I am the proud owner of an amphib AirCam that I finished in 2017. I have 500 hours and over 3000 logged water landings in it. WaterWings out of Birmingham Alabama was able to give me a MES rating as the FAA deviation allows an owner to earn. One comment that I may share in relation to your comments on a gear down landing in the AirCam: while true in any other seaplane a gear down landing will be a very bad day, it is not necessarily so in an AirCam! I can personally attest. Only one time did it happen and the result was nothing like other seaplane incidents. A bit of water splashing up but nothing bad happened. Another plus for the AirCam! As you look at the AirCam sitting in the water the plane is very rear weighted. Both engines are sitting so far behind the pilot and passenger they keep the nose extremely high. Even the rear of the Clamar floats are sitting underwater. All this being said, I have a big placard on the dash that just says “GEAR?” . I was lucky but the design of the plane is the real reason that it was such a benign event. I’ve heard the folks at Lockwood even boast that the “AirCam is probably one of the safest airplanes ever built”. It is definitely one of the most fun to fly!
I am the proud owner of an amphib AirCam that I finished in 2017. I have 500 hours and over 3000 logged water landings in it. WaterWings out of Birmingham Alabama was able to give me a MES rating as the FAA deviation allows an owner to earn. One comment that I may share in relation to your comments on a gear down landing in the AirCam: while true in any other seaplane a gear down landing will be a very bad day, it is not necessarily so in an AirCam! I can personally attest. Only one time did it happen and the result was nothing like other seaplane incidents. A bit of water splashing up but nothing bad happened. Another plus for the AirCam! As you look at the AirCam sitting in the water the plane is very rear weighted. Both engines are sitting so far behind the pilot and passenger they keep the nose extremely high. Even the rear of the Clamar floats are sitting underwater. All this being said, I have a big placard on the dash that just says “GEAR?” . I was lucky but the design of the plane is the real reason that it was such a benign event. I’ve heard the folks at Lockwood even boast that the “AirCam is probably one of the safest airplanes ever built”. It is definitely one of the most fun to fly!