Task I.I
Water and Seaplane Characteristics, Seaplane Bases, Maritime Rules, and Aids to Marine Navigation (ASES, AMES)
To determine the applicant exhibits satisfactory knowledge, risk management, and skills associated with water and seaplane characteristics, seaplane bases, maritime rules, and aids to marine navigation.
References: AIM; Chart Supplements; FAA-H-8083-2, FAA-H-8083-3, FAA-H-8083-23, FAA-H-8083-25; POH/AFM; USCG Navigation Rules
Quick Review
Conversational Q&A — quiz yourself before the oral.
ASES and AMES applicants only. You already read water for the private seaplane rating; the commercial version is about operating on shared water for hire — where the vessel traffic, the base restrictions, and the marine rules stop being scenery and start being the operating environment you are paid to work in.
I check these before committing, because the surface changes hour to hour:
- Size and location — length of the run available with the wind you actually have, and what surrounds it
- Protected versus unprotected areas — a lee shore is calm and may also be where the debris and the boats are
- Surface wind — read wind streaks and foam lines; foam spills off the downwind side of ripples
- Direction and strength of water current — rivers and tidal areas change your effective run length and your taxi and sailing behavior
- Floating and partially submerged debris — worst after storms and at river mouths
- Sandbars, islands, and shoals — position changes with season and water level
- Vessel traffic and wakes — a wake can be usable chop or a hazard depending on size and angle
- Direction and height of waves, plus swell systems that persist from distant or older winds and may not match the local wind
A recon pass over an unfamiliar area before committing is standard practice, and it is the answer the examiner wants for S1.
Because swell and local wind are two different systems and can disagree by 90 degrees or more. Swell carries the energy of distant or earlier wind; the surface ripples carry today's.
Operationally: you land parallel to large swells rather than through them — touching down across a swell system means contacting the face of one swell at a rate the floats were not designed to absorb. When the swell direction and the wind direction conflict, you are trading crosswind handling against swell impact, and the swell usually wins the argument on a large swell.
Glassy water removes the height cues entirely and demands the glassy-water technique with a fixed attitude, fixed power, and a known descent rate. Rough water sets a structural limit — at some sea state the correct answer is not to land.
- Floats add weight, frontal area, and wetted surface, so a float-equipped airplane accepts a lower useful load, a slower cruise, a reduced rate of climb, and a lower service ceiling than the same airframe on wheels.
- The step is the structural break in the float or hull bottom that lets the airplane break free of the water's suction and plane. Everything about takeoff technique — getting on the step, holding the planing attitude — follows from that geometry.
- Deadrise (the V of the hull or float bottom) trades rough-water capability against smooth-water drag: a deeper V handles chop better and takes longer to unstick.
- Float compartments and bulkheads provide buoyancy redundancy; that is why pumping the float compartments during preflight is not optional, and why a single compartment taking water is survivable while an unnoticed one is not.
- Flying-boat hulls carry the buoyancy in the fuselage with wingtip floats for lateral stability; that lowers drag but puts the hull structure into the water loads directly.
Porpoising is a rhythmic pitching oscillation on the step, driven by an incorrect pitch attitude — too nose-low or too nose-high for the speed — so the hydrodynamic force alternately in front of and behind the step drives the nose down and up in a divergent cycle.
Correction: re-establish the correct planing attitude with smooth, positive elevator — do not chase the oscillation, because inputs applied out of phase amplify it. If the oscillation is diverging or you cannot stop it promptly, add power and go around (or abort the takeoff and come off the step), then start over. The parallel to a landplane porpoise is exact, and AFH's guidance there applies: untimely control and power inputs often increase the oscillation, and when it is severe or worsening the safest procedure is the go-around (AFH ch. 9).
Skipping is a series of small bounces — the airplane attempting to fly and then settling back onto the surface — typically from touching down at too high a speed or too flat an attitude, or from landing across a swell so the airplane contacts successive swell faces (AFH ch. 9 describes the landplane analogue).
The distinction to state cleanly: porpoising is an oscillation in pitch on the step; skipping is repeated separation from and re-contact with the surface. Both are corrected the same way — establish the correct attitude and, if it does not stop immediately, go around. And both are prevented the same way: correct approach speed and correct touchdown attitude for the surface you actually have.
- Sectional charts depict seaplane bases with an anchor symbol.
- The Chart Supplement carries the water aerodrome entries — the FAA's listing of data on record for all open-to-the-public airports, seaplane bases, heliports, and military facilities, including operating restrictions, docking, ramps, and fuel (AFH glossary).
- NOTAMs cover the time-critical items: closures, cables, seasonal hazards.
- The base operator or a local pilot fills the gap charts cannot: uncharted cables, submerged pilings, shifting sandbars, seasonal debris, and the local agreements.
Restrictions you will actually encounter: hours of operation, noise-abatement routes and shoreline avoidance, no-wake zones, prohibited landing areas, seasonal closures for wildlife, and restrictions on carrying passengers or conducting commercial operations at a given base. For a commercial operation, confirm you have the base's authorization for that operation, not just permission to land.
91.115 sets right-of-way in five paragraphs:
- (a) General — each person operating an aircraft on the water must, insofar as possible, keep clear of all vessels and avoid impeding their navigation, and give way to any vessel or aircraft given right-of-way by this section
- (b) Crossing — when aircraft, or an aircraft and a vessel, are on crossing courses, the one to the other's right has the right-of-way
- (c) Head-on — each shall alter course to the right to keep well clear
- (d) Overtaking — the one being overtaken has the right-of-way; the overtaking craft alters course to keep well clear
- (e) Special circumstances — when risk of collision exists, each shall proceed with careful regard to existing circumstances, including the limitations of the respective craft
The practical translation: on the water you are a vessel, you are among the least maneuverable and least privileged things out there, and paragraph (a) means the burden is on you even when a later paragraph seems to favor you.
- Lateral marks — red right returning. Returning from sea, red nun buoys mark the right side of the channel; green can buoys mark the left. The channel is between them.
- Junction / preferred-channel marks — horizontally banded red and green; the top band's color indicates the preferred channel.
- Isolated danger and safe-water marks — a hazard with navigable water around it, or mid-channel safe water.
- Regulatory and informational marks — white with orange bands and geometric shapes: a circle for controlled areas (speed limits, no-wake), a diamond for danger, a crossed diamond for exclusion (swim areas, dams), and a square for information.
- Lights, sound signals, and range markers — ranges are pairs of markers you align to hold a channel centerline.
Treat marked swim, mooring, and exclusion areas as absolute no-go, and remember these are marine aids maintained for boats: they are placed for hull draft, not for a float bottom.
A Naval Vessel Protection Zone is a 500-yard regulated area of water surrounding large U.S. naval vessels, established to provide for the safety or security of those vessels (33 CFR 165.2015). Official patrol personnel are authorized to permit entry into the zone and to give legally enforceable orders to persons or vessels within it. Treat the zone as a hard exclusion unless you have been permitted in — enforcement is armed and immediate.
Before your checkride, look up the inner approach distance and the speed and communication requirements in 33 CFR 165.2020 and the local Captain of the Port rules — the definitions section does not carry them.
No-wake zones are speed-restricted areas — marinas, mooring fields, canals, congested shorelines, and areas marked by white-and-orange circular regulatory buoys. A step taxi produces a substantial wake, so a no-wake zone means idle taxi or displacement taxi only. The practical consequence for a commercial operation: plan a departure path that gets you clear of the no-wake area before you need the run, because you cannot make up the distance once you are in it.
- Local conditions (R1) — the water you did not grow up on. Tide, current, seasonal debris, and water level change the usable area from day to day, and your customer's schedule does not.
- Marine traffic (R2) — the busy weekend water is also the water your passengers want to fly from. Boat operators generally do not know what a seaplane will do, cannot hear you, and will not yield.
- Right-of-way and sailing rules (R3) — you are operating under 91.115 and under the USCG Navigation Rules simultaneously, and 91.115(a) puts the burden on you to keep clear regardless.
- Limited services and assistance (R4) — no tower, often no fuel, no maintenance, and no ground handling. A dead battery or a docking mishap that would be a phone call at an airport is a recovery operation on the water.
The mitigation that covers most of it: brief passengers thoroughly before boarding — boarding and exiting, life vest location and use, what to touch and what not to, and what you will say if you need them silent — because on the water there is no one else to help you manage them.
Official ACS elementsreference
Knowledge18 elements
The applicant demonstrates understanding of:
CA.I.I.K1The characteristics of a water surface as affected by features, such as:CA.I.I.K1aSize and locationCA.I.I.K1bProtected and unprotected areasCA.I.I.K1cSurface windCA.I.I.K1dDirection and strength of water currentCA.I.I.K1eFloating and partially submerged debrisCA.I.I.K1fSandbars, islands, and shoalsCA.I.I.K1gVessel traffic and wakesCA.I.I.K1hOther characteristics specific to the areaCA.I.I.K1iDirection and height of wavesCA.I.I.K2Float and hull construction, and its effect on seaplane performance.CA.I.I.K3Causes of porpoising and skipping, and the pilot action needed to prevent or correct these occurrences.CA.I.I.K4How to locate and identify seaplane bases on charts or in directories.CA.I.I.K5Operating restrictions at various bases.CA.I.I.K6Right-of-way, steering, and sailing rules pertinent to seaplane operation.CA.I.I.K7Marine navigation aids, such as buoys, beacons, lights, sound signals, and range markers.CA.I.I.K8Naval vessel protection zones.CA.I.I.K9No wake zones.
Risk Management4 elements
The applicant is able to identify, assess, and mitigate risk associated with:
CA.I.I.R1Local conditions.CA.I.I.R2Impact of marine traffic.CA.I.I.R3Right-of-way and sailing rules pertinent to seaplane operations.CA.I.I.R4Limited services and assistance available at seaplane bases.
Skills6 elements
The applicant exhibits the skill to:
CA.I.I.S1Assess the water surface characteristics for the proposed flight.CA.I.I.S2Identify restrictions at local seaplane bases.CA.I.I.S3Identify marine navigation aids.CA.I.I.S4Describe correct right-of-way, steering, and sailing operations.CA.I.I.S5Explain how float and hull construction can affect seaplane performance.CA.I.I.S6Describe how to correct for porpoising and skipping.