Just wondering you impressions of the place. Really want to get my float rating and I have some friends that did theirs here.

Hi, new to BCP!
Had my multi sea for several years and when visiting the area took the opportunity to get a single sea at Sheble Aviation in 2009 so maybe not representative.
Had a great time. Done all the flying on the Colorado River which is just the most fun. Well looked after.

Do you just want the SES on your certificate, or do you want to learn to fly floats? If you just want the SES, there are lots of places that can do that. I've never been to Shebles, but look at a map of the area, and you can pretty much figure out how much variety you'll get, learning to fly floats there. Not much is my guess. The previous poster noted that you'll do all your landings in the Colorado River. Great diversity there.

Depending on where you're located, there are some places with much more diversity of landing sites to broaden your experience. Kenmore does a great job, for example in the Seattle area.

Please understand that I'm not knocking Sheble's at all. It's just that there are some places that are MUCH better for float training than others.

Location, location, location.

MTV

Shebles is a great place to get ratings. I did my commercial single and multi and also my ATP at Shebles. Very fast pace program but in almost all cases you walk out with your rating in the time and amount that they advertise. I was also thinking of getting my float rating there. Good luck on all that!

I got my float there in 2004. All waterwork was on the river. I thought I got enough instruction to be legal, but since I was going to be flying my own plane I didn't even consider flying solo, but that decision was taken out of my hands by my insurance company requiring additional, worthwhile, and needed, dual.

So I would say that at that time, Sheble's was about the cheapest, quickest, and most convenient place for me to get this rating. Having a friend's condo in Bullhead didn't hurt either. Good luck, it is fun.

Agreed with most of the above, but maybe not in the same way...

The Shebles are great folks, and it is a great place to do training. You just have to be realistic of your expectations going in. You simply can't go to the cheapest, fastest place and expect the most amount of training.

Notice I didn't say best. Quality is not the issue, you will get great training, but you are paying for their time, and not much of it. As far as diversity goes, I will say that the average SES candidate is going to depart on the CO River and fly straight to Lake Mead, the wind always blows at Lake Mead, that will make some things too easy, and others too hard...but it's also riddled with coves that will be glassy in the am. Then you will fly down the Colorado to lake Havasu, which is likely where you will do your check ride.

So as to diversity, I would say location is not the limiting factor here, but time is. The whole shooting match is going to be a matter of a few hours. Just how proficient do you think you're going to be at anything in just a few hours? I did my SES there with the late Sean Sheble, and my ride with Joe LaPlaca, and the day I was doing my ride he had a gal doing hers as well. Gump may know the gal, this gal had a Caravan on amphibs waiting for her to return to at Lake Powell And yes, she paid for more time

If you are a cub guy, you might get more out of training in the cub, because the 'cub' part of it will be second nature, so you can focus on the 'sea' part of it. OTH, you might rather do the Lake, just for a different experience.

For a real gas, go for the MES in the Beech18.... How's that for diversity? with enough coin, you can do an SES in a cub, burn some cash in the Lake, and then do an MES in a twin beech.... Just don't plan on landing a job flying an amphib twotter the next day in Greece

Keep your expectations real and you will have a good time!
Take care, Rob

Rob laid it out pretty well, I got my SES there and given the limits of time it was a good program, I got glassy water, fairly rough water in the lakes, current in the river, docking and flight in a super cub. At the time I was spending hundreds of hours a year on the water in boats as diverse as my twin engine 28 ft. pontoons to my 350 hp 14' airboat so the water part was a piece of cake. I fly a Stinson so the cub was a piece of cake.

All in all a good program and lots more fun than the casinos for about the same money.

Rob wrote: I did my SES there with the late Sean Sheble, and my ride with Joe LaPlaca, and the day I was doing my ride he had a gal doing hers as well. Gump may know the gal, this gal had a Caravan on amphibs waiting for her to return to at Lake Powell And yes, she paid for more time

Good folks all, and yes, I have a wee bit of time in that Caravan.

I added a bunch of rating over the years with Sheble's, but... I went there prepared and with time in the logbooks beforehand, so it was basically going thru the motions to get a new line on the certificate. I did my commercial float with them, but I had my own floatplane at the time, and we spent most of the time goofing off, and there was no pretending that I was going to get instructed in much of anything.

Check ride was with the Old Man, in the Lake on the lake, and I ended up rapping him across the knuckles because he kept f**king with stuff while I was flying. The night ended up with lots of booze and lie telling as I recall. It's kinda fuzzy.

Where I DID learn floats was with Al Richardson at Mike Brown's at Homewood. And Dave Wiley and I were friends for decades. In fact it was Dave who talked me into getting my TCart on Edo 1320's. He, and that underfloated little airplane taught me more about flying with one finger than probably anything else over my career. The skills learned in that TCart lend themselves quite well to many other aspects of flying.







Gump

GumpAir wrote: And Dave Wiley and I were friends for decades. In fact it was Dave who talked me into getting my TCart on Edo 1320's.

I went down to Dave's house a few weekends ago. His son lives there now, and there's a 172 on straight floats sitting on a tennis court. Chatted with his son for a bit, talked T-craft, walked around on the docks and headed out.

He had a neat setup there on the Willamette.

ington6 wrote:Just wondering you impressions of the place. Really want to get my float rating and I have some friends that did theirs here.

I'm going to be in the area on business so what a better way to kill time this weekend. I already have a float rating but it has been years. I'm scheduled for this Saturday morning for some dual in their super cub. I'll let you know what I think.