Top Cub Amphib N13NM

In May, 2023, Tres Clinton of C3 Air purchased a beautiful floatplane. The trip from Gainsville, Georgia back to Texas was interesting... To view the photos and videos, please click on the white navigation arrow. If you would like to learn to fly floats, get in touch with Tres at www.flyc3.com

N13NM all dressed up and ready to go on the ramp at Gainsville, Georgia. I had not flown an amphib for quite awhile but the airplane made it easy with lots of power, extended range tanks and a great panel.

Here is a view of the mighty Mississippi River under beautiful blue skies. Unfortunately the weather would soon deteriorate.

I stopped for fuel and a weather check in Eldorado, Arkansas before the next leg to Shreveport.

Leaving Shreveport's Downtown airport I levelled off at 1000 AGL and headed southwest. The visibility was around 3 to 5 miles in mist. The Top Cub on amphibs only flies at about 85 MPH so this made it easy to stay out of the worst of the rain.

As you can see by the radar image, there was a lot of convective weather around the Shreveport area. I woke up to the sound of thunder and pounding rain so I waited until early afternoon to depart. By then, the storms were diminishing but clouds, low ceilings and showers made the trip a bit "interesting".

This shot of the low clouds southwest of Sheveport reminds me of many hours flying in similar conditions in Southeast Alaska.

There was quite a welcoming committee waiting when I landed back in Burnet. Piper, Mia and Quattro were excited to see daddy Tres's new plane.

Tres is blessed with a wonderful wife who encourages and supports his aviation business. Here, she is getting the "grand tour" of the new airplane.

Kate's father John arranged for an introductory flight in the seaplane so she and I spent an hour touring the Highland Lakes and managed to do a few water landings. As you can tell, we both had a great time.

A couple of days after I returned, Tres Clinton asked me to fly with him for some recurrent training since it had been several years since he had flown a floatplane. We spent a couple of hours doing "splash & goes", practicing various emergency procedures, visiting familiar docking areas and generally having a ball. It's hard to say who had more fun.

Tres showing me how to make a perfect glassy water landing in Lake LBJ

Part of the ASES Practical Test requires demonstration of docking ability. We often use navigational buoys for this. Here, you can see Tres got close enough to grab onto the "dock" in Lake Buchanan.

Part of the ASES Practical Test requires demonstration of docking ability. We often use navigational buoys for this. Here's Tres approaching our bobbing green "dock" in Lake Buchanan.