Florida Seaplanes

"Florida Seaplanes was started by Richard and Susan Hensch in 1992. Prior to seaplane flying, Rich flew Navy jets (Top Gun graduate!) Rich was commissioned in 1969 after college and Naval officer school and went to Pensacola, FL for initial flight training. He scored top of his Navy class with a 3.4. He trainined in T28 and the T34 aircraft. Most of his Navy flight time was in the A7 Corsair and A4 Skyhawk. He logged 480 aircraft carrier landing, including 110 at night. He says you can keep all of the night carrier landings as they were downright scary. After 22 years, he retired and was hired by Pan American World Airlines. He flew B747 aircraft for Pan Am until they went belly up. Rich was taught how to fly seaplanes by Ace Claxton, in his Cessna 172 (145 Continental) on Edo 2000 floats. He bought his first seaplane, a Cessna 185 (turbo charged) on Edo 2790 floats. He bought his first M7 Maule Super Rocket Seaplane (on Aqua 2400 floats) in early 1992 and decided to set up operations at Monroe Harbor in Sanford, Florida. While Rich handled the flying, Susan was a full time public school teacher, kindergarten, and also helped raise their 3 kids, Sarah, Michael, and David.

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