Just got done doing my ASES at Jack Brown's in Winter Haven, FL. These guys did an amazing job and I has a blast. I think you get a lot more useful float time that a lot of other schools because of their proximity to so many lakes. We literally would just jump from one lake to the next because there are so many in the area. I would highly recommend this school is you are planning on getting into floats. Very reasonable price too $1200 including checkride

Another excellent option dwon there for Cessna 172/180 training and ratings is Brian Schanche at Adventure Seaplanes. He's located in at Cherry Pocket on a lake close to Jack Brown's. Great training and tons of fun. Cherry Pocket is a neat place to stay, eat and have a beer after training!!

I second both those recommendations. I did my seaplane rating last year at Jack Brown's. It was pretty windy, so it took 3 days (could only fly in the morning), and never did get to glassy water ops because of the wind. I had a good instructor and learned a lot from her and from the ground school. Even met a few folks from home at Wednesday's lunch on the porch. Took the checkride with Jon Brown, who's a real grump, but somehow I passed.

I had dinner and a beer the evening before at Cherry Pocket, which was excellent, and a fun place to people-watch. I tried to find Brian S. but I guess he wasn't around that evening.

The reason I went to Jack Brown's instead of with Brian is that I wanted to train in a Cub rather than a 172. Jack Brown's has four J3s on straight floats, and I ended up flying all of them, each with its particular quirks.

ASW.

ASW - Sorry i will try have my cub in FL next season instead of on Bushwheels. We hope to get our PA18-105 certified on Baumann 1500 amphibs and straight floats this year. We may have been out airboating, give a call next time and you can go with! I had a j3 before and got rid of it after 6 months, i could not have a legal useful load??? I would get grumpy also after trying to climb into the front seat of a j3 for thousands of hours.

I'll put in a plug for Brian at adventure seaplanes, I'm currently working on my float cert with him at his base in Minnesota at surfside. Brians a great guy and knows floats.

-Brad

Hey Brad, did you get floats on that 185? If so, which ones? Are you headed to Canada after your endorsement? Tell Brian I said hi. Steve

Doing some float flying in a C180 during Sun & Fun the port float sprung a leak and after lunch at Cherry Pocket the instructor took off by himself after Brian without hesitation said he would take my wife and myself in his C180 back to the small lake we had departed from...

Brian to me is one of the people that signifies aviation and the camaraderie associated with it - a great guy!

Thanks again Brian,

Ian

Lan - Thanks for the kind words, did you get that rating done? That is the nice part of these aerocets is no rivets or patches to come loose. Come back next winter to see us and fly with us and ride airboats.
Steve - Got any walleyes left when i come up mid july? How your aerocets been treating you? I'll bet your glad you floated the 185 instead of having the S cub. I am about giving Brad a set of PK 3500's that come off my bird when i got a rebuilt set of 3430's, they are not pretty but they work fine and no worry about dock dings. We will find him a nice set of aerocets later for his mint 185, i did not want to part with mine as they work great on my 54 C180. Maybee i will fly over and see your new home, we will be near Atikokan, pm me your coordinates.

Couldn't do the check ride as my FAA is a 'piggy back'...can hire an aircraft in the States but can't do a CR for a new rating...getting all the validation letters etc and hope to be get it done by end of summer...

A few photos...

Cherry Pocket is a well kept secret - what a great place. Had the best meal of the whole time there.
Definately going back to stay there for a while.



Brian making sure that Jason gets going OK...



Glad Dwane Wallace was a big guy when he designed the 180...
Brian taking us back



Going home..

Lan - I think you and i need a caravan to fit our shoulders, can you picture us trying to fit in a J3? If you need any help getting the checkride done next season give me a ring, we'll git'r done if Jason is not around, Jason can use the 180 also with you. We will have our lakeside cabin available for pilot-floatplane rental packages,plus airboat driving instruction to go along with it for great fun! Lots of fun at the Cherry Pocket, live music thursday-sundays with great food and cold beer!

I'm actually putting a set of old PK 3500 on my wagon for this season. The price is right, the rigging is good and Brian knows these floats well. They are going on today, I'll post pics tomorrow. On Monday my Canadian float odyssey should begin. Steve, I'll tell Brian hi.

-Brad

Brown's is a living institution, but having obtained my rating there I just can't recommend them.

I have about 10,000 hours and always wanted to add an SES rating just for fun. I've had a variety of instruction experiences.

I began my training with a (junior) instructor who was fantastic. He showed up with a plan, was well organized as an instructor and he did an exceptional job. You could tell he really enjoyed teaching and was fully engaged. He was great.

But a more senior instructor there demanded he take over my remaining training hours because, apparently, senior pilots can do that at Brown's (demand the most flight instruction hours). That this instructor showed his ass in front of several customers and then got his own way was telling.

As a customer I told Jon Brown I didn't want to change instructors in the middle of my training, we had establish a good raport and my current instructor was excellent, but Brown said I didn't have a say in the matter and that I could complete the training with the ass showing senior instrutor, or not complete the training, it was "my choice". An interesting take on customer service, you've already paid in full so sit down and shut up, or leave.

It turned out the senior instructor was a burned out time builder. Instead of instructing he spent his time texting friends on his cellphone while I basically flew the plane myself - based on what I had learned with the junior instructor who actually gave a damn about teaching. Half the training time was a wasted with him, but I "passed".

Brown's has become a licensing mill.

Rather than relying on their place in history as I did, I'd recommend investing some real time in finding another operator who cares about teaching and learning ... or realise at Brown's you're just a prepaid production "number" to be punched.

You get what you pay for.

All the cheap and fast schools are pretty sick to me. No wonder SES insurance is so much. It's not the STC it's the bad training.

JLD wrote:.....As a customer I told Jon Brown I didn't want to change instructors in the middle of my training, we had establish a good raport and my current instructor was excellent, but Brown said I didn't have a say in the matter .....

You'd think he would be glad you were having a positive experience with the first instructor, & leave you with him after you requested it. Instead you got a negative experience, which will now reverberate to other potential clients (like me). A poor way to treat a client, & bad PR for the business to boot.

Glad you have the balls to relate a bad experience at 'Jacks'.
It is beneficial to hear both the good and bad, and we indidually can make our decisions based on actual reality, and not the projected fantasy....

I do recommend the low powered J-3s as a starting point for a float flying career...
They help build good habits/skill sets.....
IMHO
lc

Just like a lot of service oriented business', please the customer and they might tell a few people. Piss a customer off and they tell a lot of people. I was in the orlando area a couple of years ago taking some sim training and wandered over there to Jack Brown's on a day off. I bought a book and made inquiries about training. I didn't get a warm fuzzy from the place and wrote it off as me. I would rather train in minnesota or somewhere north anyway. Thanks for the write up.

I completed my SES rating with Brian at Adventure Seaplanes last week. Overall it was a great experience. My main observation is that Brian doesn't train you to pass the checkride, You'll be ready to successfully complete the checkride when he says so, but you'll also have a good base knowledge to operate the plane on the water and around the dock. I flew for 8 hours including the checkride and each hour I was presented with challenges, but I came away confident that I have a future flying seaplanes not just a SES rating to show my friends...

Brian worked me hard for the 3 days that I trained with him. First day was a little windy but we managed to do some rough water landings and have some good quality taxi and sailing time. Days 2 and 3 presented plenty of opportunity for glassy water landings and light crosswind landings. The weeds in the lake at Surfside ensured that the technique for taxiing in weeds didn't have to be simulated although plenty of taxi practice on weed-free lakes was done. During the training I managed to practice docking half a dozen times and at the end of each flight, and also beached and tied-off the plane. His reviews of each lesson weren't sugar-coated but honest, and we fixed the errors as I made them.

Brian is also a gracious host and made sure that the comradery didn't end when the plane was docked and school was done for the day. And the folks at Surfside, Bruce and his daughter Cheri, and the pilots and mechanics onsite are really friendly, they're passionate about seaplanes and go out of their way to make sure that you have a great experience. I definitely felt that I got VFM and made some new friends! Highly recommend the operation...Thanks.

Glad you had a good time with Brian and got to see some of the north country at the same time. It doesn't get much better than that.

Steve

JLD - thanks for the write up. I was just considering Jack Brown's for an seaplane rating and with that information that you posted, have eliminated them from consideration.

I went to Jack Brown's in 2007. Flew with Brian, a Brit who spent his winters in Florida. Had a great time and received everything I expected. John Brown did my ride and everything went fine, nice guy...very fair and reasonable. I think if someone had a problem there it might not be all Brown's fault...they are very nice people and a family run outfit.

Is the training comprehensive? No. No fast water or narrow river type stuff, hard to find in central FL. Is it enough to keep you safe and out of trouble...i.e a "license to learn"? YES. I enjoyed my experience and recommend them to folks who ask.