Page 28 - JULY 20 TNT

Hillaero
a huge amount of drag when all that f loat surface contacts the water, mak- ing a floatplane want to pitch forward. If allowed to happen this can be a very bad thing because the tip of the floats can dig in (we called it “stubbing their toes” during my instruction days) and given enough momentum can pitch the airplane up on its nose. The re- quired pilot maneuver is to gently re- duce power while applying just enough backpressure on the stick to keep the pitch positive.
I taxi heading downwind on the lake, carefully go around some fishermen in a small aluminum skiff, then start a takeoff run with the stick full aft and a gradual application of power to prevent the propeller from getting too much splash back from the tips of the floats. In this little airplane with all that power, it gets up on the step right away. I lift off, just in time to wave at some curious bikini-clad boaters. I had almost forgotten just how much fun float flying is.
A couple of days go by and it turns out I need to take some helicopter parts out to the R44. It has been flying every
day, blasting air down on a phenomenal crop of cherries in order to shake off the water deposited there by recent local thunderstorms. For this trip I use the Cessna 340 and ask a neighbor, a retired airline captain, if he would like to ride along. The 340 is pressurized and turbocharged so it could easily cross the Cascades in the flight levels well above the terrain. But it is an abso- lutely clear and calm day, so we decide to take the scenic route and make the crossing at about 9,500 feet.
The Cascades are a series of mostly sharp rocky 7,000 to 8,000 foot eleva- tions in the terrain caused by tectonic shift of the earth’s crust. But spaced up and down the range at about every 50 to 100-mile intervals are tall peaks that go up to 14,000 feet, which were created by volcanic action. If you fly in the area much you learn the names of these peaks by heart, starting with Mount Baker near the Canadian border, the Glacier Peak a bit further south, then Mount Rainier and so forth all the way down to Mount Shasta which is near the California/Oregon border. At 9,500 feet, our route passes over Glacier Peak, which is at 10,500 feet, and we needed to make a dogleg to fly around it if staying at that altitude. My neighbor, with more than 20,000 hours of high flight level airline time, mentions this is the first time he can remember seeing the Cascades from that perspective – and it was a beauti- ful sight indeed.
Flights such as these are a reminder that we pilots are lucky people. Viral pandemics notwithstanding, we still get to see and do things most other people can only dream of.
Rosen
Kevin Ware is an ATP who also holds CFI, MEII and he- licopter ratings, has more than 10,000 hours and is typed in several different
business jets. He has been flying for a living on and off since he was 20, and currently works as a con- tract pilot for various corporations in the Seattle area. When not work- ing as a pilot he is employed part time as an emergency and urgent care physician. He can be reached at kevin.ware2@aol.com.
26 • TWIN & TURBINE / July 2020