My first Splash-in (by Sarah Wolfe – Aeronautical Engineering student, Purdue University) I have only been involved in aviation for a few years, but funnily enough, I can’t ever remember a time when I haven’t been fascinated by seaplanes. Every time I watch one takeoff I am entranced by the way they glide gracefully across […]

Icon Aircraft visited Essington as part of their east coast sales tour on August 22. They had a reception at Wings Field the night before, and scheduled demo rides at the Philly Seaplane Base in the afternoon of the 22nd. The Icon team had no issues utilizing the floating doc for their operations. Without sponsons, […]

Tropic Ocean Airways (link) provides scheduled seaplane service from Florida to the Bahamas. They also offer charter service and are trying to expand to the New York and mid-Atlantic area. On August 3, 2018, they landed at the Essington Seaplane Base to pick up a passenger for a flight to the New York area. The […]

During 1966, give or take a year or so, I can’t remember exactly, I was a young strapping passionate aviator around 12 years young: a Boy Scout. Many times, I passing by the Philadelphia Seaplane Base riding my bicycle from Norwood to head down ‘Old Rat Road’ behind Westinghouse (where my Father worked for 35 […]

The seaplane base does not have fuel, but if someone needs some, we can arrange to ferry some jerry cans from a local airport. On May 3, 2017, a Cessna 172 was being ferried from Sarasota, Florida to Orilla, Quebec, a 1200NM trip. Brendan was ferrying the plane for its owner who uses it in Florida […]

By Robert Dant Edited by Mark Twomby May 23, 2004 It was a calm morning at the Essington Seaplane Base near Philadelphia when I arrived for my second seaplane lesson. I met up with instructor extraordinaire Hank Grenfell, who gave me some pointers on the preflight. The 65-hp Cub on floats looked raring to go. […]

By Walt Ellis, March 2008 Frank Mills had already been operating the Philadelphia Seaplane base for 5 years when, in 1920, his second son Bobby, was born. If anyone ever grew up in aviation it was Bob Mills. In his early years Bob lived right up the street from the Seaplane base where his father […]

By C. Robert Mills, Jr. I’m pretty certain that anybody reading this article who earned their seaplane rating at Philadelphia Seaplane Base, knows that the J-3 Cub or C-140 that they flew was launched and recovered much like a trailer-able boat. The plane—on its wheeled dolly—was simply pushed down an earthen ramp into the water […]