AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2016 - 76
hundred pounds of gear) gets more nimble as it lightens.
We use 5 degrees of flaps in cruise for the first hour before
raising them all the way.
The Beaver looks brutish and ungainly on the ground.
Fully loaded on a warm afternoon like this, its climb rate
is barely 400 feet per minute. But the airplane is surprisingly responsive in the air with light, harmonious controls.
The leg to our first destination, Hungry Jack Lodge,
will take about 2.5 flight hours-about 30 minutes less
than expected, thanks to the tailwind.
"We're not here for a long time," Schanche quips.
"We're here for a good time."
We turn inland near the Grand Marais seaplane base
and the bumpy air returns. Unlike the endlessly flat,
largely agricultural prairie of southern Minnesota, the terrain here is hilly, rocky, and pristine. Long, narrow glacial
lakes are carved in a northwest-to-southeast orientation,
usually connected by winding creeks and marshy bogs.
"Look for moose in the meadows," Schanche says.
"That's usually where you'll find them this time of day."
I point out a pair of large birds circling ahead and presume they are vultures. On closer inspection, however, they
turn out to be bald eagles. AOPA Senior Photographer Mike
Fizer spies a pair of moose from the Skywagon, an adult
female and her calf. I come up empty on the moose hunt and
76 | AOPA PILOT April 2016
THE FINER POINTS of
real-world seaplane
operations-such as
docking (below)-are
refined and practiced
during multiday flying
journeys.
start looking for our destination, which is on the edge
of the Boundary Waters, a million-acre wilderness
area on the Canadian border that draws canoeists,
kayakers, and fishermen from all over the world.
We overfly the lodge, at the tip of a narrow peninsula, and note that the small sand beach in front
of the main building is vacant-and so is the dock
at the rear of the building. The wind at the surface
is sheltered by tall pines and ash trees, and ripples
on the water show that conditions favor landing
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2016
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