Crescent Lake, Alaska

Very cool. I have always wanted to own a Goose, Albatross, or Widgeon. The Widgeon being probably the most realistic.

Crescent Lake AK, huh? I'd love to see one on Lake Crescent in Washington....it's an awesome lake for seaplane op's, EXCEPT that it's inside Olympic Nat'l Park & that's forbidden.

I think after the first time I buried the right gear and twisted it out, I'd have decided not to do that again.....goose gear isn't bulletproof!
Nice clean looking Goose, though.
JH

Prior to its restoration in the mid-1990's, it looked like this (it had been sitting for about 20 years from what I've heard...)

http://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/photo/734538L.html

The current owner's Web site has been down for several years, but I just noticed that it's back up again - and now he's offering dual instruction / Goose familiarization check-outs in it for $1,500/hour. More info here:

http://www.goosehangar.com/The_Goose_Hangar/Welcome.html

Nice lookin' classic. They used to be pretty common on the coast here, but I think there's only about 3 or 4 left now. A few stoved in driving along low in poor weather, others lost an engine and didn't carry on too well. Agree with hardtailjohn that he's being pretty hard on the gear. We'd land them on gravel strips, but they were a little squirrelly and you'd have to be careful on the brakes. This is the first one I've ever seen without the retractable wing-tip floats. I wonder how he docks it?

hey there may be a hole in the bottom over by that tree, we better go back and check, several times.

I think after the first time I buried the right gear and twisted it out, I'd have decided not to do that again.....goose gear isn't bulletproof!

Ya gotta wonder why anyone beats good equipment to death like that.

The first Grumman flying boat I ever saw live was at a lake in Alaska in 1972--can't recall where right now. It was a pale green Widgeon, which landed and then taxied over to the boat ramp, lowered the gear, and taxied up the boat ramp. Neato cool airplane.

Cary

Karmutzen wrote:Nice lookin' classic. They used to be pretty common on the coast here, but I think there's only about 3 or 4 left now. A few stoved in driving along low in poor weather, others lost an engine and didn't carry on too well. Agree with hardtailjohn that he's being pretty hard on the gear. We'd land them on gravel strips, but they were a little squirrelly and you'd have to be careful on the brakes. This is the first one I've ever seen without the retractable wing-tip floats. I wonder how he docks it?

Most places in SW, SouthCentral and northern AK don't use docks. The Goose's forte was always it's ability to crawl up on a beach to load/unload. The last Goose in commercial service in the Aleutians is being retired. The State built a ramp for a new mega buck hovercraft, and left a lip on the ramp that the Goose can't negotiate. The only other beach at Akutan is ugly, and PenAir decided to give up the contract. That Goose will probably be for sale soon.

In any case, the fixed tip floats you see on N703 were standard. The retractable floats were a McKinnon conversion, I believe, but in any case, they weren't stock.

N703 sat down on the beach in front of Norm's cabin on Lake Hood for many years, and many folks thought it was a junker. In fact, when Norm bought it from FWS, he did a pretty good job pickling it. When Norm died, Pletcher bought it from his estate. It may be the lowest total time Goose out there. And, they did a spectacular job refurbishing it.

MTV

Both of the last two Gooses that PenAir has up in Alaska, N985R (s/n B-86) and N22932 (s/n B-139) are still equipped with the original fixed floats configuration - although they did have N985R listed for sale recently, but eventually seemed to have withdrawn it from the market. In their listing, they said that they (or it) had "parts for the retractable float mod" but AFAIK that doesn't do you any good without authorization from the actual owner of that STC to use it.

In fact, there are actually two different STCs to put retractable wingtip floats on a Goose. Technically, there are 3 but the early McKinnon STC (SA4-682) was subsequently replaced by one (SA4-1467) that also authorized a gross weight increase from 8,000 lbs to 9,200 lbs. Visually, there is no difference between the two McKinnon STCs - they both use a single steel strut to hold and support the floats.

The other STC (SA138SW) was owned by Pan Air of New Orleans and they are no longer in business. (They were bought out many years ago IIRC by Signature Flight Support and Signature eventually sold off the FBO that had been Pan Air at NEW.) In any case, the Pan Air retractable float mod looks just like the retractable wingtip floats on a Consolidated PBY and it was used on N48550 (G-21A s/n 1061) and N401SJ (ex-JRF-6B s/n 1168) for a couple of examples.

By comparison to the McKinnon float mod, the Pan Air mod is a bit heavier and sturdier, but it also raises the allowable max. gross weight of a G-21A to only 9,000 lbs. There's always a trade-off!

Two other Gooses that PenAir used to have, N741 (s/n B-97) and N7811 (s/n B-122), were both equipped with the McKinnon retractable float mod, but N741 crashed in 2008 (it hit a truck that was crossing the runway just as it was landing.) PenAir pulled N7811 from service two years or so ago and had started a restoration on it but recently (maybe a year ago) sold it to the Evergreen Museum in McMinnville, OR.