Serious BIG Air

[Ks]

Pretty cool huh,

That is one of two and they live on Sproat Lake on Vancouver Island. A close friend's parents have a cabin within view of the hangers and base where these bad boys sit....

The 2nd one is out of the water and is being rebuilt. The cool thing is that the base offers tours of the plane on weekends... pretty cool to see inside!.

Spent a lot of time up there this summer but because the working plane is in California, I did not get to see them take off and land this year.. The lake has 250 miles of shoreline and they basically float the plane to one of the arms for take off, unless it is a emergency... then they take off right in front of the hangers... and yes... there have been many stories of boaters trying to get to close and the wake swamping them...........

[Ks]

A few pics from the tour..

[da.bell]

Now this is really a small world. Dang that thing looks old inside the plane.

[SPBFAN]

Cool

[jwanck11]

would love to see that thing take off... betcha it makes a massive wake!

[ragboy]

At least it isn't going to get stolen, they have the club installed.

[balair]

At least it isn't going to get stolen, they have the club installed.

You can never be too careful...damn hooligans

[da.bell]

Unfortunately all the instruments above the throttles have all been stolen. All the DIN accessories are gone...

[ragboy]

LOL, thats funny, I didn't see that. Someone ripped off the 8 track. Probably took the Journey tape with them too.

[larryueckert]

LOL, thats funny, I didn't see that. Someone ripped off the 8 track. Probably took the Journey tape with them too.

not Journey

[noworries]

We saw this bird in action at Shasta in July. It flies a mile and a quarter down the lake while it draws in water. As it gets heavy the throttles go full bore and either the pilot is among the best or the autopilot is, but the plane stays dead nuts level and maintains a constant elevation skimming the water. Its one of the most impressive flying events I've ever seen, especially considering the size of the bird.

Pictures don't do it justice, but I think I've got a few. We were out tubing in the chop when the sheriff kicked everyone out of the way near the O'Brien inlet. It was cool with all of us to just stop and watch, and more fun than tubing in my book.

[jwanck11]

We saw this bird in action at Shasta in July. It flies a mile and a quarter down the lake while it draws in water. As it gets heavy the throttles go full bore and either the pilot is among the best or the autopilot is, but the plane stays dead nuts level and maintains a constant elevation skimming the water. Its one of the most impressive flying events I've ever seen, especially considering the size of the bird.

Pictures don't do it justice, but I think I've got a few. We were out tubing in the chop when the sheriff kicked everyone out of the way near the O'Brien inlet. It was cool with all of us to just stop and watch, and more fun than tubing in my book.

Would love to see video of it!

BTW... NOTHING is more fun than tubing...