When i pulled the piper super cub's throttle control to idle I had one of those, "Oh, yeah," moments as I reacquainted myself with seaplane flying. There's a lot of drag in those amphibious floats. Pull the power all the way back and you'd better look directly down for your landing spot-except my desired landing area was just ahead, so I nudged the throttle in a little and soon was touching down on the St. Croix River east of St. Paul, Minnesota. My first water landing in more than a year was OK, but only with some coaching from the backseat where I think I heard Darin Meggers give a sigh of relief after we touched down safely. A brisk breeze provided a bit of chop on the river-plenty of texture to judge height above the surface. With the water rudders stowed, I pushed the throttle all the way in and pulled back on the stick, trying to finesse the sweet spot. Again, with coaching from Meggers, the Cub climbed onto the step, and seconds later we were back in the air for another trip around the patch.
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