Kind of reminds me of our takeoff in a seaplane from Catalina Island. Looking out the side windows all I could see was spray! Kelly
Salt spray is baaad for planes. I flew a sea plane in salt water for 6 months and noticed that one of the flap brackets had corroded to half its thickness since I started flying the airplane. At least the brackets were in plain sight, other components and structures are hidden and not accesible for a fresh water rinse after every flight. Scary stuff..
What was the largest swell you took off in? That was quite the ride at Catalina Island, skipping from the top of one swell to the next. One I will never forget. Kelly
Not really big swells but plenty of choppy water flying landing and taking off in St. Thomas and St. Croix harbors. 8 round-trips, 16 take offs and 16 landings per day, 2 days on, 2 days off, fun job back then, but too lazy now..
Surely it's cheating to use a harbor. The seaplanes from Catalina took off from the beach, directly into the open ocean. Cowboy flying at its best
Aye, no cheating: It was plenty interesting to land and take off in those busy harbors with the occasional low viz from rain shower and fast boats coming around corners, etc. Once we had just touced down in St. Croix, doing about 60 knop or so and a skin diver pooped up right in front of the plane, perhaps 40 or 50 feet ahead: I only had 1/2 second to push a bit on the rudder to get him between the floats. We thought we had killed the guy, so we stopped the plane and turned it around and the guy was waving at us. It probably got his attention as well. This is the airplane I flew:
Just did a quick Google search on the above plane I flew back in the 80s: It crashed 5 years ago in the Pacific killing all 20 onboard. Probable cause was corrosion on the control cables...Sad.
cook did you see the special on T V a couple of weeks ago about the old catalina air it was in a local station and was pretty good and had a lot of history about flying to the island , the air port in the sky will get your attention the first time you fly there with the hump in the middle of it travler
Sorry I missed that program. My only Catalina flight was from Catalina on the seaplane. And that was accidental. We took the ferry to Catalina, for the day, expecting to return via same. But I got so seasick that I swore I would not take the ferry again, tore up those tickets and bought the seaplane tickets for the return. We have a little similar "mountain top" air strip here in Arizona, at Sedona. Steep drops at both ends of the runway. But it has been over a half century since my father flew us into that one, I have no memory of it at this point (senility sucks). Kelly