Hi Everyone,
My first post here on on PPRuNe. I was very fortunate to climb into the Cat this afternoon at Bankstown and have a good look around. I own and operate a Lake Renegade and I've always been impressed with how solid and well built Lakes are. They're like paper mache compared with this beast! Everything has that classic WWII heavy duty solidity about it. There is nothing "lite", it's all heavy.
Sat in the left seat and imagined myself getting it up on the step as I do in my Renegade. It's a mightly thought; the sheer magnitude and power that would be needed! I can't wait to go fo a ride in this amazing thing. The rudder pedals alone are like something you'd expect to find steering an ocean liner, the control wheel is classic WW11 bomber (a round wheel that looks like it should be on a Mack truck) and throttle/pitch controls that look like they're designed to control enormous heavy-duty things that are a long way away (which of course those 1830s are!). I felt a bit uncomfortable after 5 minutes in there. Congratulations to the team for being in there as long as they have and bringing this Cat to its spiritual home!
I was very fortunate to meet Chris Goezinne, the PIC for the ferry flight. He's this larger than life Dutchman who just oozes excitement about the whole experience, Catalinas and flying in general. He's a very experienced airline pilot who, in between, 747s and various Airbus' flies Cats, mostly the Dutch cat (
Home of the Catalina PH-PBY - Home check it out, fantastic photos), There he was hours after they'd arrived at Bankstown after this epic journey and he was welcoming everyone on board who wanted to "have a look" with a big smile and a warm handshake. He's one of those people that's a joy to be around. We compared notes on hull flying and most of what goes on in the Cat is not disimilar to a smaller floating hull aircraft like the Lake.
I asked him about how well the cockpit stood up to rain and he said that at one stage over Indonesia they had been going through intensely heavy showers for hours and the cockpit was awash with rainwater. There was so much their feet were well and truly in it and they had to open the drain plugs to get rid of it. I took that to read that, in terms of water from above, it leaks like a sieve. In terms of water ops (i.e. on the water) it lifts of a 65 knots (my Renegade gets of at 60, so that's pretty good that this big monster can get off at about the same). I didn't see the Rathmines touch and go (or splash and dash as we like to say) but he said it was exciting. Rathimes doens't offer that much space even for smaller seaplanes so when he told me he had to come in pretty low over the trees to the west and get down quickly to then start accelerating on the water again I could imagine what it would have been like. He said it took a while to get off again as it was pretty heavy and at one stage he thought he might have to come down off the step and taxi back for a standing start take-off back close to western shore of the bay there at Rathmines. But with a little turn around the point all was well. It would be great to hear a description from anyone who saw it.
With the world financial crisis Chris isn't sure what his next ATP gig will be. He's off to do another Cat ferry soon but after that not sure. If anyone's reading this and they know of an opening for someone like Chris please contact me be put into contact with him.
Thanks Wags (from Yorkey's Knob; good place I lived there a long time ago) for keeping us all informed on the progress of the ferry flight.
regards
Philip Dartnell
Public Relations Officer
Seaplane Pilots Association Australia
[email protected]