Seaplane simulator — a classic bush plane on floats, taking off and landing on water, in the browser

A floatplane on the water is a vessel, and the hard part of her day is not the flying: it is the taxi across a busy harbour at idle, the nose that swings into the wind on its own, and the landing on glassy water that hides your height. Skippers meet her in the fairway and do not know what she will do; pilots meet the Collision Regulations and do not know what they owe a sailing yacht. The SEA PLANE in the SkipperCheck simulator puts both in the same seat: a classic bush float plane, on a real sea, among real ships and real skippers. You can fly her now in the browser, on your phone too.

The boat

She is a classic bush float plane in SkipperCheck colours — white over navy, an orange cheat line, no registration. The figures are the type's: a 450 hp nine-cylinder radial on a two-blade constant-speed propeller, 2.3 t at take-off weight, a 14.6 m span, 23 m² of wing, about 10 m long on her floats. In a harbour she counts as a 10 m boat by her floats (10 × 3.4 m, 0.6 m draught with the water rudders down), and lines, fenders and MAKE FAST work for her as for every other boat.

On the water she is a vessel under the COLREGs. In general she keeps well clear of all vessels and avoids impeding their navigation, and where risk of collision exists she follows the steering and sailing rules — Rule 18(e). Her lights are as near as practicable to a power-driven vessel's under Rule 31: sidelights at the wingtips, a sternlight on the rudder, an all-round white on the fin. In the air she is an aeroplane: the ships take no notice of her, she raises no collision alarm, and she drops off their radar.

The 3-D view is built for her: the pilot's left seat over the round cowl with its nine cylinders, live gauges, a yoke instead of a ship's wheel. The flaps and ailerons move, the water rudders swing up, spray flies when she ploughs, on the step and at a touchdown. In flight the camera takes her height, pitch and bank, and from 3,000 ft the Gulf coast shows some 17–20 NM. The sound is made live from the simulation — her radial and propeller, the starter, the wind, the water along the floats — muffled inside her cabin.

What you learn on her

• The controls. The lever is the THROTTLE (no reverse). On the water the wheel is the rudder: the WATER RUDDERS (key R, DOWN / UP) steer her at taxi speed, the air rudder takes over with speed and power. In the air the wheel banks her. The YOKE (W push, S pull, N neutral) holds her nose attitude in the air and her trim on the water. FLAPS: UP, T/O, LAND. HOLD keeps her height and heading in the air. MAGNETOS (X) stop or start the engine.
• Taxiing and weathervaning. Taxi at idle, about 6 kn, water rudders down. Slow, her big fin turns her nose into the wind, and from about 20 kn of wind she will not turn downwind at idle — a burst of power, or let her sail backwards. Between about 8 and 20 kn she ploughs: nose high, spray in the propeller, blind ahead. Do not stay there.
• Take-off on water. Into the wind, flaps T/O, water rudders UP, full power, yoke back over the hump. At about 20 kn she climbs on the step: ease the yoke to neutral — too flat and she porpoises. Right rudder against the torque. She lifts off at about 55–60 kn after about 350 m in calm water, much less into a wind; climb at 75–85 kn, cruise 105–120 kn.
• Flying her. A bank turns her (30° at 100 kn: about 6° a second). Too much nose for the power and she stalls — about 57 kn flaps up, 48 with LAND flaps, more in a bank: yoke forward, full power, wings level. The wind drifts her: her track is not her heading. The sky ends at 3,000 ft.
• Landing on water. Into the wind, flaps LAND, water rudders UP, about 65 kn and 400–500 ft/min down, then flare and touch down on the step at 45–55 kn, wings level, no drift. Too hard, too fast, too flat or a wing down and she bounces, porpoises or crashes. Glassy water hides your height: hold a nose-up attitude and a slow sink and wait for the water. Then idle, water rudders down under 10 kn.
• The rules, from both sides. Among the COLREG traffic you practise Rule 18(e) as the plane, and from any other vessel you learn to read a seaplane's lights (Rule 31) and her behaviour on the water.
• The wind. Every take-off and landing is into it, every taxi fights it. PRACTICE WIND sets 0–50 kn from any point, with gusts and veering, to rehearse a crosswind taxi before you meet one.
• Recovering a run. ↶ 5 MIN / 30 MIN BACK puts you back five minutes or half an hour of sailing ago — usually just before the porpoise or the stall.
• A flight stick. CONTROLLER takes any pad or a flight-sim stick, yoke, rudder pedals or throttle quadrant: the yoke on the left stick, the throttle on RT, the flaps on LB / RB.

The sea is real

Free Mode starts in the Gulf of Riga off the Daugava mouth; AREA switches to any of 107 real harbours — you start inside it, afloat. The whole Baltic is there to taxi and fly over, the major lighthouses lit at night; with the simulator subscription the coasts, harbours and basins come in detail, loaded as she moves.

The wind is today's: REAL is the live wind, MET Norway's forecast where you are, and so is the weather — cloud, rain, snow, fog and the visibility they leave. The sun stands where it really stands, the real moon and stars at night. The sea state is worked out by the simulator from the wind over the water, so a landing in a fresh breeze is not the landing of a calm. The CURRENT tile shows the water moving — the Daugava runs by its monthly discharge for today's date — and it drifts a taxiing seaplane as it does any hull.

Around you is the radar PPI with AIS targets and CPA / TCPA, a chart on OpenSeaMap, and traffic that behaves under the COLREGs — a 183 m tanker and a 260 m cruise ship always among it.

Shared sea — other real people on the water

The shared sea is one sea for everyone, at TIME ×1. The other boats on your radar and through your window are other skippers' boats, sailing now, so the COLREGs are for real: a yacht that does not know what a floatplane will do, a tanker in the fairway, another float plane. Your plane is drawn in their 3-D view at her height, pitch and flaps, and the moment you lift off she drops off their radar. A practice wind is yours only; the others keep the real wind. Logged in, SHARED SEA is on by default — one live sea for everyone at ×1 — and you can switch it off.

Classroom and the scenario builder — for schools, clubs and instructors

With ✎ SCENARIO BUILDER an instructor builds an exercise over the chart: a name and the brief; the place — any harbour of the Gulf of Riga or the Baltic; the OWN VESSEL, the sea plane among them, in the harbour, UNDER WAY or MADE FAST; TIME & WEATHER with a clock time on any date, the wind, gusts and veering, visibility down to thick fog; ⊕ VESSELS with their type and place in Rule 18, on a course, a route or at anchor; ▱ AREAS and TRIGGERS that close the fog or change the wind when she enters a zone. ⇗ MAKE A LINK packs the whole scenario into the link itself — nothing is stored on our server.

🎓 CLASSROOM → TEACH opens a private class: FREE SAILING, a SCENARIO, a DOCKING LESSON or a DRILL. OPEN THE CLASS gives a code and a link; up to 30 students join from any browser on the class's own private sea at ×1. The INSTRUCTOR VIEW shows every boat with her track and CPA ring; the instructor can ❚❚ PAUSE ALL, inject 🌫 FOG, a 🌬 WIND change or an ⚙ ENGINE FAILURE — a dead engine in a weathervaning floatplane is a lesson in itself — and ▤ SUMMARY gives per student the closest pass, contacts, groundings and collisions as ⤓ CSV or 🖨 PRINT. TEACH is for the subscriber or instructor; students run shared scenarios for free.

Where she fits

The SEA PLANE lives in Free Mode and the VESSEL picker; in a harbour she takes berths, lines and fenders like any 10 m boat, so taxiing to a pontoon and making fast is a real exercise, though she is not in the Harbour Ready docking lessons. The ✎ SCENARIO BUILDER and 🎓 CLASSROOM take her as any own vessel. Beside her: ⚓ DOCKING in 107 real harbours, the ⛵ REGATTA — THE BALTIC LAP is the first lap, the next will be somewhere else in the world, and the race tells you about every place you pass on its mark cards, ⚑ PILOT, ⛓ TOWING, ⛽ OFFSHORE and ≋ SURVEY for the working vessels, 🛟 MOB drills, ⚠ EMERGENCIES and ☑ PRE-CHARTER, the ECDIS chart plotter unit, the glass bridge of the big ships, and ▶ DEMO to watch a drill done first.

Who it is for

Leisure and professional alike. The charter skipper who wants the first day of the holiday to feel like the fifth, the club sailor keeping an eye in over the winter, the family learning on one boat together — and, on the same sea, the cadet before the first watch, the deck officer brushing up the rules, the instructor who needs a situation the whole class can see. Nothing here is "for beginners only" or "for professionals only": the sea, the rules and the boat's behaviour are the same for everyone, and the simulator judges every run by the same standard.

How to start

Open the simulator and choose Free Mode. Free Mode is open to everyone — no account needed — with the 15 m motor yacht and the 50 ft cruiser LATEKO at up to TIME ×10. The SEA PLANE and every other vessel, the docking, sailing and ECDIS units, the scenario builder and Classroom TEACH come with the simulator subscription; students join shared scenarios free. SHARED SEA and the regatta need a free SkipperCheck login. Our main product is the VHF course (€199): the VHF certificate plus simulator practice is what we call "Charter Ready".

FAQ

Does it run on a Mac or a phone?

Yes. It runs in the browser — Mac, PC, Chromebook, iPad or phone — with nothing to install.

Is the wind real?

Yes. REAL wind is MET Norway's forecast where you are, with the real weather, sun and moon. PRACTICE WIND sets a wind of your own.

Can I fly with friends?

Yes. Logged in, SHARED SEA is one sea for everyone at ×1 time; they see your plane at her height on the water and in the air.

Can a school or club use it?

Yes. An instructor shares a scenario by link or opens a 🎓 CLASSROOM with a code for up to 30 students; students run shared scenarios for free.

Do I get a certificate?

The simulator gives practice, not a certificate. The certificate comes with the VHF course.

Taxi her out, find the wind and go: open the simulator with the SEA PLANE.

Related reading

• COLREG simulator — 54 collision-avoidance exercises on a radar, AIS and bridge-view console, in the browser
• Shared sea simulator — one live sea for every skipper, with today's real wind, weather and COLREG for real
• Jet ski simulator — throttle, steering and the rules of the road for a PWC, in the browser
• Fast motor yacht simulator — 48 knots on surface drives, in the browser
• All articles · Open the simulator

Boat types are described generically; SkipperCheck is not affiliated with any boat builder or class association.