My son and I have been able to find the time to do this together. I was amazed at how booked up every flight school we have the ability to get to with relative ease was. Kenmore in Seattle is months out. That was my first choice, so that we could visit Seattle at the same time.
We're using Jones Brothers in Tavares Florida just outside of Orlando, and will be doing this in a 185.
Any words of wisdom?
TIA!

MooseMeat wrote:My son and I have been able to find the time to do this together. I was amazed at how booked upon every flight school we have the ability to get to with relative ease was. Kenmore in Seattle is months out. That was my first choice, so that we could visit Seattle at the same time.
We're using Jones Brothers in Tavares Florida just outside of Orlando, and will be doing this in a 185.
Any words of wisdom?
TIA!

Hopefully, your instructor will be very experienced in the 185. A 185 on floats can be a bit of a handful, but is a fun plane to fly in any case, and float flying is the most fun you can have with your pants on.

The "handful" part: Fly a power off or low power approach with full flaps, with trim for the glide. Just prior to the touch, go around.....this will provide a deeply moving experience. The 185 has a VERY powerful trim system, and trimmed for idle and full flaps, with not much in the plane, the trim will be very far nose high. Add full power, and you will have to PUSH hard on the yoke to prevent a stall.

So, if your instructor starts getting you set up for a power off, full flaps approach, run the trim nose down a fair bit, and just hold the back pressure. In a go around, that bit of nose down trim makes all the difference.

Enjoy it.

MTV

Thanks.. Been a while since I've flown a constant speed prop plane as well. Probably 30 years.. I'm going up with a CFI in a 182 this week for a refresher on that.