Float Rating - New Orleans

In early June I traveled by myself to New Orleans, LA to attend a float-plane safety course as well as earn my FAA float rating.  During my 5 days in New Orleans I was able to learn a lot about how Southern Seaplanes operates and how to integrate some safer things into what we do in Central Borneo.  I was also able to get up close and personal with a DeHaviland Beaver on amphib floats.  So cool!

Southern Seaplanes main customer is the oil industry in the Gulf of Mexico.  Surprisingly, their operations and challenges are very similar to our's in Indonesia.

Watching the iconic DeHaviland Beaver was a lot of fun.  I never did fly in it, but I was able to ask a lot of questions that I've had for a long time about it.  They are great airplanes.

At the end of my seaplane safety course, I spent a few hours with the owner of Southern Seaplanes to earn my float rating.  The irony is that I have almost 1000 hours of float plane flying in Indonesia, but I didn't have an FAA float rating.  Thankfully, the few flights we took went fast and earning the float rating was fun and easy.  I was also able to do it in an amphibian, which I had never flown before.  It was a lot of fun to be able to take off on land, and then fly to a lake, and then back to the airport.  I'm looking forward to some of that capability when we get our new Kodiak!