Seaplane Flying in Louisiana with a Legend – Charlie Hammonds

Charlie Hammonds joins Steve to discuss the little known history of the massive floatplane community that used to exist in Louisiana. Over 300 seaplanes worked the oil fields with extremely demanding conditions including weather, night operations, and risky dockings.

Charlie was one of the pioneers of the floatplane community starting a commercial seaplane operation, base and flight school when he was only 21 years old. In addition to seaplanes, Charlie founded an airline at 26 years old , trained movie stunt pilots, broke the speed of sound in a F-15, and his son flew in the original “Top Gun.”