Ive heard they are incredibly hard to find and are very sought after. Who are these guys that are lucky enough to fly floats for a living and where do they live? Jealous...

I hear Kenmore Air up in Seattle being mentioned often.

Naw, it's a piece of cake. Just have 25,000 accident free AK hours with 20K on floats. A good reputation for showing up to work and being willing to work 18 hours a day, seven days a week, and fly 200+ hours a month. Have no personal beefs with the boss from the past while building up those 25K hours. And be lucky enough to walk in the door the moment they need a warm body to fly.

Gump

Oh nice. I thought it would be a challenge. One solution.. Start your own company.. Simple

Worthy, I know 2 guys who have started their own float ops here in Maine. Both are doing sight seeing as well as transporting fisherman to remote lodges and lakes. Both seem to be pretty darn busy during the summer months.

ing,
What Gump is saying is basically true but let's expand here for you a bit.
Simple thought's;
they live where there's lots of water......
Statistically speaking, yes, it is harder to find and acquire a float flying job. As whole of the GA fleet floatplanes are small and the percentage of those that are worked by hired pilots are are even less.
That said, if you want a float flying job go get one. When I was reaching flying age I knew I wanted to fly floats and where I grew up in New York was pretty much dried up of float flying so I went to Seattle and Alaska to network and learn. Then after a couple of years of working on the dock and building time flying jumpers I finally got to fly some 135 float action when I was about 20. Seattle into B.C. every day, some of the most fun, most beautiful country to work in, and most scared I have been in an airplane! Wouldn't trade those experiences for anything.
But you will have to go seek it out and it may take time. My seaplane mentor did the same thing. He grew up with some family floatplanes in the Adirondacks of New York but knew it would be hard to keep going another twenty years there so he packed up and moved to Seattle. Worked for Kenmore flying charters, networked with some of the San Juan Island fat-cat's while flying them out on Friday and back on Sunday, and ended up with four corporate Beaver's that he flew and managed.
Seaplanes are definitely less and less every year other than where they are totally required so it is harder now than twenty years ago. My father used to fly 206's in New York city out of 23rd street but that is all but gone other than the odd private Caravan. At one time until the late 80's it was four operators running 12 or so airplanes.
You'll need to think Alaska (southeast if you want year-round), Seattle (year-round but slower in winter), Minnesota (a lot of single-pilot operators, won't do you much good but ask anyway), Maine (also a lot of single pilot ops). That's the meat of it in U.S. territory.

There is also Seaborne with twin otter's. Not sure now but the M.O. used to be the Virgin Islands in winter and Ketchikan, Alaska in summer. They fly two pilot crews so you can start in the right to build time.
There was also one guy running an op in Hawaii with a 206 and Beaver, it's for sale I believe.
Usually you will find a steady flow of guys coming and going in Key West going to Fort Jefferson. I think right now it's someone from Alaska, it used to be some of the New York city crew in winter.
You will also find the odd individual running a single pilot or family flight instruction or sightseeing deal in weird places. I flew tours one summer in San Francisco in a Beaver and I believe they are still there but under new ownership. The seaplane base is on the north side of the bay in Mill Valley. There is a guy in Maryland doing ratings in his T-craft, etc.
Outside the U.S.;
First and easiest, Canada! My wife is Canadian so I'm partial. PLENTY of seaplane action there all across the country with year-round going on in B.C. and I believe some in Labrador/Newfoundland. The B.C. scene is crazy. Stand in Victoria harbour (proper spelling for you Canadians reading!) and watch turbine single Otters, Beavers, and Twin Otters coming in and out all day long from Vancouver. Another good B.C. spot is further up Vancouver Island, Campbell River.
Good book for you to find about B.C. float flying; "Coast dog's don't lie" by Jack Schofield
There is a LARGE quantity of Twin Otter operators in the Maldives. They run to the resorts. Supposedly fun, rough water, a lot of beaching.
A few missionary operators are running floats in the Amazon, other parts of South America, New Guinea, etc.
There are quite a few operators in New Zealand and some in Australia.
You will find a couple in other parts of the South Pacific as well if you look.
Supposedly a couple of floatplanes in Scotland, and Italy.
And I'm sure there's a bunch more that I haven't even touched.

Start here;
www.seaplanes.org
www.seaplanejobs.com
www.weloveseaplanes.com

If you don't mind working your ass off, being scared in the fog occasionally, and being generally broke for a while, it's some of the most fun flying and best life experiences with some of the coolest people you'll ever meet.

Have fun and if you don't wear them now, switch to boxer shorts, that way the first time you lose one at the dock in the wind or current and have to strip down and swim for it your passengers won't be laughing at a guy in his "tighty-whitey's" with cold water shrinkage.

Most issues stem from not having enough float time.

Unless you find someone who lets you gain some float time, you're left with buying your own box.
Good luck with getting insurance in any commercial setting. Most of the guys who do stuff up here in Maine are high time on floats, and I mean very high time.

Most operations in AK require AK time and plenty of it. I have not heard anything asking for less than 500 hours, most are looking more towards 1000 on floats, and at least 500 AK. Most seaplane operators could be looking, but fill seats with internals/ referrals rather than opening the door to some time building SJS guy. Larger Ops start copilots on essentially no pay, tossing bags, working ramps or scraping bugs. The old rule applies, unless you are sitting around poking your nose when the CP decides he needs a new pilot, there's no chance. I frequently receive emails from buddies who hear stuff about openings, but unless you sit on a packed backpack, ready to actually go there just to say hi and that you're looking... its usually a "Pffft".

The seaplane industry is getting older and older and for the last several years has suffered from that. The guys flying usually hold on tight, are semi retired or doing it for the pure fun of it. India, China and the Arabs (what a coincidence) are actually looking for jockeys. If you can get your hands on one of these gigs, gain some time and come back alive and without having been converted, there may be a chance.

We just posted some: http://seaplaneforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=98&t=576 and several of us are constantly scanning the globe for anything that could be real and solid. Not much out there, unless you know the right people and they like you.

Cheers and Good Luck!

Anyone here has or is working at Kenmore?

Just today I saw an ad for a beaver pilot/cfi in San Francisco. They then go on to say you would be instructing in a 172.

http://www.seaplane.com/

Where was the ad? Not finding it on their site. Thanks for the heads up!

Seaplane piloting experience is definitely key to getting a seaplane flying job. How do you get that? Not easy, but it can be done. Find a job with an operator who operates seaplanes, and try to pick up bits and pieces wherever you can.

While working another job, buy a simple seaplane, and build time in it....Taylorcraft/Champ, etc. It all counts and will help.

In Alaska, insurance companies want Alaska flight time, but operators can't always find pilots with much Alaska time, so sometimes they hire folks without much or any Alaska time, and deal with the insurance costs.

It is difficult, but depending on how persistent you are, it can be done.

As others have noted, though, the number of operators is not getting larger these days.

MTV

The number of operators is getting lower but I feel like that is a generation thing, and has little to do with the functionality of the aircraft themselves. Maybe the market just needs some new young pioneers to kick it back into shape. had anyone heard of the manhattan to hamptons seaplane that run during the summer?

That was the part where I said,
"My father used to fly 206's in New York city out of 23rd street but that is all but gone other than the odd private Caravan. At one time until the late 80's it was four operators running 12 or so airplanes."
In the first reply.

lowflyin'G3 wrote:
"My father used to fly 206's in New York city out of 23rd street but that is all but gone other than the odd private Caravan. At one time until the late 80's it was four operators running 12 or so airplanes."
In the first reply.

George,

Did you or your father know Hardy Lebel? An old family friend, he was a good guy -- with good stories to boot.

--Tony

Not a name I remember but I'll ask.

Hello.

I currently fly for Kenmore, it's a pretty good gig. It's some of the best commercial flying there is but there's only about four months of it available every year. We have eight year round full-time pilots and we balloon up to about forty-five pilots during the season. Most of these seasonal pilots seem to be independently wealthy.

Generally pilots who make it to our 135 line are promoted from within(CFIs).

Sam

29singlespeed wrote:Where was the ad? Not finding it on their site. Thanks for the heads up!

It was on one of those pay sites.