Journalists and a cunning new way to land a flying boat
 

It's a simple little travel piece promoting Sydney Seaplanes and their new Sydney Seaplanes terminal in Rose Bay (Sydney Harbour), where the flying boat services to the UK and across the Pacific operated from for many years. But it's also an illustration of the level of attention to detail of journalists; here's the article, and below is the final image:

http://www.traveller.com.au/content/...0896704155.jpg

The caption reads:
"A flying boat landing at Rose Bay."

:ugh:

He bounced it...

Not to mention the headline "The flying boat is back" when it's an article about a new floatplane operator.

And the heading photo is clearly post-War, not 1938.

On a visit to Sydney some years ago i went to have a look at Rose Bay just to imagine it back int he day of the Empires. Its a very pretty spot and looks perfect seaplane /flying boat base in some respects not unlike the Gerat Sound in Bermuda another notable base for these exotic creatures and where I lived for some years occasionally seeing a Catalina.

As for journos what can you do but remember that it isnt just aviation they are generally ignorant and lazy about , its politics , economics everything

As for journos what can you do but remember that it isnt just aviation they are generally ignorant and lazy about , its politics , economics everything


Completely true......................

The Ansett logo on the heading photo is clearly 1970's era.


And:
That's the truth, sadly.

CC:=

Flying boats don't land on the water. They “alight”.


I had that drummed into me only a few weeks ago by a long-retired flying-boat pilot (who flew Short Solents for TEAL, then DC-6, Electra, DC-8 and DC-10 airliners for TEAL/Air New Zealand). He turned 90 a couple of months ago and is one of only two former TEAL flying-boat pilots still alive. His son is a friend of mine.

My father flew the Hythe and Empires for Qantas, from Rose Bay, and in 1947 he would fly SY- Bowen in 6.20, next day was Bowen to Darwin in 7.30, next day Darwin- Singapore for 8.25, then Singapore to "KA" (not sure where this is, not enough time to get to Karachi) in 5.40. Rest for a day, then back again.
Later he was on Lancastrians, then DC4 and then Connies. But he had a love for the boats.

I have mentioned before that I understand these flying boats were eventually mothballed in the Solent, UK and then scrapped. I do know for certain that a local neighbour of ours in Southampton successfully obtained two of float things that hang under the wings (sorry don't know the technical term), bridged them together to form a catamaran and even fitted a mast on it. To my youthful eyes it looked like he knew what he was doing and it did have a professional air to it even if it did look clumsy and a bit odd.

It never left his back garden. How on earth he got these two things to his property in the first place remains a mystery to me. Anyway, this 'contraption' stayed in his back garden for many many years before eventually disappearing. I suspect a house move may have brought the original scrapping full circle.

Here's the timetable from that time, which incidentally is the whole Qantas operation of the era on one page. Transpacific flights were BCPA and New Zealand was by TEAL. Qantas was involved with both but they were separate airlines.

http://www.timetableimages.com/ttima...f48/qf48-2.jpg


Qantas and BOAC crews cross-crewed one another's flying boats on the UK run. The normal crew change points, after a few days' flying, were Karachi and Singapore. Each commonly operated from their home base, and they shared the middle Karachi-Singapore bit.

I had always believed that as well.

However I have a facsimile copy of the pilots notes for the Catalina, as published in Nov 1943, and "Promulgated by order of the Air Council" They relate specifically to the boat version - only a handful of the R.A.F's Catalinas were amphibians
It refers throughout to "landing".
An American aircraft, so perhaps it is one of many differences between English English and American English.

It was two of the three Saro Princess flying boats built that were cocooned, having never flown, in the Solent/Southampton Water at Calshot.

I saw them in the very early sixties as a kid, on a boat trip from the Isle of Wight to Southampton actually to see the Queen Mary, but 55+ years on I only remember I did - I can't picture them at all.

I've always thought I took a photograph using my first, very basic, camera but I've never found it yet. They'd probably only be a couple of specks in the distance anyway.

The bulk of the BOAC flying boats, both the prewar (Empire) and postwar (Hythe etc) fleets, minus the notable number that were written off along the way, were likewise stored at Hythe after being withdrawn, and finally broken up there.

Rose Bay still has small flying boats operating joy flights and flights up the coast to a restaurant north of Sydney.

If you're referring to Sydney Seaplanes' "Fly & Dine", then you mean floatplanes, not flying boats.

They're not the same thing.

Fly & Dine | Sydney Seaplanes

Thanks to you and DHfan for the further info. I was born and grew up in Southampton so ferry trips to the IOW were quite frequent for holidays etc. I firmly remember seeing two flying boats reasonably close together, dark grey in colour but I can't remember any identifying markings. I do remember that the windows at the front of the aircraft were covered up (pilots windows etc), I presume this was to alleviate the weather conditions.

Nearby were also permanently moored a number of mothballed motor torpedo boats, or what looked like MTB's to a young lad. There were about half a dozen, also completely enclosed within some sort of weather protective structure. Very exciting for a young lad still reading illustrated war comics!

Yellowtriumph,
You may be thinking of the mothballed Princess flying boats that were at Calshot up to about 1964.

Yes probably, the dates seem about right, I would have been around 11 years old in 1964.

As is patently obvious I'm no expert on any of this, but I have had my interest re-lit, do you know of any interesting links where I can have a great big dollop of nostalgia of these things? - in particular the Princess flying boats?

(But my memory of that chap buying and having those two float things and trying to make them into a catamaran is spot on - you don't forget something as awesome as that when you walk past it for years on end!).

Edited to add, some 'light' googling initially implies the boats were moored up until 1967 (from the local 'Echo' newspaper).

That date would indeed be the Princess hulls. The BOAC ones went in the years after they shut down. Aquila Airways then took over Hamble and ran a range of leisure destinations for a few years with a number of aircraft, but gave up in 1958. Their last aircraft were ferried out to Lisbon for a start-up they were associated with which never got going, they were finally scrapped in the early 1970s.

There are still a fair number of preserved Short aircraft around the world, quite a number of which I have been into (or touched). Last one I saw flying was overhead the Thames in London in about 1986. None of the big US boats were kept, but worth mention to aficionados is the Flying Boat museum at Foynes in Ireland, near Shannon, which has a very well done full size reproduction of a Boeing 314 boat (minus the outer wings) which you can walk around inside. Must have been quite an effort to build. It's here https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.61...7i13312!8i6656