Although I had often dreamed of building a SeaRey, I had never flown one myself. Pireps such as one done by Aviation Consumer's Jeff Van West whetted my appetite, and in October 2009 I traveled to Florida to have a demo flight and ask hard questions.
I spoke with John and asked him to tell me about all the good things about the airplane and he enthusiastically told me about PA's work getting the 'Rey certified to the LSA standards. Then I tried to sucker him in and asked him about the bad things about the airplane. John was honest about the occasional problems with the landing gear (GULP!), and the planned improvements to it and other parts of the airplane.
Later that morning I flew with Kerry. I had never flown an amphib but after a few minutes Kerry had me doing landings and step taxis with ease. We flew for about 20 minutes, and as an old hang glider pilot at one point I asked how it handled in a power off glide. Kerry reached over and shut the Rotax off and talked me through a full splash no-shit deadstick landing on the lake. Niiiiccceeee....... After we landed and were taxiing in we realized we had not done a stall so we went back up. At ~1,000' Kerry pulled the power off and the nose up, I started singing "Nearer my God to thee" and there was a barely perceptible *bump* for a stall. I went AYFKM?? and Kerry smiled, I did a couple myself and HWFKM. (Of course, a lot will depend on how well I build my wing.)
Yeah, it was as good as I had hoped and I was hooked.
I spoke with John and asked him to tell me about all the good things about the airplane and he enthusiastically told me about PA's work getting the 'Rey certified to the LSA standards. Then I tried to sucker him in and asked him about the bad things about the airplane. John was honest about the occasional problems with the landing gear (GULP!), and the planned improvements to it and other parts of the airplane.
Later that morning I flew with Kerry. I had never flown an amphib but after a few minutes Kerry had me doing landings and step taxis with ease. We flew for about 20 minutes, and as an old hang glider pilot at one point I asked how it handled in a power off glide. Kerry reached over and shut the Rotax off and talked me through a full splash no-shit deadstick landing on the lake. Niiiiccceeee....... After we landed and were taxiing in we realized we had not done a stall so we went back up. At ~1,000' Kerry pulled the power off and the nose up, I started singing "Nearer my God to thee" and there was a barely perceptible *bump* for a stall. I went AYFKM?? and Kerry smiled, I did a couple myself and HWFKM. (Of course, a lot will depend on how well I build my wing.)
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| The SeaRey Smile after my demo flight. |
Yeah, it was as good as I had hoped and I was hooked.
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