I was excited to have my wife go with me to fly my floatplane today. We took along the Nikon F5 and I showed her how to use the camera. She turned out to quite a natural behind the lens. The photos are a little grainy since I scanned the 4x6 inch prints.
Storms were coming in from the Gulf of Mexico. The wind was blowing probably a constant 15 miles per hour with 20 mile per hour gusts. I don't mind flying in the wind. I have always said, "Where I grew up (in the Texas panhandle), if you don't fly in the wind, you don't fly." The wind always blew there!
I got the airplane started and put it in the water. I throttled up and she got a great photo of the water spraying from the floats and of the takeoff (See Photos 1-3 Click on the photos to make them larger).
I made a few low passes so my wife could photograph the airplane in the air (See Photos 4-7).
After flying for a while and making some low passes, a loop and a touch and go, I landed the plane. I didn't want to keep my wife out too long. In Photo 8, I had just landed and I taxied back into the wind to bring the plane to the shore. In Photo 9, you see some grass sticking up out of the water. I throttled up and skimmed right over the grass and onto the shore (Photo 10).
This little lake that I have designated "Float Plane Lake Number 3" is going to be a lot of fun!
