Alaska Float Ratings

Welcome. You've discovered Vern Kingsford's Alaska Float Ratings. We are the original Alaska Float Ratings. I've been teaching and providing the "Fly the Wild Alaska" experience since 1975. No one, no other school, can equal or compare to our location, equipment or instructors.

My website is dedicated to this fact: You want a school in Alaska with the finest equipment that will offer you the best experience at the best location. A school that gives you the most value for your time and investment. You've found it.

"My brother, Jeff, raved about his experience at Alaska Float Ratings in Moose Pass. I went to another school in Alaska and was very disappointed. I'm going to see Vern in Moose Pass next summer for sure."

Tim, July 2011

Live Your Dream -

Fly your Wild Adventure!

in "The Ultimate Alaska Bush Plane"

our PA-18 Super Cub

* New for 2012 - All AFR Study Materials are now available on this website, click here. FAA-H-8083-23 Seaplane Operations Handbook is available also on our completely revamped website. Look under AFR Study Materials on the left sidebar.

Flying one of our Super Cubs around Alaska is absolutely the adventure of your lifetime. Watch the slideshow - Spot Adventures - and retrace the flight of one of our students flying with Darlene (one of our CFIs).

*Alaska Pilots - Attention - You must read this regarding SES Training Lake Hood .

What you will miss -

I cannot emphasize enough, to read the articles by

by Barbara Rowel, Going for Water Wings,

and Patrick Mathews, Read the Water, Floatplane Flying in Alaska,

and the many other articles written by our former students.

In these articles you will discover why pilots from
all walks of life come to this mountain location to earn their seaplane ratings in our Super Cubs.

WARNING! Some schools put you in the back seat of old J-3s or use old PA-22s or Taylorcrafts. Alaska Float Ratings uses the classic of Alaska airplanes --- the PA-18 Super Cub, and we're saving the front seat for you.

Trail lake in Moose Pass

"On approach, YOU are in the Front seat."

Challenging Backcountry Flying

"An adventure the moment you leave the dock!"

B.N. former Navy carrier pilot, now retired airline pilot

"It was like my primary military flight instruction. I wouldn't have gone anywhere else."

Joe, Navy helicopter pilot, June 2011

"Wish I'd signed up for the ten hour course. I would have loved to had time to explore more lakes in the mountains."

Megan, commuter pilot, June 2011

"I've had a lot of flights in my over 10,000 hours. The last exploring flight I had here was a Flight of a Lifetime!"

Chris, UPS pilot, June 2011

"Powerful forces created the extraordinary topography of Alaska's Kenai Peninsula.

Mother Nature had also created one of Earth's most challenging and

spectacular aviation environments."

Read the Water, Floatplane Flying in Alaska by Patrick Mathews

AOPA Magazine, September 2002 Volume 45 / Number 9

Fly in "canyons where glaciers, mountains, and lakes

are stacked together in narrow sheer-walled valleys."

Going for Water Wings by Barbara Rowell

Plane and Pilot, January 1994

"Alaska Float Ratings has the most professional,

comprehensive, and organized course

I have experienced in the civilian world."

P. N., former USAF F-15 pilot, now airline pilot

J.J. Frey, one of the most knowledgeable people in the world

about seaplane flying, a sought-after speaker,

author of the best selling book "How to Fly Floats,"

and former President of EDO Corporation says,

"If you want more than just a rating, Then go see Vern.

I highly recommend Alaska Float Ratings."

Find out why we say on take off: "Ready to rock and roll."

Click on Registration for date availability.

800 478 - 1449 or email us.

"I will redefine your expectations of flight training." Vern

Nervous When Flying Below the Mountain Tops?

"You do not rise to the occassion,

You rise to the level of your training and practise."

I came to realize this after years as a CFI, and

Director of Training for a commuter airlines.

Vern Kingsford

Would you like to feel comfortable when flying in the mountains?

Do you want to improve your flying skills, or emergency procedures?

Do you sometimes lack confidence, not sure what to do next?

This is the flight school for you!

Read what Karen, owner of a CE-172, discovered when she came to Moose Pass. You can read why she says to earn your seaplane rating here when you click on Read More below.

Important Message to Alaska Pilots regarding Lake Hood

"The airlines and the military have invested millions of dollars designing simulators to provide realistic training devices. I just moved to Trail Lake to provide you a genuine mountain flying and bush flying experience."

I love Lake Hood. When I first started flying as a charter pilot/guide for the late Jack Lee’s Air Service and instructing off Lake Hood in 1973, watching and listening to the float planes, especially the Beavers, thrilled me, and it still does.

Cub Flying to Bench and Johnson Lakes

But by 1991, watching, listening, waiting for ATC clearance, the long taxi, waiting for Rust’s fleet or the gaggle of float planes on weekends, was costing my students valuable time from their dual session. Also it was cutting into their time and money they had budgeted for their lessons. Now, in 2012, it is even more congested.

Real Alaska Flying

What do I mean by "Real Alaska Bush Flying"?

That our location in this rugged mountainous environment provides you the ultimate conditions to experience Alaska Bush Flying, mountain flying, and earn an SES rating too. You will not have ATC, ATIS, Unicom, or even a windsock. You are on your own. You will not have runways, either paved or dirt. You wlll determine the wind direction and velocity.

You will have actual tiny, remote, mountain lakes midst steep, tight, narrow canyons, where you will learn to read the water and choose where you must land. You will experience the "Real Deal." What I call "Real Alaska Bush Flying," or some call it flying in the Wild Alaska.