Anyone else go to the Float Plane Seminar at Lake Hood today

[Alex Clark]

The external load presentation was good.

The FAA answers and questions was ok if you could hear it, the hanger was kinda echo'ee.

The runway incursion could have been good with some talk of seaplane manners and boat right of way issues , but instead it centered around big airport problems.

The web cam stuff was good for any general Alaska aviation topic.

I ended up flying over to Merrill and buying a bunch of stuff from Northern Lights during the last hour. I had to since the shop closes early on saturday.

So did I miss anything good at the end?? The burgers and old friends were the best part of the day.

My front seat is hard as a board so my butt still hurts after 2 hours up and 2 hours home. I gotta get some sort of super space age foam for that thing.

[Dello400]

Alex your J-3 looks like real fun bird to fly. You have it set up a lot like the J-3 Atlee had. Sorry I missed meeting you, there wasn't anybody around when I checked her out.

I really enjoyed Mike Yorke's external load section. The best advice he had was ask around somebody has tried it. Learn from their mistakes not trial and error.

The sad part about the seminar was the lake of young people. I'm 35 and felt like the kid of the bunch. The people that needed to be there were not.

I wish they would have talked about arrival and departure procedures for Lake Hood and Merrill. From what i've noticed everybody could use some tuning in that department.

Hope to make next years and try to remind anybody I can think of.

[hooligan]

My friend from Kenai and I stuck it out for the eight hours. Eight hours in our Tcraft's are much better than those chairs...lol!

All in all,I think the seminar was worthwhile and good information was shared. I too would have liked to see a larger attendance,particularly,younger people.

Within a few years the plan is have the entire state blanketed with weather cameras,an expensive endeavor but promotes safety.

I asked if the FAA/GOV safety website had a forum to exchange information and I was told,"Oh yeah"! Damned if I can find it!!!

Jim hartley/Palmer,Alaska

[Alex Clark]

Dello, My J-3 / PA-11 is a flying advertisement for Atlee Dodge STCs. That is why it looks like his. Last year he tried to talk me into putting another 18 gallon tank on the other side. If it was just for me to fly around, I would. I get about 4 hours out of her now.
My front seat is REALLY hard under that limp foam cushion. So you can only handle about one or two hours in there at a time anyway.

I hope I did not make too much noise when I pulled up out in the parking lot. Even at 75 mph with a 10 mph headwind, it was still faster than driving up from Homer.