External Loads......What a great idea
Sometime in the early 1980s, I was stationed in Kodiak, Alaska with the US Fish & Wildlife Service. My assigned aircraft were a Super Cub on EDO 2000 floats and wheels in the winter, and a DHC 2 Mk I Beaver on Bristol 4580 amphibious floats.
While our offices were located in the city of Kodiak, on the northeast end of the island of Kodiak, we also maintained a field camp on Camp Island, located in approximately the middle of Karluk Lake, nearer the southwest end of the island. The weather in town was often lower than on the south end of the island, so we pretty regularly climbed in one of the airplanes during good weather in town and flew to Camp Island to work out of there for several days, while the weather in Kodiak was sucko.....
Getting "stuff" to Camp Island was part of the Beaver's (N765) job. Each spring, our 50 foot motor vessel was loaded with 70 barrels of avgas and jet fuel and 25 or 30 100 pound propane cylinders, and made the run to Larsen Bay. I'd meet the boat in Larsen Bay with 765 and spend two days making the ten minute transit from Larsen Bay to Camp Island with loads of three barrels of fuel or six or so cylinders of propane. A workout those two days.
But, this particular summer, the boss decided that our cabin at Camp Island needed some maintenance. So, a significant pile of lumber and other supplies began to appear in the WW II bomber revetment the Beaver lived in when not working at Kodiak State Airport. Most of that stuff was far too large to fit inside the airplane, so most of it traveled to Camp Island as an external load, secured to the floats of the airplane with cargo straps tied to the floats.
External loads in Alaska for years have been permitted by an Alaska specific policy from the FAA. Get your mechanic to prepare a form 337 and submit an application, and the FAA would, in due course provide a new, pink restricted category airworthiness certificate. Whilst carrying external loads, the pink certificate was to be in effect, otherwise, the standard airworthiness certificate replaced it in the little plastic certificate holder in the plane. Simple......sorta.
Now, by this point in my career, I'd carried several thousand pounds of "stuff" externally, most of it on that Beaver, so this wasn't a huge deal. Any day the weather permitted, and I didn't have more important flying to do, I'd strap a load of lumber onto the floats of N765 and off we'd go to Camp Island. And the pile of "stuff" got smaller. But, there were a couple of items in that pile that gave me pause: A full size refrigerator (propane powered, of course) and two sets of metal frame bunk beds, ala military surplus......the kinds with the squiggly metal springs, woven between angle iron frames. Since procrastination is a finely honed skill set I've developed, I put those loads off till the last. But, eventually, all that was left of that large pile of "stuff" was that refrigerator and those two sets of bunk beds....neither of which fit through the door of the Beaver.....I tried, several times.
Well, the refrigerator seemed straightforward. I pulled both rear doors off the Beaver, got some help to slide that refrigerator into the back of the plane, slid it aft till it extended out both sides of the fuselage equally, and strapped it down....thoroughly. It stuck out both sides equally.....I figured it'd be a windy flight but what the heck. And, it turns out it flew like a Beaver. No sweat.
Now, all that was left was the bunk beds. I didn't like the looks of those things. I called Jerry Lawhorne, who was our Chief of Maintenance (and a high time Beaver pilot as well) and asked him if he'd ever carried bed frames on a plane. He responded in the affirmative. I asked how they flew, and his response was classic Lawhorne: "Well, you might try one first, and see how you like it.".
So, next day was beautiful. Procrastination bumped up against reality.....Show Time. I'm strapping one of the bed frames onto the vertical struts of the Beaver, and thinking....."jeeze, I've got this great big airplane with nothing in it but gas, and I'm going to fly it to the other end of the island with just this 40 pound load???? So, I strapped the other set of springs on the other side.
I fired up and taxied to the departure end of runway 28, which looks right at Buskin Pass, the normal passage to the west side of the island, and Karluk Lake. Perfect, I thought....no maneuvering needed, and if it turns out to be ugly, I'll turn around and land on 7 or 25.
Takeoff clearance was issued from the tower, and the power came up. The airplane accelerated nicely, as usual, and lifted off quickly. Gear up, and here we go. As I'm passing over Coast Guard housing, I start to retract the flaps.......and suddenly sense a sinking sensation. Hmmmm.....this thing isn't accelerating past about 65 or 70......and it's not climbing. Oh, and it's not interested in flying without a lot of flap deployed. Okay, time to turn around and land again. Except, upon application of control inputs to initiate a turn, the airplane buffets.....like, really hard.....don't go there....damn.
Now, not climbing, not accelerating and not turning, options are somewhat limited. Straight ahead seems like the best option, but the question is: Can I climb enough to clear the pass? Pumping the flaps down a bit, and asking just a bit more than recommended from that beautiful P & W R-985 engine seemed to be the best bet.
Once I'd cleared the high point in the pass, it was all downhill from there.....no more passes enroute to Karluk Lake, via the low route. I concede that I flew the entire trip at METO power (Maximum Except TakeOff) and with takeoff flaps deployed, which combination consumed considerably more fuel than flight planned. But, there were all those barrels of avgas parked on the shore of Camp Island. Upon arrival, and upon getting my knees to stop shaking, I unstrapped those unholy bunk bed frames, performed a quick refuel, and was enroute back to town.
Arriving at home, I was into my second or eighth beer when the phone rang. It was a friend of mine. When I answered, he-- rather bluntly I thought--stated "If you EVER run me off the road on the Buskin Pass Road with that big orange airplane again, I WILL call the FAA." That seemed fair, though a little harsh. The road was, of course, the lowest point in the pass....where else was I supposed to fly that thing? It seemed to me at the time that he had more room to give in that 3/4 ton truck of his.....
The next morning, I called Jerry Lawhorne in Anchorage again. When he answered, I said "Jerry, tell me more about flying those bed springs as an external load." His response was classic Jerry: "You took two, didn't you?" Jerry offered some subtle suggestions, but he always felt that lessons were better learned from actual experience.....after that, I learned to listen carefully to those subtle suggestions.
The afterword: That other set of bed springs eventually made their way to Camp Island on a Coast Guard HH-3 helicopter that happened to be headed that way on a training flight.
I've flown a lot of external loads before and since, but none were as "sporty" as those damn bed springs.
MTV
