Charles Welden, CFII, MEI
Chief Flight Instructor and Founder of WaterWings
Charles grew up boating and playing on Lake Martin. When he reached the age of 16, he became intrigued with the idea of flying, and found a job parking cars to pay for his training at Bessemer Airport. He became a private pilot just after his 17th birthday. It wasn't long before the idea of seaplanes began to interest him (he had seen a float plane parked at a dock near Willow Point for years and thought it was extremely cool). Unfortunately, there were no means to actually accomplish float flying at the time. In 1996 he bought his first airplane, a 1966 Cessna 206, on wheels. In this airplane he achieved his instrument rating and had many adventures.
He finally tried float flying in 1997 in a J3 Cub. The nostalgia of the cub and the idea of float flying was very exciting. He showed up ready for adventure and learning. His experience was not what was expected. The instructor was a pushy, yelling, know-it-all type, and the experience was not the Margaritaville-in-flip-flops kind that he had hoped for. Nor was it a positive learning experience. It was boot camp with a drill sergeant instructor. No prep was done. Charles did not complete his second day of training. Abuse was not the ticket that he had purchased. He knew that there had to be a better way.
Some years later he was talking to a friend at Bessemer Airport about flying stuff and he learned that this guy had a float plane for sale. It was a Cessna 150 on floats, and turned out to be the same 150 that Charles had seen as a youngster on Lake Martin. From his Cub experience he was a little wary of underpowered float planes, but this one had been upgraded to 150hp and had a STOL kit on it. He was talked into a test flight on Lake Guntersville. Needless to say the plane was bought. Charles found an excellent instructor who took the time to really teach float flying. He had to import an examiner from the Nashville FSDO, who happened to fly waterbombers and a Consolidated PBY on occasion.
After several years of enjoying the plane and wishing that he could share this love of flying floats with others, Charles recognized that it was not easy to get into seaplanes if you live in Alabama. There are very few seaplane schools and some of them are just factories pumping out ratings. Seaplane flying should be a fun learning adventure. The training should be enjoyable, informative, and it should leave the new seaplane Pilot with more than just a slip of paper and a merit badge. The new Pilot should be left with cool stories, new skills, and a wanting for more. So Charles became a CFI.
That still left the area in need of an examiner. The local FSDO was able to appoint Gary Kiteley from Auburn with the authority to give Single Engine Sea check rides. All the elements were now in place to form WaterWings Seaplane School, and we have been providing new adventures ever since. Charles has hundreds of hours giving seaplane training. He does it because he loves it- the fun of flying, and the fun of introducing pilots to new worlds nearly unimaginable in a land plane. This is not a job for Charles- it is a lifestyle and a mission.