Moline (KMLI)

Nothing beats showing off your plane by cruising just over the treetops and past a guy in his speedboat. You can try it by getting your seaplane rating! I received my rating from Quad City Seaplane down in Moline, IL. The course typically spans two days (weekends are fine). However, if you are in a hurry you can also cram it all into one day as I did. The long final to 23 took my passenger and me right over the Seaplane base on the river. I gunned the engine a bit and Jim looked up and waved. A few minutes later he picked us up in his truck at Elliott Aviation.

The next few hours found me strapped into the front seat of a ’57 180 floatplane attempting about 100 Splash and Dashes. Jim had some great quotes: “We have a lot of runway, it just isn’t straight”, “I’m getting a nosebleed” (as I passed 1,500 feet MSL. We flew treetop level pretty much the entire flight), “Don’t be afraid of the dock, it’s the only thing you want to hit!”, “About 300 degrees for about 15 minutes will dry up your avionics just fine” (seaplane pilots sometimes need to dry things out if the plane tips over in the water). For lunch we docked at a restaurant off the Mississippi. By the end of the day I was starting to get the hang of things and was ready for the checkride. The examiner met us at a dock on the Iowa side of the river. He didn’t exactly look like a spring chicken. His license plate read P38PLT. I decided not to ask.

5 landings later the examiner had me taxi up to the dock and gave me my temporary license. I had passed. For $825 you can get one too. The price includes the 5 hours of flight, a book on water flying, the examiner fee, and a Splash and Dash Club patch. Contact Jim Goetsch (www.flyfloats.com ; 800-678-974).

Now if only I owned an amphib...