Hey how's everybody, the forums are back up and running nice to see !! Thanx to AvCanada for all the time you put in !
It's mid February and in three month we'll all be getting the floats wet once again !! Hope all you hopefuls have been on the road looking, after talking with operators the jobs ARE out there if you are willing to pound the pavement. For myself if looks like float flying is going to be behind me since I've found that first multi-IFR job. Keep your heads up it does get better believe me I was at my wits end with this industry.
Take Care,
Formerly C-GZBR
Hey C-CZBR, I used to fly C-GZBQ, I believe there were three sister beavers redone at Allen Airways in Sioux Lookout. If I am not mistaken wasn't ZBR in Ignace or Armstrong?
Hey yous guys, don't you know what a UC64A is. Just ask Cat Driver. Bet he knows. Used to fly CF-FEW, CF-ECE, CF-ECD, CF-EPZ, CF-DRE. Anybody out there remenber these fine old airplanes. I will check in tomorrow. Incidently, CF-EPZand CF-DRE were UC64's. The rest were Mk.!V's(CF-FEW) and Mk V's. Hint: circa late 1960's early 70's, Northwesern Ontario and Manitoba.
Looks like there are a few here still interested in talking bush , thanx for the replies. ZBR is a Beaver out of Ignace the others are in Armstrong and Atikokan. I was lucky enough to fly a MkIV and a MkV, regardless of the age they all love the water on a hot sluggy day at gross wt and that reef gets awful close at 60 but she always seems to go ! I haven't yet decided which job accept yet but Friday is the day when I have to decide, captain chieftain or co-joe twin turbine the stress is killing me.
Aviation sure has its ups and downs !!
Looks like there are a few here still interested in talking bush , thanx for the replies. ZBR is a Beaver out of Ignace the others are in Armstrong and Atikokan. I was lucky enough to fly a MkIV and a MkV, regardless of the age they all love the water on a hot sluggy day at gross wt and that reef gets awful close at 60 but she always seems to go ! I haven't yet decided which job accept yet but Friday is the day when I have to decide, captain chieftain or co-joe twin turbine the stress is killing me.
Aviation sure has its ups and downs !!
Ever had to use the hand crank to wind up the inertia starter on one of those noisemakers?
Cat.
youbecha. Had one in a Beaver(CF-OCY) and one in an old Fairchild F11 Husky(CF-SAQ). Pushed off a beach in the Beaver OCY but the starter would't work. Got out the crank. Couldn't make it engage. A passenger asked "What's that noise". The other passenger (with the map) says "Missi Falls." do you know that 4 guys with paddles sounds exactly like an Evenrude at 10K RPM. Should be in YCD with the 'HO near the end of the month. We should do lunch.
Hey Cat Driver, how do you crank a radial? I have never heard of it, but I am interested. I had a guy tell me he has used a rope on the prop tip...but that sounds dangerous! Tell me more! :)
I have seen the rope trick done. Gordon Sherman , the Chief Pilot at Airspray at the time showed us on an A26 which has two eighteen cylinder radials (R2800). He put a knot in the end of the rope and put it around the hub with one turn over the knot , primed it accordingly , mags on ..... the other end was tied to a pickup truck and the driver drove away.
We thought it was a crazy idea but it bl**dy well worked and it started. (We had pulled it through by hand first to get avoid hydraulicing)
He taught us many things , many of which were bad.
He taught me to roll the A26 on my checkout. I have probably rolled it 300 times since. Have two movies of that too.
There used to be a lot of airplanes with radial engines equipped with inertial starters, these starters worked by spinning the starter to a very high RPM and then engaging a clutch to turn the engine over.
These inertial starters also had a hand crank hole and you could use a hand crank to spin up the starter, then jump in the airplane and engage the clutch. worked real well if you had the strength and energy to get the thing wound up to full RPM.
Using the rope to start big radials has been around forever, we used to use that method in the High Arctic with the DC 3's and either Eskimoes or a ski doo to pull the rope, it of course helps to hand pull the first bit to get it going.
Now damn it Duke, I have told you and told you to get your ass over here for some more training.
The Camel Jockey was a real hard act to follow...those were the good old days.
Cat Driver.
---------- ADS -----------
The hardest thing about flying is knowing when to say no
After over a half a century of flying no one ever died because of my decision not to fly.
Just in case some of te younger set didn't know, the UC64A was the military version of the Norseman. When converted to civilian, it was known as a Mark 6. When you are in the bush and you absolutly have to, anything will get the engine started. I even used a rope over a prop blade to get a Cessna 180 started. It was tied to a dock and I figured it was safer than handproping. We moulded a loop in the rope to fit over the bollard on the floats and this slipped over the blade. A lot of luck but I got it going. That was about the time a chap in Western Ontario was hand spiking a beaver and it chopped his arm off. He got into the airplane and flew it home. Onr tough guy
The weirdest thing I have seen was on a 1963 172. It had this pull start lever under the yoke to engage the starter. I flew it a bunch and never had a problem, except I couldn't get my damn big fingers between the panel and the T handle.....Ha Ha Ha.
I flew Norseman KAS last summer, got 100 hours in her, fell in love!!!
KAS was on the west coast untill 1996, does anyone know of, or have any pictures of her? I found some one time, but cant seem to find the web page anymore.
KAS is a UC-64-A, metalized fuselage, one of 2 ordered by the US army air force on floats.
An old Norseman presented me with one of my most embarassing moments. The old Nordyne had an intensifier tube which was both the exhaust pipe and the cabin heater. A scoop collected slipstream air, passed it around a shroud and into the cabin. My buddy flew into Flin Flon with the Norseman and borrowed my car to go into Channing for lunch. While he was gone, it was practical joke time. But, unknown by me, the boss, Hank Parsons brought some suits down onto the ice to look at the airplanes. Caught me standing on a 5 gallon pail, peeing into the exhaust heater. My face (and other parts ) was kinda red. my buddy said the airplane stunk of stale pee for a hour.
