They take the floats off and put it on regular landing gear with wheels or skis for winter operations, and then come springtime they swap out for straight floats and keep it at the pond or river to access remote water front camps.
This is fairly common in the Alaska and Northern Canada in locations where floatplane pilots need maintenance and there are no aircraft mechanics accessible near the water. The pilot will come in and land on the grass next to the runway and then the mechanic will come out with a boom truck and pick up the plane and put it on the trailer. With a good pilot and smooth grass, the floats don’t incur any damage. As for the takeoff after the work is done, you just saw the SOP.
Old pilot's rule - There are three things that are absolutely useless: altitude above you, runway behind you, and fuel in the pumps. Buddy was just remembering No 2.
Nice bush plane --Cessna 185 on straight floats --300 hp --should be able to get airborne at 50 mph with 20 degrees of flaps and a light load. I suspect it is a commercially owned/flown plane by the observation window in the door. You rarely see those in "privately" owned planes
As stated earlier, not that uncommon practice in the North country. Land on the grass with a very light load and possibly after a rain, and there will be no damage. Owners only do it for needed maintenance, or end of season swap out of the gear -- not a daily occurrence. An amphib (hydraulically actuated wheels on the bottom of the floats) like I used to own negates this, but at a 2-300# weight penalty, and commercial users want all the hauling capacity they can get.
Planes fly when airspeed over wings is enough to generate lift.
ReplyDeleteSometimes this happens without the owner's permission.
Kinda like this one (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHhZwvdRR5c)
Delete"Don't retire me... I still want to fly!!!)
HEHEHE made my day! How fast does a guy have to go to get that kinda lift?
ReplyDeleteA tad bit over the stall speed. So somewhere faster than 56 miles per hour.
DeleteI'd be interested in the backstory of why a plane apparently lacking wheels was at that airport to begin with.
ReplyDeleteI suspect it was new and this was it's maiden voyage to start living the life of a puddle plane.
DeleteThey take the floats off and put it on regular landing gear with wheels or skis for winter operations, and then come springtime they swap out for straight floats and keep it at the pond or river to access remote water front camps.
DeleteOff camera, the truck drove off the end of the runway.....
ReplyDeleteNo big deal. It's quite common.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MOBWrBf8jU
The fun part is LANDING it on that little trailer... LOL
ReplyDeleteThis is fairly common in the Alaska and Northern Canada in locations where floatplane pilots need maintenance and there are no aircraft mechanics accessible near the water. The pilot will come in and land on the grass next to the runway and then the mechanic will come out with a boom truck and pick up the plane and put it on the trailer. With a good pilot and smooth grass, the floats don’t incur any damage. As for the takeoff after the work is done, you just saw the SOP.
ReplyDeleteCool.
ReplyDeleteWhy did the truck back up? The extra 100 feet he gained was about 1 second of motion at 70 mph.
ReplyDeleteOld pilot's rule - There are three things that are absolutely useless: altitude above you, runway behind you, and fuel in the pumps. Buddy was just remembering No 2.
DeleteWow, that's cool
ReplyDeleteJD
People think they live in a 3-D world. Nope! Aviation is the 3-D world.
ReplyDeleteNice bush plane --Cessna 185 on straight floats --300 hp --should be able to get airborne at 50 mph with 20 degrees of flaps and a light load. I suspect it is a commercially owned/flown plane by the observation window in the door. You rarely see those in "privately" owned planes
ReplyDeleteAs stated earlier, not that uncommon practice in the North country. Land on the grass with a very light load and possibly after a rain, and there will be no damage. Owners only do it for needed maintenance, or end of season swap out of the gear -- not a daily occurrence.
An amphib (hydraulically actuated wheels on the bottom of the floats) like I used to own negates this, but at a 2-300# weight penalty, and commercial users want all the hauling capacity they can get.
Made me smile...
ReplyDelete