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A number of years ago a friend was a pilot for NASA Ames in Mountain View. At that time the Chief Pilot owned an F104. There was ramp space reserved for employees who flew to work and from time to time he flew his 104 to work.
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Seabee! As Richard Bach once said about his, it's not really a flying boat, it's more properly described as a boat that can fly.
But not really well. At Sarasota-Bradenton Airport when I worked there for three years we had Seabee landings wheels up at the airport and Seabee's landing in the bay with wheels down. Could be laughable but I think if I remember, one was a fatality. Water landings sometimes looked like a bellyflop.
Well, yes. It is supposed to fly about as well as the boat that it is. A slightly better looking, and I think flying, airplane was the Grumman Widgeon. However no less dangerous-- I remember Swede telling me that he never knew anyone who flew a Widgeon for very long and hadn't sunk it at least once.
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I have known three Widgeon pilots and they all had a hearty respect for its faults and one pilot had sunk them twice. He was hired to fly a Widgeon for the movie being made at Sarasota airport ("On An Island With You") and he was recovering from flipping one after it went into uncontrollable porpoising. His broken jaw was still wired together and he was there with another Widgeon. We had to paint it in the WW2 Navy blue and maintain it while it was there. Paul Mantz was also there to fly a Grumman TBF that we also repainted and maintained. The airport manager also had a Widgeon and made a "water landing" on the airport one day. Surprisingly little damage to the hull and ,of course ,when we got there with the fire truck the landing gear switch was in the DOWN POSITION. The movie featured Esther Williams and Peter Lawford and was barely Grade D. Got to know them both a little bit. Very interesting to watch Esther making her way around the all the town's watering holes at night. She was quite a dynamo.
Right, I forgot about the porpoising issue on the Widgeon. That was the big deal, and I also think it was even worse in rough water. Frankly, a Seabee was probably a better boat even if the Widgeon was a better airplane.
I wonder how accurate the opening scene to First Man recreated the experience of those pilots. Did the floor actually glow orange from all the heat from the nose cone?
