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Great photo.
It’s still difficult to determine altitude even landing even on the ground for me . Every landing is an adventure.
LOL !

 

Admiral- The part about having a hard time determining height over water never changed. All our ranges in the UK were overwater and many times the only way you knew how high you were was by closely monitoring the radar altimeter. Not too many of those in the Yellow Perils.

 

Determining wave height. I have known of four fatal crashes of pilots that couldn't determine how close they were to the water when they were flying over it. I saw one of them in front of our home in Florida during the war when a P-39 was buzzing the Gulf and got too low. First the propellor came off and then there was a shower of spray. A lovely girl instructor at Sarasota Airport was killed while delivering a new Stinson 108 to someone in St. Pete. Witnesses said that she was buzzing Tampa Bay near the shoreline and hooked a wheel in a wave. Water is dangerous to mess with.

 

Terry, my memory is not so good on some of the details but it seems like the instructor made a point about making a dial adjustment regarding the barometer value every time before we took off.

Best regards,

Robert

 

Admiral- Affirmative, you really wanted a good local altimeter setting for overwater use. The UK ranges gave us local settings and all the ranges were at sea level, which helped. Chesapeake bay being at sea level helped, too.

When visibility was poor, we were very thankful for terrain following radar. Overwater unless the sea was very rough, TFR ran solely on the radar altimeter. The TFR 16 GHz radar did not get enough return normally when overwater.

 

As a kid in 1936 I would see N3N's on floats flying down the coastline from Annapolis. Our folks rented a cottage on the shore at North Beach, just south of Annapolis. Also a daily flight of the old Consolidated PBY-2's

 

Typo. PBY2 should have been P2Y...Consolidated Commodore.

 

Bob, that jogged my memory cells once again. After many flights in the N3N-3s, we had three flights down the Chesapeake to Norfolk and back to Annapolis in the P5M mainly to give us practice in using the LORAN to try and figure out where we were. Frankly it was easier looking our the cockpit window than using the LORAN lines. I do not have any photos of the P5M. I also recall the big crashes of two of the early P6Ms not far from Annapolis in 55 or 56.

Best regards,

Robert

 

Admiral- We used LORAN in the T-29C for long range navigation. Had an antenna that was something like 200' long. Needless to say, it was reeled in and out while at altitude.

 

Thank you, Robert. I have so many good memories of spending the summers there on the Bay in the 30's. It was a peaceful place and a bounty of goodness. Disruptions came in the form of blasting thunderstorms with dramatic bursts of lightning or destroyers racing down the bay from Annapolis. All of that had no affect on the plentiful Chesapeake Blue crab and the delicious oysters and fish. The only detriment was the jelly fish that drifted in from the Atlantic. In my last year in the service I was stationed at Langley Field just north of Norfolk and I was able to revisit the pleasures of my childhood a few times. Many times we were greeted by Martin Mariners and Coronado's flying up the bay or out for sub patrol in the Atlantic.

 

Dear Bob,

I too remember the special peaceful Chesapeake particularly when sailing in the 18 foot Knockabouts or the bigger yawls. I also remember the sudden black line squalls that seemed to come out of nowhere and our frantic efforts to quickly get back to the seawall before the storms arrived.

Thinking back about the P6M crashes prompted me to see what the internet had to say and found the following:

7 December 1955
First prototype Martin XP6M-1 Seamaster, BuNo 138821, c/n XP-1, first flown July 14, 1955, disintegrates in flight at 5,000 feet (1,500 m) due to horizontal tail going to full up in control malfunction, subjecting airframe to 9 G stress as it began an outside loop, crashing into Potomac River near junction of St. Mary's River, killing four crew, pilot Navy Lieutenant Commander Utgoff, and Martin employees, Morris Bernhard, assistant pilot, Herbert Scudder, flight engineer, and H.B. Coulon, flight test engineer.

9 November 1956
Second prototype Martin XP6M-1 Seamaster, BuNo 138822, c/n XP-2, first flown 18 May 1956, crashes at 1536 hrs. near Odessa, Delaware, due to faulty elevator jack. As seaplane noses up at ~21,000 feet (6,400 m) and fails to respond to control inputs, crew of 4 ejects, pilot Robert S. Turner, co-pilot William Cunningham, and two crew all parachuting to safety. Airframe breaks up after falling to 6,000 feet (1,800 m) before impact.

Clearly not fun days at the controls.

Best regards,

Robert

 

Her's the newest seekrit plane that is the Bean Counter's joy. Cheap unknown engineers, Image Unavailable, Please Login Cheap materials, cheap crew, used equipment to save money, and immediate food service. Built for trans-Pacific routes and a range that is yet to be figured out. If it doesn't make it all the way, it is designed to float.

 

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Bob, right now it's more airworthy than a 737 MAX!

 

My dads and I's 1959 Piper 250 Comanche in the late 70's.
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That airplane looks so nice in flight! There is one parked near my hangar right now, and it looks a bit awkward on the ground-- but just perfect in the air. Great picture!

 

Don’t own it, just fly it. Citation CJ4.
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F-16 "Viper" - the Ferrari of the sky.
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Image Unavailable, Please Login My pilot has a new Jet A burner. Try a diesel, you might like it.

 

I hope that I didn't sound too much like a stupid dork re wave height. Pushing the silly side a bit. When I was at Langley we were training on LORAN and SHORAN for skip bombing techniques that were to be used in Japan with B-24's. I saw a B-24 come back with a practice bomb stuck into the lower aft fuselage ( they did skip) and one with the lower half of one of the vertical fins missing and the ball turret sweep gone. Another little wave height problem. Crazy times then.

 

Remos G3/600
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TBM 930...

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My Hughes 500....

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A TBM930 and a Hughes 500. I love you and hate you all at the same time.


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I'm not a helicopter guy but how are the rotors turning with no one at the controls?