In cold weather, the brakes frequently froze solid after a climb to altitude from a water takeoff. As the lowly third crewman, it was my job to attempt to break them free by opening said small window and using a crowbar to turn the wheels. You kept this operation up until the brakes dried out or the ice had melted, whichever came first. On one trip from Fort Albany, where we'd done a water takeoff, to Timmins, in spite of my best efforts the right brake remained frozen all the way. After a four hour flight, we did a touch and go at Timmins, touching down on the left wheel, momentarily touching the right wheel on the runway to break it free, then going around to come back and land normally.
There were two methods to raise or lower the tip floats, electrically and the armstrong method via a crank in the tower compartment. There were two receptacles for the crank, one labelled normal, the other fast. The normal position required something like 180 turns, lock to lock, to raise or lower the floats, but the effort required to turn the crank was fairly low. The fast position took about half the number of turns, but the effort required was phenomenal. I got to try them both once when we broke a shearpin in a gearbox in the left wing. We had done a water takeoff on the Rupert River, and the left float jammed in the partially retracted position. Since it was a water landing at Moosonee, yours truly had the happy job of cranking the floats down. I still get lightheaded thinking about it. The subsequent takeoff also required the crank, but as we were headed for Timmins, I was spared any further exertions.
