Its still Monday night. The checkride is scheduled for tomorrow, and I just taxiied up to the dock with Dave. Brian and Chuck where there and helped me secure the airplane with ropes.

Brian sticks his head in the door and asks me if I could do one more ride. I tell him ‘no’, I just made the call with Dave that I’m beat. It has been a long day that I really enjoyed, but that I’d like to go back to the hotel to study for the oral and come back rested.

‘Are you sure’, he says. Chuck Brown says he can give you your checkride at 5pm, if you can fly over to the Brown’s seaplane base. I think I’ve read plenty by now, and may not be completely ready, but doing the ride tonight would allow me fly home bright an early tomorrow. I’m tired, but lets do this.

I took about a 15 minute break at this point, debriefing Charlie on what Chuck put him through for his checkride the previous day. I was glad he was there and willing to share.

Dave and I departed from Cherry Pocket, and flew over to the base to meet Chuck.

The ride itself was easy enough after today. I did make mistakes with the water rudders more than once (up or down), but Chuck always found a way to remind me gently. My errors were not aggregious, and I thought my tecnique was solid. I have a lot to learn, but that is where you are after a checkride. I plan to fly seaplanes a few times a year to build that experience.

Chuck did pull the power, simulating an engine failure, during this ride. We hadn’t done that in all my training for seaplanes, but it went very well. We taxiied in and now I have a seaplane rating.

This was an awful lot of fun. Mutli-engine seaplane and glider training is most likely happening later this year.

Thanks for reading all this.

By fdorrin

Fully retired now, unless something interesting comes along. I’ve enjoyed a lucrative career as an Electrical Engineer, Certified Software Solutions Developer, and Project Manager. An excellent and fun career that I’m very proud of. I began flying commercially in Dash-8 aircraft for Piedmont Airlines, and moved on to instruct in the Gulfstream 280; WestWind; and Astra jet aircraft. I’ve also been blessed with a type rating in the B-25 bomber in a fortunate turn of events. My wife, Beverly, and I currently own and operate a beautifully restored PA30 Twin Comanche, which we use to explore the CONUS.