Danny Seybert ,president of the Alaska Aviation Museum, joins Steve McCaughey on this episode of the Water Flying podcast to discuss growing up in a historic aviation family in Alaska in the 1970's. Danny's father Orin Seybert founded PenAir in 1955 which famously flew Grumman G-21 Gooses throughout the Aleutian Islands.

The Alaska Aviation Museum has many great historic aircraft including a PBY, Grumman Goose, Grumman Widgeon, a Sikorsky S-43 cockpit section, Beech-19 on floats and a Waco YKC on floats among others.

Visit the museums website at: https://alaskaairmuseum.org

On this episode Steve is in Sausalito, California with Aaron Singer of Aero Adventures. Commodore Center Seaplane Base, where Aero Adventures operates, dates back to the romance of the Pan Am Clipper Ships.

The base has an amazing safety record and a colorful history as the location where Otis Redding wrote "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay," and as a recording location for artists such as the Greatful Dead, Janis Joplin, Carlos Santana and Jefferson Airplane among many others.

Today Aero Adventures has endured challenges by the local community. With SPA's help, it continues to offer flightseeing operations off of the mud (listen to the episode to learn more), where customers can fly over Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay and the amazingly beautiful Pacific Coast.

Join Amanda and Steve McCaughey for a discussion about both the Clear Lake Splash-In and the growing vision and opportunities for seaplanes at this Northern California secret gem.

Clear Lake is the largest lake fully within the state of California, with over 100 miles of shoreline, and yet the region is sparsely populated and under visited. Of specific interest to seaplane pilots, the lake has 100 years of seaplane activity with everything from the Pan Am Clipper ships to the military using the lake as a primary location for PBY, PBM and Martin Mars training.

Our thanks to Herb Lingl, the Skylark Resort, the city of Lakeport and all of the volunteers who made this event such a success.

Join our team of Clear Lake Splash-In volunteers by emailing us at [email protected]

The SPA team is small, hardworking and known for moving mountains for our members. Slade joined the SPA team in 2021 and has traveled extensively supporting our mission, largely became our goto solution for maintaining, wrangling and implementing our technology needs amongst the many other demands put on the team.

With great regret, but simultaneous support Slade will be leaving the team to pursue the next chapter of his aviation career. Join Slade and Steve for a little reminiscing and a bittersweet farewell for now...

On this episode I am joined by Steve Anderson, President of Aviat Aircraft as we explore the Husky. Let's be honest, there are very few certified bush/seaplanes being made today. The Aviat Husky is a two place American made and owned aircraft that has the capability to fill a mission few current production aircraft. It boasts a higher gross weight than any other current two seat aircraft, a higher cruise speed, great STOL and low speed performance. Not to mention, folding and adjustable seats and many other innovations.

Learn more about the Aviat Husky at https://aviataircraft.com/

Jack Jacobson and Amy Fenwick from the Washington Seaplane Pilots Association join Steve McCaughey on this episode to provide a recap of the 2023 Tanglefoot Seaplane Splash-In on Priest Lake, Idaho.

Perfectly calm, cool and clear weather welcomed over 30 seaplanes and their pilots. This amazing event which was hosted by the WSPA and Fenwick family at their amazing seaplane base nestled within the backcountry of Northern Idaho, just 40 miles from the Canadian border.

Whether we want to discuss it or not, having seaplane owners and operators being the best possible stewards of the environment is not an optional topic. The spread of aquatic invasive species (AIS) is not limited to the waters of the United States, aquatic ecosystems arounds the world are being infected by non-native aquatic invaders.

Sid Pinney from Turbo Float Pump has been working with the Seaplane Pilots Association for over two years on the topic of this episode, the "Turbo Float Pump." This cordless drill powered float pump actually includes a field replaceable filter that allows seaplane pilots to pump their floats without risking the discharge of any aquatic invasive species.

The Turbo Float Pump is a great development that will help SPA and seaplane pilots continue to prove that:

1) We care about the environment

2) We are committed to proactively addressing the threat of AIS to our waterways

3) We are working to ensure that we are matching and/or exceeding the efforts that are being asked of other users groups like the boating community

Aquatic Invasive Species are second only to Safety issues at SPA, as they have become our largest threat to water access, so we highly encourage all seaplane pilots to stay informed on this topic and listen to this episode.

TurboFloatPump.com

SPA Board Member Harry Shannon joins Steve McCaughey to review our recent SPA advocacy tour through Alaska. During the trip SPA conducted numerous safety workshops, visited Alaska Seaplanes' amazing operation in Juneau and attended the Great Alaska Aviation Gathering. The crew traveled over 2,500 miles during the three week trip that included stops in Anchorage, Palmer, Talkeetna, Fairbanks and Juneau.

Toby Ortega from Alaska Seaplanes joins us to discuss what it is like to fly for this industry leading seaplane company. They operate primarily throughout the Southeast Alaska region.

Alaska Seaplanes recently hosted SPA and provided us with a tour and introspection into their growing and amazingly well organized seaplane business while celebrating their 25 year anniversary. Operating over 15 aircraft, half of which are seaplanes, Alaska Seaplanes flies 90,000 passengers and over 2.7 million pounds of cargo annually.

flyalaskaseaplanes.com

Melissa Grabiec has had quite a journey since joining the Seaplane Pilots Association. As a traveling volunteer doing events across the country in her early 20's, to earning her ATP, and flying for a major airline, she is now starting her own seaplane service.

Melissa started her seaplane journey, like many others, at Jack Brown's Seaplane Base in 2012. Eleven years later, she is flying for a major airline and launching Bel-Air Seaplane Service, which is operating off of Messalonskee Lake, in Maine.

This a fun interview with a passionate Lifetime SPA member which is inspirational; especially, to young pilots looking for chase a career in aviation.

https://belairseaplaneservice.com