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October 2015 covers_Covers 9/9/2015 12:30 PM Page 1

MANY REVIEWS are written bygrizzled veterans who haveflown dozens of comparable

aircraft. This review is not of that ilk. Infact, before this trip I had never flown aflying boat. Therefore, regard this reviewas an attempt to share the taste ofanother era.

The flying boat era came to an end withthe invention of large runway-basedtransports and reliable engines. Onceland-based aircraft could fly inter-continental trips without dumping theirpassengers in the sea occasionally, thewriting was on the wall for flying boats.The last Western flying boats weremanufactured more than fifty years ago,and most airworthy examples today aremore than 70 years old.

For this reason, I have also includedsome background material that would beold hat to seasoned water flyers.However, with those being few and farbetween in Africa, most of it should be ofinterest to readers.

In 2009, while visiting the National TestPilot School in California, I had theopportunity to fly a Lake Buccaneer, across between a Piper Arrow and a

rowboat. I was intrigued by the woodeninterior and the anchor and the life vests.The water flying required me to use all thetricks I’d learned in two decades of flying,and they worked.

Although there was not enough time toget the Airplane Single-Engine Sea Rating,a new item had definitely been added tomy wish list. It took five years, and in 2014I obtained a Seaplane Rating at Twitchell’sin Maine. Again, basic attitude flying skillsand a lot of theoretical preparation wonthe day, and I was able to quickly

complete my rating.The Seaplane Pilots’ Association sent

me their annual Training Guide and a fewcomplimentary copies of Water Flying,their monthly magazine. Due to theprotracted postal strike, several issues ofthe magazine, the annual Training Guideand several marketing letters arrivedaround the start of this year. I immersedmyself in the content.

Water flying definitely opens upoptions that mere mortals do not enjoy,and there were numerous tales of wildplaces and outdoor adventures.

One image haunted me. On the coverof the Training Guide was a GrummanGoose, parked on the shores of a crystal-clear lake with a snow-covered mountaintowering in the background. Could this beAlaska?

Google unearthed more facts on theaircraft. It was indeed in Alaska, one ofthose destinations that I’ve alwayswanted to see.

The Grumman G-21 Goose wasproduced from 1937 to 1945. N703 is a1944 model, with a history in the militaryand the Coast Guard. It is now owned byJohn Pletcher, a retired lawyer and

18 WORLD AIRNEWS, OCTOBER 2015.

FFLLYYIINNGG TTHHEEGGRRUUMMMMAANN GGOOOOSSEE

South African aviationsuper enthusiast,

CHRIS R. BURGER,has long dreamed of

obtaining his flying boatlicence. In this article, he

invites readers to join himon his visit to the lakes ofAlaska where he recently

realised this dream.

If you get the opportunity to fly a Goose, don’t turn it down.You’ll be missing out on one of aviation’s iconic aircraft,and the end of an era.

wheeler-dealer in Anchorage. It isessentially original, with only a fewmodern radios added.

Negotiations with Burke Mees, theinstructor on the aircraft, regularcontributor to Water Flying and AlaskanAirlines B737 captain, looked promising.However, I would first have to add anAirplane Multi-Engine Sea (AMES) ratingto my American ATP. Under Americanrules, no type-specific training is requiredfor light aircraft once you have therelevant class rating.

There are not many options for AMEStraining. I could only find a TwinBee (aconversion of the 70-year-old SeaBee) anda Grumman Widgeon in Florida, and aBeech 18 in Arizona. I preferred theWidgeon, as it appeared to offer a naturalgrowth path to the Goose.

Early in 2015 my circumstanceschanged on several fronts and I startedthinking that it was now or never. In May,I started making arrangements for a trip.First get the AMES rating. Then fly theGoose, with a possible side trip intoYukon. Finally, visit Oshkosh to see themother of all air shows, with side tripsinto three adjacent states. This trip looked

like the aviation outing of a lifetime.

PREPARATION IN FLORIDAMy Widgeon training would be withChester Lawson, the owner of theimmaculate Widgeon N86638. Chester isa retired FBO owner from New Englandwho lives in Spruce Creek, near Orlando,Florida.

Spruce Creek is a fly-in community builtaround an abandoned military runway.Lush vegetation, luxury homes and a goodrunway conspire to provide a perfectenvironment for an aviation nut.

Over 400 aircraft are based there,including warbirds, business jets andhelicopters. Around 25 000 movementsare recorded per year. Most residents willtell you that they expect going to heavento be a lateral move.

Chester expected that we couldcomplete the training in “two to fourdays”, depending on weather, and on mybackground.

I then found a helicopter instructor inSpruce Creek. Tony Crawford is a retiredveterinary surgeon from New York whoowns a Robinson R22 instrument trainer,N7188N. He could help me to get a

helicopter rating, also in two to four days.Some training and a two-hour nightnavigation flight would be required.

The night “nav” could be a challenge,due to the nightly thunderstorms at thattime of year. It would be fun to fiteverything into the five available days.

On the Widgeon, our training sortieswere all similar. We would take off on therunway, then head to some nearby lakes.We would splash around for an hour ortwo, then change seats for the returnjourney. Chester didn’t want to take anychances with his baby, and there were nobrakes on the right pedals. At least I didsome of the runway landings from theright seat.

The Widgeon handles very nicely. It islight on the controls, and at the weightswe flew at, has plenty of power. It is lessinclined than a floatplane to put its noseinto the water, so it is perhaps a littlemore forgiving than the average single.

I found it amusing that alligators wereoften peering at us on the surface, hastilysubmerging a few seconds before we gotto them.

The training went exactly according toplan. My finances didn’t. As is its custom,Standard Bank left me in the lurch bystopping my credit card — despite the factthat I had advised them that I would beout of the country. I had a hard timeraising the cash needed for all this flying!

I eventually walked out of there afterfive days, with the AMES and helicopterratings in my pocket. The most memor-able flight was the night nav in thehelicopter. Flying up Florida’s east coastfrom Spruce Creek to St Augustine, atnight and in perfect weather, was one ofthose sights that can drive grown men topoetry.

FLYING THE GOOSEThe Goose is based at Lake Hood, theworld’s biggest seaplane base. Localsclaim that a quarter of the world’sfloatplanes are based there. The lake issituated right next to Anchorage Inter-national Airport, and also has an adjacentrunway. The surrounding mountains forman impressive backdrop. If you know whatto look for, Denali is just visible to thenorth, 200 km away.

Like the other early Grummans that I’veflown, each Goose has its own character.Burke, who has flown more than a dozenof them, including perhaps more than halfof the current airworthy examples, saysthat they all have different systems,equipment and behaviour. They have

WORLD AIRNEWS, OCTOBER 2015. 19

The veteran Grumman Goose. This particular aircraft isnot the actual one in which the author did his conversion,

but is remarkably similar, even down to the colouring....

different auxiliary fuel systems. They havedifferent panel layouts. They havedifferent maximum masses. They leakdifferent amounts, they have different firesuppression systems and they startdifferently.

N703 was built in 1944 for the USMarine Corps. It later saw service with USFish and Wildlife. It was restored fully in1996. Its gunmetal grey paint job is trulyimmaculate. Even the propellers do notshow the spray erosion typical ofseaplanes, probably indicating somerecent touch-up work.

Everything works, and I could see noevidence of anachronistic modifications,except for some 25 kHz-compliant radiosand a GPS. The flight instruments are theoriginal style, including a vertical-spindleDI. And, of course, they are all mountedfar from where a modern pilot would lookfor them.

Even the paint job is authentic. When Iasked John the meaning of the “7”on thenose, he replied that he didn’t know, butas they found it in a previous layer of paintduring restoration, they retained it topreserve the aircraft’s authenticity.

We spent about an hour workingaround the aircraft, with Burke talking andme asking lots of questions. It is a simple,rugged workhorse, with basic systems andsolid construction. The main wheels areretracted by a chain drive. N703 has theoptional electric motor, used for airretraction only. For all extensions and forwater retraction, a manual crank is turnedthrough 40 laborious turns.

An elaborate checklist is provided for

the purpose. For land takeoffs, just moveseveral levers into place and throw aswitch. Burke cautioned me not to useelectric retraction on the water, as debristrapped in the wheels could puncture thefuselage on retraction. I would laterwitness this effect live.

The whole session, both before andduring flight, involved a lot of banterbetween me, instructor Burke and ownerJohn. They left me to decide whether toemphasise flying or sightseeing on thisflight. I elected flying, and we decided tohead west to get to the closest useablelake, while still having the opportunity ofseeing one of the closest glaciers.

Other options included magnificentmountain lakes northeast and south ofAnchorage, but the time involved wouldeat into water landing opportunities.

There are around a dozen drain plugsbelow the fuselage (also unique to eachspecific Goose). These plugs have to beunscrewed to remove water after a flight,and replaced before the next one. Failingto do so could result in unexpectedswimming lessons, as the hull will fill upwith water after landing.

Burke claims that all Goose pilots havean L-shaped mark on their back trouserpockets, due to the ¼” hex key they allcarry. In a simple, but solemn ceremony,he handed me my very own ¼” key. Hewarned me not to carry it in my handbaggage, as it would probably beconfiscated by the TSA.

The nose compartment is roomy, witha maximum capacity of 182 kg. It isaccessed through a hatch on the bow

(remember this is a flying boat!). The onlyway to get there is by climbing up fromthe main door in the left rear of the hull,and walking across the cockpit on to thebow.

This arrangement allows ample room tomanipulate the centre of gravity. Themaximum takeoff mass is officially3 636 kg, but operators use differentmasses up to 4 068 kg. The latter figurehas been ratified by exemption in Alaska,although no-one seems to be able to findthe paperwork from which that figure wasderived.

Empty weight of a typical aircraft isaround 2 500 kg, resulting in a typicaluseful load of just over 1 000 kg. Some ofthe aircraft were re-engineered withturboprop engines, with gross weights ofup to 5 700 kg.

Refuelling is also done from above. Twoidentical openings are clearly labelled “OilOnly” and “Fuel Only”. The fuel system issimple, using both tanks together tosupply both engines. There are twoengine-driven pumps and a manualwobble pump for priming. Linear sightgauges provide a direct indication of fuelquantity.

Oil capacity is eight US gallons. Yes,gallons. Burke reports that intermittentmishaps occur, when fuel is poured intothe oil nozzle. Draining and replacing theoil solves the problem, as the residual fuelcauses no harm. These engines can befitted with an oil-dilution system thatdeliberately injects fuel into the sump forlow-temperature operation.

It is possible to walk from the centralhull down the wings all the way to thewingtips, if required to get to the dock.Handy, if the main access door happens tobe far from the quay. On land or from aboat, access is up a removable ladderattached to the main door.

START-UP AND TAXIINGThe pair of Pratt and Whitney R-985 WaspJuniors would be familiar to most SouthAfricans. It is the smaller brother of theubiquitous R-1340 Wasp used in theHarvard. It is also a nine-cylinder radial,but develops only 340 kW, about three-quarters of its bigger brother. It looks andsounds about the same, though. Most ofus would look up immediately, looking fora formation of two Harvards.

The engines are unreachable from theground, but a plank can be inserted into apurpose-built slot in the cowling to enablea mechanic to stand next to the engine ifwork is required — either on the ground

20 WORLD AIRNEWS, OCTOBER 2015.

The author at the controls fine-tuning the engines to get them synchonised. Note that thethrottles are on the roof panel. Pitch levers can be seen aft of the throttles.

or on the water. If the propellers have notbeen turned through by hand, the startprocedure involves watching each oneturn through at least nine blades (threefull revolutions of the three-bladed prop)before turning on the magnetos.

The engines both have classic four-position magneto switches. However,there is also a master magneto switch,which can be used to kill all four magnetosat once. Its use is to reduce power whiletaxiing close-in, by pulsing both engineson and off. Even at idle, those radials stillpropel the hull through the water at ahealthy trot. After all, flying boats do nothave brakes when on the water! Thewheels can be lowered if the water isdeep enough, to add drag and improvedirectional stability.

Park brakes are applied by hooking apair of nasty-looking hooks on to therudder pedals, keeping the top partdeflected. Stomping on the pedals causesthe spring-loaded hooks to jump out ofthe way.

Taxiing on the ground involves use ofdifferential brakes and thrust, as thecastoring tail wheel does not provide anyhelp. It’s a cumbersome beast on land,and some planning is required to preventthe inertia causing huge overshoots onthe taxi.

TAKEOFFThe run-up is conventional. All enginecontrol levers are on the overhead panel,with your hand above eye level whenoperating the throttles. The engine-drivensuperchargers produce up to 36,5” Hg ofmanifold pressure. Takeoff is noisy, butconventional.

We took off on the Lake Hood runwaywith a quartering right headwind. Fullright aileron resulted in a wings-levelliftoff. The climb rate was brisk;acceleration less so. Climb is at 90 knots.

Airwork was delightful. The controls aresomewhat heavy, but not excessively sofor a four-tonne aircraft. Trim is veryeffective and precise. A turn or two of thecrank mounted between the pilot seatsresults in hands-off flight.

The manually-controlled ailerons arepowerful, with considerable adverse yaw.Steep turns and slow flight are relativelyeffortless, with great pitch and rollstability. The hardest part was for amodern spoiled pilot to deal with thecylindrical DI.

We headed west to Figure Eight Lakeand joined a floatplane that was shootingtouch-and-goes on the water.

SPLASHDOWNI found landing easier than the othermachines I’ve landed on water. Theapproach is made at 90 knots, with adescent rate of about 500 fpm. A gentleflare results in a reduced sink rate and agradual speed decrease. The vibration ofsplashing in the rear hull gradually getslouder as the hull settles into the water, isquite a thrill.

Most touchdowns were gentle andgradual, not the more “thud” that wasmore common in my previous seaplanelandings. Once the hull has toucheddown, the throttles are closed and theship settles into the water.

Once she is settled, it is no longernecessary to hold the stick fully back, asthe attitude is neutrally stable even withforward motion. In this sense at least, theGoose is more forgiving than mostfloatplanes.

A land-based pilot transitioning on toamphibious planes needs a mind shift. Iwas no exception. For the past 5 000hours, I’ve checked on every finalapproach whether the wheels are down.When under pressure, landplane pilotstend to put the wheels down beforelanding.

Doing so in seaplanes is not a goodidea. Landings on water with the wheelsdown, even partially, will result in disaster,as the plane will stop very suddenly andprobably capsize. If the pilot andpassengers are not seriously injuredduring the landing and they can escapefrom the capsized hull, maybe they canswim to shore (provided that the alligatorsremain submerged).

Strangely, landing with the wheels upon land is less catastrophic. Most flying

boats can tolerate a few landings on thekeel, and the keel is generally replaceable.

In his writings, Burke advocates adifferent mindset to that of a landplanepilot. He reasons that the default positionfor the wheels should be up. Only beforerunway landings should the wheels beselected down.

The approach makes sense, butobviously includes some risk for a pilotalternating between both classes. Oneapproach that works is to retain theroutine final-approach check, but tocorrelate the wheels’ position with thesurface ahead. If it’s water, the wheelsmust be up. If it’s a runway, the wheelsmust be down.

The flaps use a novel arrangement, atleast in my limited experience. They areoperated by a two-stage vacuum cylinder.Vacuum is provided by an accumulator ofabout 50 litres in the nose compartment,which is evacuated by carburettorvacuum. The accumulator provides forapproximately two full retraction-extension cycles.

I doubt if this limitation is a bigproblem, as I cannot see flaps needing tobe extended twice in a row at full power!Extension happens to 30° on selection,and to 60° only as the speed decays in theflare. Retraction happens by dynamicpressure on the flaps, as vacuum isreleased by the selector valve.

EXHILARATING BEYOND DESCRIPTIONOur time at Figure Eight Lake was busy. Itried normal landings, glassy-waterlandings, step taxi, displacement taxi andhigh-performance techniques for short orobstructed lakes. It was hard work, butexhilarating beyond description.

WORLD AIRNEWS, OCTOBER 2015. 21

Frontal view of the Goose. Clearly a boat as well as an aircraft!

During takeoff, a high priority is to avoidpropeller erosion by spray coming off thebow. During one takeoff that Burke did, Ilooked sideways and was amazed at theamount of water going through the prop.

The technique Burke advocates, whichhas proved effective in real-life opera-tions, is to use about 30” MAP to get onto the step and start planing, with the hulllevel in the water. Only then is powerincreased to 36,5” and flap added to 30°to accelerate and lift off.

Apparently, the reduced torque duringthe transition results in a significantreduction in blade erosion.

After about an hour and a half, we tooka break. Having fun does not prevent abrain from being fried! We shut down atthe upwind end of the lake, with thewheels down. The big boat weather-vaned into wind and just sat there. Duringlunch, I noticed that plants were rapidlydrifting by in the water from astern. Itturned out that we were making severalknots of speed relative to the water, dueto those huge radials facing the wind.

During the lunch break, we driftedalmost halfway across the lake. Of course,like with any boat, we had an anchor thatwe could have used.

The anchor line is rigged flatter than onmost boats, due to the heavy wind load.Burke recommended using a tether about10 times as long as the water depth,rather than the more usual seven.

After lunch, I retracted the wheels; 39turns. Burke reminded me that exactly 40turns are required. I turned back 10 turns,

allowing the wheels to partially fall backinto the water. Sure enough, we foundhuge clumps of plant material in thewheel wells. Had we used electricalretraction, we could have jammed thewheels in the wells, or even puncturedthe hull.

Fixing the problem involved hangingout of the pilot windows on both sidesand manually extracting the plants. Thepicture is not flattering, either from insidethe cockpit or outside. I wrapped the seatbelt around my leg to avoid being dumpedinto the water head down.

Sure enough, after extracting about awheelbarrow-load of plant material, thewheels retracted to a full 40 turns. Asdescribed before, incomplete retractioncould result in a really nasty surprise onlanding.

Our mission complete at Figure Eight,we headed further west to the mountains.We crossed some very inhospitableterrain indeed, with dense pine trees andalmost no roads in sight. I was told thatbears and moose regularly frequent that

area, but I didn’t see any.Beluga Lake is at the base of a glacier,

and I spent a few minutes flying up anddown the glacier, gawking. A side canyonwas littered with two-metre ice blocks,stranded when the thawing glacier spilledits contents into the valley below inspring.

The glacier itself is an amazing sight.Looking straight down from about 300feet, I could see fissures in the ice thatappeared to be tens of metres deep. Youdon’t want to negotiate that terrain onfoot!

GLASSY WATER PROBLEMSIn places, Beluga Lake offered glassy waterconditions. Glassy water presents greatchallenges, as depth perception becomesa real problem. Flaring during the landingis likely to result in a crash, as the aircraftwill either run out of airspeed above thesurface or just plunge into it.

Either way, it won’t end well. Thestandard way of dealing with glassy wateris to set the aircraft up in a very gradualdescent, perhaps less than 200 fpm.Touchdown happens when it happens,with no flare. Once the aircraft is firmly onthe water, the power can be reduced.

Glassy water can also result in problemson takeoff. Apart from the obviousproblem of dangerously settling back intowater because of lack of depth percep-tion, there is also a huge performancepenalty due to the glassy water.

The hull effectively gets sucked into thewater by hydrodynamic effects. Waves onthe water would normally allow some airto pass under the fuselage, overriding thesuction effect.

There were some high-fidelityreflections of clouds and mountains onBeluga Lake, indicating that landing wouldbe a real challenge. We tried one glassy-water landing, then churned up the waterwith some step taxi exercises. Step turnscan be made relatively small by sinkingthe inboard float into the water.

Even significant down pressure can beapplied, and it almost feels like the ship isturning around the inboard float. Someasymmetric thrust can also be used.

I would probably need a few morehours before I get to the point where I cando this trick comfortably and safely, but itcertainly got easier with time.

Alas, all good things must come to anend. We headed back to Anchorage,opting for a landing on Lake Hood ratherthan the runway. We had to wait for someother traffic landing cross-channel,

22 WORLD AIRNEWS, OCTOBER 2015.

Beluga Lake’s mirror-like glassy water — the mostdemanding conditions to land in.

Taxiing on to shore on an Alaskan lake

something that a relatively large flyingboat with a new pilot would not want todo.

We did another takeoff and landing,with a tight pattern to avoid the runwayat the main airport. We also had to queuefor the only available ramp out of thewater. All the waiting was not a waste oftime, though. I used the opportunity tohone my handling skills on the water. Itworked, as I managed to drive up theramp uneventfully and park in front of thehangar with a sharp U turn.

Shutdown is conventional. A dead-cutcheck is easily accomplished with thesingle master magneto switch.

POST-FLIGHT CHECKPart of the post-flight inspection is to pullthe weeds out of the wheel wells.Because we spent so much timegallivanting around Lake Hood with thewheels down, another barrow-load ofplants had accumulated there. They wereextracted and unceremoniously disposedof.

I did not have the opportunity to landthe aircraft on land. That is not what I hadcome for, and no owner of anirreplaceable warbird would want totempt fate with my limited tail-wheelexperience and no brakes for theinstructor. However, its lockable tail-wheeland wide wheelbase should not result inany surprises. Burke tells me that wheellandings work much better than three-pointers.

After the flight, we hangared theaircraft. It is not entirely an effortlessexercise, with two and a half tons ofhardware to move. However, thecastoring tail-wheel facilitates tight turns,and we managed to position it exactlywhere intended.

On the way back to my accommo-dation, Burke and I exchanged notesabout our training books. Both of us hadhad books published by ASA, the largestpublisher of English-language aviationtraining material. Interestingly, it turns outthat both books started off as self-published training aids which turned outto have wider appeal.

Burke undertook to give me a signedcopy of his book and some expired chartsof the area. I was specifically interested inthe airspace arrangements that allow LakeHood and the nearby Ted StevensInternational to coexist so close together.

Flying the Goose was a very specialexperience. It was unlike anything I’veflown before. It is a solid workhorse, with

no vices and no fancy frills. It rewardsgood basic flying skills, and due to theenvironment it invites you to operate in,will probably punish bad ones.

My few hours of Goose flying are oneof the highlights of my 33-year flyingcareer. I can think of only one other flightthat probably surpasses it, also in aGrumman, up the Nile valley and acrossthe Mediterranean at night. That flightactually drove me to poetry— literally.

This flight was mostly about theaircraft. The backdrop of snow-coveredmountains and deserted tundra didn’thurt, but the aircraft was the main focus.It was my 147th model, but because ofthe novelty of its systems and the wateroperations, it required more from methan most.

However, it also gave back more thanmost.

In flight training, my goal has alwaysbeen to never teach anything that a pilotwill have to unlearn later. Sometimes,

creative thinking is required to teachhabits in light aircraft that will be equallyapplicable to anything else the pilot mightfly later. I was therefore curious to seehow my own skills and proceduralframework would stand up to thedemands of something so different.

The Goose did exactly what I asked ofit. It really rewarded good habits, andquickly pointed out the bad ones with agentle nudge that didn’t end in disaster.

It is the perfect learning platform for aworld so different from our own SouthAfrican flying world.

Burke Meese is an experiencedadvanced instructor. He got the balancebetween talking and keeping quiet so Icould get my feet wet (only figuratively, ofcourse!) exactly right. And John Pletcheroversaw the restoration of the perfectexample of a Goose, and is willing to shareit with others.

If you get the opportunity to fly aGoose, don’t turn it down. You’ll bemissing out on one of aviation’s iconicaircraft, and the end of an era. You canactually make it happen with an Americanpilot certificate, some solid flying skills, afew emails and a reliable credit card. Ifyou do, let me know how it goes.

Of course, I’m hoping that someone,somewhere will one day recognise that L-shaped mark on my back pocket, causedby that hex key.

I would really love to be branded as areal Goose pilot. Q

WORLD AIRNEWS, OCTOBER 2015. 23

Returning to Lake Hood, the world’s busiest seaplane base.

Part of the post-flight check