Float Plane Training / Seaplane Training and Charters in Victoria, BC, Canada

Tesitmonials

We were featured in the May 2007 issue of FLYER Magazine
The Premier flying Magazine in the UK!
Click here to read about Ocean Air!

The Continuing Wow Factor (pdf) - by Roger and Liz Gregory, UK

A husband and wife 'vactioning pilot' team put this seaplane training diary full of float plane techniques, and destination descriptions together and submitted it to their Flying Club Magazine back home. Couldn't have said it better ourselves!

Hey Dave thanks again for everything, Yellowknife is pretty cool, I've been hired hired at Air Tindi!

I took the 50 hour profesional seaplane course at Ocean Air in June 2010 and it was awesome! David Budd and Bryan Webster are great to fly with, both with completely different styles. My skills were being challenged every flight. As soon as I had one skill mastered, they had another skill for me to learn. I was able to bring my girlfriend along for some flights as well, we went to beautiful mountain lakes and places not accesible by road, she had a great time. David did an outstanding job in accomodating my schedule and limited time in Victoria. David is very professional and safe, he does everything the right way without cutting corners. The Cessna 180 is in immaculate condition and is lots of fun to fly. I would reccommend Ocean Air to anyone interested in flying floats!

Joe Leggett - Yellowknife, NWT -- April 2010

It is been just over a year since I completed my float rating with you, and now I have just under 1000 hours on the Twin Otter on Cap floats. I want to thank you so much for fitting me in with such little notice. I loved every minute that I was there in Pat Bay.

The flying here is a lot different then I ever expected. We fly in conditions that I would never think a float plane could survive. We land in 3' to 4' seas constantly and 30 to 40 kt winds are normal during this time of year. The twin otter is an incredible plane and seems to take everything we throw at it. I have personally landed with a 30kt x-wind (only way to parallel the swell) many times. You would not believe the short take off runs we can do when the wind is that strong.

I am planning to spend at least another year out here, it is defiantly an amazing job. I love it here, although the local people can be a bit much sometimes but you learn to deal with it. If you take a vacation every once in a while you are fine. Actually that is one of the best perks of the job, you have a paid vacation every 3 months, so far I have been to Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Philippines and Sri Lanka. My next vacation is going to be Indonesia and Laos. I am so glad I decided to do my float rating. There is no other job that would give this opportunity to me.

Anyway I hope all is going good for you. Thank you again for your training and I plan to stop in Victoria sometime soon to say hi. Cheers man.

John Tipouikidis -- Maldives

Just wanted to say that the training I recieved @ Ocean Air Floatplanes in Victoria has definately prepared me for the flying that I'm doing now. I'm being checked out on the C206 and the Maule M7. Both awesome aircraft. I'm having a much easier time adjusting to the demands of both machines than I would have thought and I feel like I owe it all to the time I spent with you and Ocean Air training in Victoria.

Mike Charlebois -- Whitehorse, Yukon -- March 2009

This is the most fun I've had in an aeroplane for years. I have a
CPL(A) and CPL(H), and had a weekend free in Canada, which I wanted to
use to indulge my flying passion. The web led to Ocean Air and a superb
weekend.
David and Bryan are a great team, very professional and well organised,
and their different styles complement each other really well. On email
they helped me making arrangements with Transport Canada for a temporarylicence, picked me up from my accommodation and we got stuck in straight away. Just a note - they recommend three days for the rating, but I was very lucky that everything lined up and we managed to squeeze it all (just) into two.
Thanks for an awesome experience! I recommend this to any pilot.

David Powell / Aviation Medicine Specialist / Air New Zealand

After completing the 50 hour course with Ocean Air I drove across Canada and got a Beaver job in Manitoba as you know from the pics I sent. It was a great start!

Now I've made my way over to Botswana and am getting my skills honed as the Beaver is somewhat forgiving compared to a 206 which I fly now.

We fly out of Maun, Botswana in and out of many dirt strips that support the camps that people pay big coin to stay at and go on safari. The difficulties are the heavy loads of people or cargo, high altitude, hot temps and lots of rain making the strips either muddy or unusable. I have been training on the Caravan to get the 50 hours right seat familiarizatioin of the Okavango Game reserve but now doing my 50 hours left seat that all companies make you do. Once a guy has 1000 hours they'll put me on the caravan turbine.

I still pass your name around tons and definitely owe you and Ocean Air for where you got me. Doing the 50 hour course was the best choice I made. I was the only guy out of 25 hungry pilots that got hired and it had to do with my bush pilot course and Beaver time!

David Radford -- Maun, Botswana -- Africa

Last autumn we read an old book about floatplane pioneers in Canada's northwest territories, we got interested and ended up booking a holiday with David Budd's Ocean Air on Vancouver Island. The sum total of our research was finding Ocean Air's web site and a few exploratory e-mails to David. The article in Flyer (March) came later and justified our choice. We went to Canada in April expecting a lot; the reality exceeded our wildest expectations. We had a fantastic time. The flying, training and exploring, was exciting and challenging - coastal waters, lakes, rivers, fiords and mountains. The tourist season had not started and visiting deserted scenic spots added to our sense of adventure. The spring weather was variable but added to the experience - we took shelter once in a bay to allow a squall to pass - demonstrating another advantage of a floatplane! We did a lot of flying at low level, often well below UK circuit heights, to stay below cloud. David's Cessna 180H is immaculate, well maintained and obviously cherished. After each session the aircraft is removed from the water and thoroughly hosed down with fresh water.

David provided a flexible programme suitable for our different experience levels - thousands of hours of professional flying on one hand, low PPL hours on the other. He organised everything including our ferry flights with Salt Spring Air (immaculate DHC Beaver - an adventure in itself), accommodation at very good, out of season rates and recommendations for restaurants and night clubs (there has to some relaxation!).

Verdict: The holiday of a lifetime.

Ray Corstin - Retired 747 Captian / Check Pilot

From a forum on the Professional Pilots Rumour Network, UK:

"I seldom comment on any given business on these forums, especially those connected with flight training. However in this case I will make an exception, finding a good company to get float training is tricky because a lot of them are flying schools and a lot of the instructors are very limited in their experience on float planes. I have personally had a good look at Ocean Air and have met the owner and was impressed enough that I will recommend them for several reasons, the most important being you will be taught by west coast seaplane pilots who have spent years flying in this environment and do know what they are doing.

So contact David Budd and tell him Chuck sent you."

Chuck Ellsworth - Owner, Chuck Ellsworth Advanced Flight Training
Original Posting Here

David,

I just wanted to send a quick note to say Thank you. The 50-hour float course I completed with you in the summer of 2003 was fantastic. I very much appreciated your tailoring the schedule to meet my tight timeframe. The instruction and the aircraft were first rate. Flying with you again in the spring of 2006 was also a truly memorable experience. It reminded me of how much I love flying floats. Flying transport category jet aircraft is a much different experience. Flying floats gives a pilot to truly fly by the seat of his pants.

Ed Kaiser -- First Officer B747-400

One of the highlights of my aviation career to date was learning how to fly float planes, made possible by Ocean Air and above all, Mr David Budd's professionalism, enthusiasm and commitment to training excellence.

Tim Stain - Airbus 340 Senior First Officer

Dear David, I am writing to you to thank you for making my float plane training such a magic experience. Combining the seaplane rating with a tour of Vancouver Island was inspirational on your behalf and your thorough and competent approach to my training was greatly appreciated.

I have now rcommended your school to numerous other pilots and I also look forward to returning for some recurrency when in Vancouver again. All the very best wishes to Ocean Air and yourself.

Jan Ende - Commercial Metro Pilot, Australia

I've been flying for over 26 years and much of it has been with major airlines flying wide-body jet aircraft - some of it as a Training Captain/Check Airman. When I decided to learn float flying I was extremely lucky to find the same high standards and professionalism with David Budd and Ocean Air. Enjoyment is guaranteed.

Capt. David West - President of Loch Lomond Seaplanes A340 Captain

Dear David, the 2 pilots are back and back into flying. They enjoyed and appreciated the training on floats. Thank you very much for your time in arranging all of the necessary accommodations and documents. I am pleased to note that both pilots did well and were up to standard. We may in the future require more training for more pilots and now that we have successful working relationship regarding float training we most definitely have no reservations about using OCEAN AIR again for such training. I trust that they also got to see a little of the area they were in and enjoyed it. I will most definitely be hearing more from them on their return to Seychelles early next week. Meanwhile once again many thanks for assistance and take care, we shall remain in touch.

Best Regards

Richard Young - Chief Pilot Domestic Operations AIR SEYCHELLES

I am really happy with the seaplane training I received and how friendly everyone in Victoria was. If in the future anyone is looking to get their Seaplane Rating I won�t hesitate to recommend Ocean Air Seaplanes. The training was top shelf and it was a great experience to seeing how things are done on the West Coast. I will keep in touch with you on how the job hunt goes. When I get a chance I will send you some pictures of Alberta to show everyone back at the Victoria pilot house what its like here in Alberta. They didn�t seem to believe how flat it is and how much wide open space there really is! Thanks again for the great Float Training experience.

Cody Williams - Hanna, Alberta

Let C-GYVA her know I am missing her! I have some great photos to remember our adventures by which I will put on a cd and mail to. I have attached a couple of awesome ones taken at YVR and Princess Louisa. I am sure I will be back at some point but doubt it will be alone next time now family has seen the pictures! All the very best and thank you again for helping to make it a great holiday with some of the most enjoyable flying I have done for sometime.

David Lindfield - UK

After a short web search on my laptop Friday morning, I came across the site for Ocean Air. I called and spoke with David Budd explaining that we wanted to tour the island for a couple or hours. We arranged a flight for Saturday morning. He said of course I could sit in the right front seat, and of course all three of us would be in constant communication by headset. After hearing our wishes, he planned a route clockwise around the island so the views were off the side where Michele and I were sitting which took us south along the coast past Victoria then up the west coast of the island to Bamfield where David accompanied us (off the clock) on a half hour stroll along the boardwalks of that quaint village. From Bamfield we circled the Barkley Sound Islands and then flew over the mountains to Lake Cowichan, down the Cowichan Valley and home to Patricia Bay. Throughout the entire morning, David provided an entertaining and informative commentary on the areas and communities we were passing, their history and current circumstances, his boyhood experiences in them, and so forth.

In short, he gave us the thoroughly delightful tour of a gracious host who was proud of his surroundings and who was pleased that his guests were appreciative of them as well. We drove away feeling that we had just spent some of the most enjoyable few hours we had experienced in a long long time.

Rusty Hall - Sonoma County, CA

Just wanted to say thanks again for an amazing 7 hours with you. The Float Plane endorsement was a blast and was really impressed by the professional and down-to-earth attitude you brought into the plane each and every time.

Kind regards,

Kris Reaville - Victoria, BC

I really want to thank you for such an enjoyable week flying. It was a great experience for me, I really enjoyed the flying and very much appreciated the effort put in by yourself. I felt that I learnt a lot besides the float plane rating. I know Sally enjoyed herself as much as I did, we will both remember the trip for a long time. We hope to come back in the next couple of years. I look back wistfully at those quite afternoons flying C-GYVA.

All the very best for now

Richard Irwin - UK

I will definitely be back....I dreamt I was flying float planes with you last night and yes I could hear your voice quite clearly telling me to find the landing attitude!!!

Cheers

Michael Madden - UK

Just a short e-mail to say thank you for the float plane lesson last week. Both Jennifer and I really enjoyed it. We hope you have a good season. Best Regards,

Robert M. Freeman - Director, Eagle Europe Ltd

Just a quick note to say thanks very much for being so patient with me and helping me to get my float plane rating. It was an enjoyable experience :-). Thanks also for setting up the additional trips to the cove and around and about. They really helped to make the two days. I am looking forward to flying with you again in the future perhaps in the Beaver? Let me know if you make it to the UK and I'll take you up in the Grumman.

Best regards

Tony Harris - UK