Operations & Training

Glassy Water Procedures

Perfectly calm water reflects the sky, destroying human depth perception. Pilots must utilize an LVR (Last Visual Reference) on the shoreline, establishing a precise pitch attitude and descent rate (usually 100-150 fpm) and waiting for the water to intersect the floats, rather than flaring visually.

Sailing the Aircraft

With engines at idle or off, a floatplane becomes a sailboat. Lowering the flaps, opening the doors, and utilizing wind pressure allows pilots to back the aircraft into tight docks where conventional forward taxiing is impossible due to space constraints.