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Live your Dream
Experience Real Bush and Mountain Flying in Moose Pass, Alaska
Fly a PA-18 Super Cub - The Ultimate Alaskan Bush Plane 

62P on shore in fall 

N62P on Upper Trail Lake shore in September.
Looks similar to mid-May soon after the lake thaws.

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Welcome to

Alaska Float RatingsIcebergs from Cub


If you are not completely satisfied with your                     
  •    flying skills,
  •    emergency procedures,
  •    mountain-flying techniques....

  This is the flight school for you!

"Alaska Float Ratings has the most professional, comprehensive, and organized course I have experienced in the civilian world." Former USAF F-15 pilot, now airline pilot.

"I highly recommend Alaska Float Ratings." J.J. Frey, former President of EDO Corporation and author of How to Fly Floats.

Click here to read Vern's latest lesson:  Lesson Four - Pitch, Power, and Trim, A Philosophy to Fly By, A Philosophy to Survive By.

Please study this website. We'll be glad to answer your questions. 

We curently have openings from mid-May to mid-September 2010.

Contact us at:  

  800 478 - 1449     or    e-mail:  

Alaska Floatplane Safari

If you’ve always dreamed of being a bush pilot flying a Super Cub on floats around Alaska, experiencing the thrill of flying over glaciers, landing on remote mountain lakes, and listening to the sounds of nature, then book our Alaska Floatplane Safari

If you bring a spouse, friend, or relative fly in our Cessna 172 on floats. Or if you bring your family or friends fly in our Cessna U206 on our Alaska Floatplane Safari .

Floatplane at Lake Hood

*** We will base an airplane again at Lake Hood in Anchorage for pilots on layovers, corporate pilots with short stays, and pilots who don’t have time to come to Moose Pass who want an Introductory Seaplane Lesson, or a Float Refresher Flight.***

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2010

We're looking forward to a great 2010 summer season - mountain flying, seaplane flying, and floatplane safaris. Some activities you may be able to read about, but flying is such a kinetic skill you must perform the movements yourself. Doing it with a CFI behind you in the Super Cub is an effective way of learning while keeping you safe to practice new flying techniques. 

Parts of August are already booked (check out availability on the Registration Form page), so be sure to email us if you're planning on coming to Moose Pass this year.

Our same pilot/CFI crew will be back again this year. They sure know the terrain and weather conditions in our locale.

Vern's Lesson Five is now on the website. Click on the Vern's Lessons tab on the left of this home page to read it.

Guess who flew us from Buneos Aires to Johannesburg - one of our former students from fifteen years ago! I'm sure earning her SES from Alaska Float Ratings must have somehow aided her in becoming South African Airways' first female captain a few years ago.  

Jane in Cockpit

   Meet Captain Jane Trembath in the cockpit of one of SAA's A340s.


  Why get your single engine sea rating?

  Read what Karen wrote in September:
A couple of weeks ago I got my seaplane rating (SES) at Alaska Float Ratings in Moose Pass, Alaska . It was the best flying experience I've ever had!

Flying floats was amazing but even more impressive was the quality of the instruction. Vern Kingsford (the Designated Examiner) and his instructors completely changed the way I think about flying. Their lessons were thorough, challenging and very, very educational. I learnt more about engery management, mountian flying, reading the wind and "flying the plane" in one week than I have in my entire four years of flying as a private pilot.

During the course we met several other pilots, all with thousands of hours of flying experience (including ATP and military pilots). They all agreed - every pilot should take this course. To quote one pilot after his first float lesson "I get in my plane, dial in the numbers and manage the cockpit. That ain't flying; THIS is flying".

So if you love being taken out of your comfort zone because it will make you better; if you want to be a safer pilot and if you want to have the best fun flying give Vern a call. You won't be disappointed. Karen 2009
 
  Like to read more? Check out the latest piece written by York who passed his
Single Engine Sea checkride in September 2009. Got my Rating!
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Student Quotes

I vividly remember a moment when you and I were standing at the edge of your floating dock before I went up.  As I was (and still consider myself) newly certified SES pilot, you said something to the effect of, the VERY first thing you want to do, before preflight, is to know the wind. Direction, speed and the way it will move in relation to your environment.  I'm happy to say that I ask myself that regardless of what I am flying and where.

Bob R., 2006, New York