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[Rasputin22]

I stand corrected. Thank you sir.

Beaching trucks are shown

The Mars has beaching trucks that can be attached to facilitate out of water maintenance.



If you saw a Shorts land at Fantasy of Flight, then you likely saw one of the last flights of the last airworthy Shorts Sandringham.

The Sandringham is a Shorts Sunderland configured for passenger use. Many late military specification aircraft were converted after the war.



A funny story: a friend of a roommate in college filled out his required co-piloting hours right seating on the last passenger Short Sandringhams flown by Antilles Air Boats in the mid 1970's. Not because he wanted to be one of the last pilots to helm a large flying boat, but because he needed to build multi-engine hours quickly to get a job flying 727s for FEDEX. (I think actually Antilles was the only job offer he had.)

The last two flying passenger Sandringhams were released by Ansett in 1973 (named at the time Beachcomer and Islander). These aircraft had been used for flights from Sydney to Lord Howe Island. These aircraft were purchased by Charles F. Blair Jr. (Maureen O'Hara's husband, pictured below) and flew for several seasons with Antilles Air Boats. Blair was sadly killed in a Grumman Goose in 1978, and O'Hara ran the company until it was sold a year later.

View attachment 596207
That's Islander above, renamed Excalibur VIII (all Blair's favorite aircraft were named Excalibur)

Islander was converted to a "business" specification by Edward Hulton in the UK in 1979 and renamed Spirit of Foynes. This is the aircraft acquired in 1993 by Kermit Weeks for the Fantasy of Flight museum and US registered as N814ML.

Beachcomber was purchased for the National Aeronautical Collection in 1981 by the British Science Museum and is now on display at the Solent Sky museum in Southampton, Hampshire, UK. (Unclear, but I think it was delivered by ship disassembled and not flown).

Our friend came back from his exotic summer work experience in the Antilles, picked up his two-stroke SAAB Sonnet (stored in the garage) and drove to Memphis. He flew for FEDEX for the rest of his career.

No problem on the landing gear thing. I used to live in the Virgin Islands and they (Antilles Airboats) were still flying the Goose. The Short was long gone I think.

The upgraded Turbo Goose is pretty slick.

 

[boomer]

No problem on the landing gear thing. I used to live in the Virgin Islands and they (Antilles Airboats) were still flying the Goose. The Short was long gone I think.

The upgraded Turbo Goose is pretty slick.

Flew in Kodiak Western Gooses in the early 70s.

Unfortunately Antilles didn't survive. Business Disolved

 

[boomer]

.

 

[boomer]

This particular Goose, exhausted from her journey intends to rest and revive herself on this rare floating island. Indeed, this floating island, usually the domain of a large cats and even rhinos’ has never played host to a Goose before, but is thankfully devoid of most it’s usual inhabitants so that this Goose, will find the rest she needs.

 

[Rasputin22]

 

[Fat Point Jack]

View attachment 596289

Bing finds lots of airplanes.

 

[P_Wop]

And then there was this beast, the Saunders-Roe Princess, the largest all-metal seaplane ever built. Ten turboprop engines, and two complete decks. Three were built, but only this one, G-ALUN flew. They were cocooned, one in Cowes and two at Calshot across the Solent before being broken up in the 60s. I wandered round the Cowes one as a kid. Just huge.

 

[Rasputin22]

Fly this beast to Hawaii? It has only ever flown 1 mile in 74 years!

Spruce Goose May Fly Again to Bring Even More Visitors to Maui {NRL} | Maui Insight

The wooden airplane with 8 engines is being eyed to help bring tourists who waited so long to visit Maui through the pandemic response.

mauiinsight.town.news

 

[epoxypete]

It sure was crazy what folks were talking about two years ago. How the times have changed

 

[boomer]

Kermit Weeks bought a Short Sunderland Flying Boat in the UK, inspecting it with his mechanic, then doing a bit of work, got it air worthy, and flew it in a series of hops to America. He had a video he put out a few years ago of bringing it to America, including the hops, and later flying it to Oshkosh. Heven't found the video/s yet, but here's a discussion flight from England, to Iceland, across the northern Atlantic, and culminating with the arrival at Oshkosh.



Kermit flying the Martian Hawaii Mars

 

[Rasputin22]

 

[Ventucky Red]

Fly this beast to Hawaii? It has only ever flown 1 mile in 74 years!

Spruce Goose May Fly Again to Bring Even More Visitors to Maui {NRL} | Maui Insight

The wooden airplane with 8 engines is being eyed to help bring tourists who waited so long to visit Maui through the pandemic response.

mauiinsight.town.news

.222 gallons per second / 13.333 gallons per minute / 800 gallons per hour.. for a five-hour flight, that is ten plus tons, not counting a reserve.

Last I heard, they were looking to lengthen the runway to accommodate larger aircraft - a few airlines are flying 767-400 into Maui now. I could never understand why direct flights to the mainland are around 11:00 AM, with nothing earlier.

 

[charis]

This particular Goose, exhausted from her journey intends to rest and revive herself on this rare floating island. Indeed, this floating island, usually the domain of a large cats and even rhinos’ has never played host to a Goose before, but is thankfully devoid of most it’s usual inhabitants so that this Goose, will find the rest she needs.

View attachment 596294

Right for line up

 

[Ventucky Red]

And then there is this

 

[Rain Man]

Fuck, if I were bazillionaire, I would add at least one of those to my collection. I can believe they are expensive to keep airworthy, hard to believe they are not effective fire fighters any more.

Dumping 27,000 liters on a fire ought to slow it down some....

Rumour has it that Mr. Coulson has had a chequered history with the BC Government. He supported the NDP, and that may have been the reason the BC Liberals didn't give him any contracts for the Mars in spite of public pressure. Later there were other contract issues with the NDP government.

Rumour also this week is that Coulson offered to get a C-130 on the Cameron Lake fire, but the government said no thanks. The Mars are likely not anywhere close to flyable at the moment, so in spite of being less than 5 minutes flight from the fire, they won't even be considered. Still, they'd get that fire out pretty quick.

It is a bit ironic having one of the largest fire-fighting aircraft builders in Port Alberni offering resources, while a fire burns out of control a short distance away. That fire is having huge economic impact, as it has shut down tourist traffic to Tofino, not to mention disrupting food supplies to Port Alberni and everywhere west. They are talking about bringing food in from Comox on the logging roads now.

My guess is that there is a lot of hyperbole in the news, the fire will be put out, and the road fixed in a few more days.

 

[Rasputin22]

And then there is this

I was on a delivery of a big charter ketch that had been based in the USVI but we were leaving from Antigua just after Race Week bound for the West Coast of Florida. We stopped in Negril and heard about the 'Mistaka in Jamaica' which had been a year or two earlier. The story I got was from a local catamaran day charter owner/operator who had close ties with the Jamaican night club there named Margaritaville. Now it is pretty well known that Jimmy B was pretty careful with his trademarks and such and the stop with the plane (Grumman seaplane) was just to remind the local nightclub owners that they were infringing on his Margaritaville tradename. My source told me that the Jamaican businessmen weren't to eager to get shaken down by a gringo and perhaps had enlisted the cops and soldiers with all the guns to remind Jimmy B that he was on their turf and things got a bit over the top...

 

[Virgulino Ferreira]

Florianopolis, January 1, 1927

 

[Immelmann]

 

[Ventucky Red]

We stopped in Negril .

Stopped there once for a cup of tea...

 

[Bacchus66]

View attachment 596289

That looks a lot like Tetley's boat from the original Golden Globe race under construction. The <something> Electronic I think. Or am I seeing things?