About 70-80 percent of the earth's surface is covered
with water. That's a lot of territory to explore in
a seaplane in Flight Simulator! But if you want
to start your flight from the water, how do you
go about it?

If you've tried using the "Select Airport"
screen, you may have noticed that there's no way to
filter the list to show you only seaplane bases
or airports with water runways. Admittedly, this makes it
rather difficult to start a flight from the water
unless you happen to know where the seaplane bases and
water runways are. To make matters worse, if you start a
flight on a land-based runway, you'll find that even at
full power your seaplane won't move! Frustrating? You
bet.
Here are some suggestions to help you get your
seaplane onto the water.
Use Map View
If you know how to find your chosen body of water on a
map, you can start on a land-based runway near the body
of water you want to start on, then use Map view to move
your seaplane onto the water:
On the World
menu, choose Map.
Make sure Terrain
Shading is turned on (click the icon on the far
right to toggle it), then drag the aircraft symbol on
the map to the water location of your choice.
Set the Altitude
to 0.
Set the Heading
as desired, and set the airspeed to 0.
Click OK.
Start in the air
Arguably, the easiest way to get your seaplane
onto the water is to start flying with a land-based
aircraft, and then switch to a seaplane and land on
the water:
Fly a land-based
aircraft over the body of water you want to start on.
On the Aircraft
menu, choose Select Aircraft.
Choose a seaplane.
Click OK.
Fly to the water, and land.
Use Slew mode
Don't feel like landing? You can use Slew mode to
move your seaplane down to the water's surface:
Start your seaplane on
an airport not too far from water.
Press Y to enter slew
mode
Press Q to raise your
plane off the runway, press 5 on the number pad to
freeze the movement when you have enough height
Use number pad 8, 4, 6
& 2 (arrowed) to move over water. Key 5 freezes the
movement.
Press key A to lower your plane onto the water
then release slew mode with Y key.
For a full list of Slew commands, see the "Keyboard
Assignments" page of the Kneeboard (press SHIFT+F10
to display).
Save your flight