If you've ever wanted to experience the feeling of gliding on the surface of the water, but don't have skis, a rope, or even a boat, just jump into a Piper Cub, grab a few buddies and get wet with the formation airplane water skiing craze. Watch as this trio of pilots demonstrate how to use hydroplaning to their advantage.
Even the earliest aviation pioneers dreamt of combing air and sea into machines that could travel on the wind and the waves. Ok, so a flying boat might be out of the question so why not simply strap some floats to that Super Cub? That's a tried and true floatplane method, but I ain't got time for that. Just drop the tires and make a wake.
As part of the High Sierra backcountry outing, a group of Cub pilot's decided to up the ante and add water operations to list of high altitude gravel, dirt, and sand landings throughout the weeklong event in the western Nevada mountains. There's obviously an element of risk involved with this stunt, but it appears the pilot's managed to not end up like this guy.
Flying a plane with dedicated floats requires additional training to earn a seaplane pilot certificate. This might be the best way to experience being a seaplane pilot without bothering with all that messy training on how to actually land or takeoff on water. As always, apologies for sharing a video that replaces the wonderful airplane noises with some sort of music soundtrack, but enjoy the beautiful scenery and the amazing flying none-the-less.
Just to ease your mind, its a fairly common practice for bush pilots to use water assisted landings and takeoffs on short restricted areas like sand bars and small beaches. This assistant has a 2-fold advantage. First, the water surface gives an extended takeoff and landing distance. Second, it increases the drag, slowing the airplane quicker and allows for shorter stopping distance where space is limited.
Photo Credit: wikimedia