"Michael" wrote in message
om...
"C Kingsbury" wrote

My seaplane school made a point of teaching more than the barebones
basics the PTS requires, as they felt that a pilot who knew only the PTS
could not in fact be a safe seaplane pilot.

And they are DEMONSTRABLY right. If the training was adequate, you
could rent a seaplane solo. A flight school that will rent you a
sepalane solo is probably providing adequate seaplane training. One
that won't is not. It's really that simple. Will the seaplane school
you attended rent you the plane solo?

No, ask any insurance agent how many hours you'd need before they'll insure
you solo in a floatplane in Alaska. Actually, I think there are at best five
or six places left that will rent floatplanes solo, for precisely that
reason. I'll be heading up to one of them in Maine next Spring for the
required 10-hour checkout, I'll see how the quality of that training
compares to what I got up North.

With that and five bucks, you can get a cup of coffee at Starbuck's.

Only if it's a small one...

I'd be interested of course to hear why the training approach taken by
All
ATPs is worse than the way most ratings get done everywhere else anyway.

Well, when I did my ATP, I actually took some lessons with a real,
live, practicing ATP

Well, this brings us right back to one of the central iornies of the
aviation world- that most of the training is done by the least-experienced
people.