is fun. 437 00:20:39,830 --> 00:20:41,260 This is a real one. 438 00:20:41,260 --> 00:20:43,390 There are 700 of these out there, 439 00:20:43,390 --> 00:20:44,950 and they sell it as a kit. 440 00:20:44,950 --> 00:20:47,980 And they also sell it as a built airplane. 441 00:20:47,980 --> 00:20:50,270 So here it is-- 442 00:20:50,270 --> 00:20:51,710 look how much fun. 443 00:20:51,710 --> 00:20:54,980 Somebody put one of these on a yacht 444 00:20:54,980 --> 00:20:59,180 and flew it in all different parts of the world. 445 00:20:59,180 --> 00:21:00,350 They would take off-- 446 00:21:00,350 --> 00:21:02,610 I guess they would winch it down into the water, 447 00:21:02,610 --> 00:21:05,400 take off, fly around, and then winch it back up. 448 00:21:05,400 --> 00:21:08,610 And I think they were in some fairly open oceans at the time. 449 00:21:08,610 --> 00:21:11,360 And the thing survived, so that's pretty cool. 450 00:21:11,360 --> 00:21:15,180 They stuff a Garmin G3X glass cockpit in there. 451 00:21:15,180 --> 00:21:18,060 And that's the same thing as the Gamebird has. 452 00:21:18,060 --> 00:21:22,380 The white sport folks have a lot of flexibility. 453 00:21:22,380 --> 00:21:25,550 It has a road tax engine, which is conventional. 454 00:21:25,550 --> 00:21:31,640 The Icon A5 is the airplane-- see, look at Oshkosh. 455 00:21:31,640 --> 00:21:32,900 Their booth is always packed. 456 00:21:32,900 --> 00:21:34,430 People love it. 457 00:21:34,430 --> 00:21:35,950 People want it. 458 00:21:35,950 --> 00:21:37,520 And it's one of the few airplanes 459 00:21:37,520 --> 00:21:40,040 that's marketed to people that don't have any flying 460 00:21:40,040 --> 00:21:40,790 experience. 461 00:21:40,790 --> 00:21:43,520 I wrote a review of it in 2010, saying that it 462 00:21:43,520 --> 00:21:46,580 would be available in 2014. 463 00:21:46,580 --> 00:21:49,760 I think it had been originally promised for 2012. 464 00:21:49,760 --> 00:21:51,600 So it's just coming out. 465 00:21:51,600 --> 00:21:53,600 These composite planes are hard to manufacturer. 466 00:21:53,600 --> 00:21:55,700 I talked to the Gamebird guys. 467 00:21:55,700 --> 00:21:57,980 They said they spend 500 hours-- 468 00:21:57,980 --> 00:22:01,430 500 person hours-- prepping the airplane 469 00:22:01,430 --> 00:22:03,950 to be painted, just like sanding, and smoothing 470 00:22:03,950 --> 00:22:05,630 everything to be painted. 471 00:22:05,630 --> 00:22:08,240 So I think it's just very hard to make these things 472 00:22:08,240 --> 00:22:10,970 at an economical price. 473 00:22:10,970 --> 00:22:14,440 We still don't have sound, I don't think, do we? 474 00:22:14,440 --> 00:22:17,180 Here's my review of the plane. 475 00:22:17,180 --> 00:22:19,835 I made this little video that was fun. 476 00:22:19,835 --> 00:22:20,960 Well, I thought it was fun. 477 00:22:20,960 --> 00:22:23,720 I'm sure Icon doesn't think it's fun. 478 00:22:23,720 --> 00:22:24,220 All right. 479 00:22:24,220 --> 00:22:25,740 Questions about seaplanes? 480 00:22:28,810 --> 00:22:29,500 Who wants one? 481 00:22:29,500 --> 00:22:33,690 Who would buy an Icon if it were reasonably priced? 482 00:22:33,690 --> 00:22:35,153 A lot of people's questions. 483 00:22:35,153 --> 00:22:37,695 AUDIENCE: You were talking about [INAUDIBLE] sides of a lake, 484 00:22:37,695 --> 00:22:39,130 and don't land out at sea. 485 00:22:39,130 --> 00:22:42,600 But what would be your opinion about the Great Lakes? 486 00:22:42,600 --> 00:22:45,280 I know sometimes the waves can be higher than a foot. 487 00:22:45,280 --> 00:22:47,111 But when you just look at it, [INAUDIBLE] 488 00:22:47,111 --> 00:22:49,538 judge what the waves [INAUDIBLE].. 489 00:22:49,538 --> 00:22:52,080 PHILIP GREENSPUN: The question is, what would, by my opinion, 490 00:22:52,080 --> 00:22:53,413 be a landing in the Great Lakes? 491 00:22:53,413 --> 00:22:57,120 I think people do a lot of flying of seaplanes 492 00:22:57,120 --> 00:22:58,620 up in the Great Lakes. 493 00:22:58,620 --> 00:23:00,900 But there again, the Great Lakes-- there are harbors. 494 00:23:00,900 --> 00:23:01,920 There are calmer areas. 495 00:23:01,920 --> 00:23:03,485 So I think they're not really landing 496 00:23:03,485 --> 00:23:04,860 in the middle of the Great Lakes. 497 00:23:04,860 --> 00:23:06,750 And then, they don't say, I just want 498 00:23:06,750 --> 00:23:09,300 to go to the middle of Lake Superior and fish 499 00:23:09,300 --> 00:23:10,470 off the float for a while. 500 00:23:10,470 --> 00:23:12,060 They're going to some destination, 501 00:23:12,060 --> 00:23:14,400 and by definition, the destination 502 00:23:14,400 --> 00:23:20,340 will have a calmer area for boats to hang out in. 503 00:23:20,340 --> 00:23:23,190 I think there's actually a commercial seaplane 504 00:23:23,190 --> 00:23:28,820 service that's starting up between Manhattan and Boston. 505 00:23:28,820 --> 00:23:30,900 So you'll go to the-- 506 00:23:30,900 --> 00:23:32,782 there's a seaplane-- 507 00:23:32,782 --> 00:23:33,990 I should have mentioned this. 508 00:23:33,990 --> 00:23:36,707 For helicopters, there are helipads all around Manhattan. 509 00:23:36,707 --> 00:23:38,790 So you can actually go to the downtown Wall Street 510 00:23:38,790 --> 00:23:40,725 heliport, land-- 511 00:23:40,725 --> 00:23:41,850 it used to be really cheap. 512 00:23:41,850 --> 00:23:45,870 It was $75 an hour for parking, I think, or maybe $25. 513 00:23:45,870 --> 00:23:49,630 I don't know, it wasn't that much more than parking a car. 514 00:23:49,630 --> 00:23:51,060 Go in and have lunch. 515 00:23:51,060 --> 00:23:53,700 Now, they've leased those helipads 516 00:23:53,700 --> 00:23:56,260 to some government crony monopoly that owns all three 517 00:23:56,260 --> 00:23:56,760 of them. 518 00:23:56,760 --> 00:24:01,890 And they cranked the rates up by a factor of four immediately. 519 00:24:01,890 --> 00:24:04,180 But anyway, I don't know if it's the same company, 520 00:24:04,180 --> 00:24:11,310 but they have a public seaplane port there on the East River. 521 00:24:11,310 --> 00:24:14,190 And I think it's a Cape Air affiliate, maybe, 522 00:24:14,190 --> 00:24:16,785 that's going to start operating downtown to downtown 523 00:24:16,785 --> 00:24:19,700 in a Cessna Caravan on floats.