Tag Archives: seaplane

Philippine Mars Awaits Its Turn

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By the time this post goes live, Philippine Mars will probably have made its final trip from Vancouver Island to Arizona where it is joining the Pima museum collection. Whether I have got to see it on that journey or not, I don’t know when I am writing this. It is supposed to make a couple of stops en route but will I be there? During the visit to see the Hawaii Mars prepare for its last flight, Philippine was sitting on the ramp at Sproat Lake being prepared for its move. From the water we could get a reasonable view of it up on the slipway. Fingers crossed I get to see it fly but who knows.

Hiller Aviation Museum

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wpid12592-C59F2947.jpgI took a trip to the Hiller Aviation Museum recently. The trip was to see a speaker who was appearing there and that will be part of another post. However, I did have a good look around the museum while I was there. Located on San Carlos Airport, I have been to the museum a few times in the past when I was visiting the area for work but I hadn’t been since we moved west. My buddy, Hayman, is a volunteer there so I have no excuse for not having been recently!

wpid12584-C59F2880-Edit.jpgA few things have changed since I was last there. The SST mockup has now gone freeing up some space for other exhibits. This post isn’t a comprehensive review of all that is there. It is more a focus on some of the things that caught my eye while I was walking around. One item I have to mention is the Boeing Condor unmanned vehicle. It is a cool thing to see but, since it is so large, it is squashed in amongst all of the other exhibits. I decided that I should try and get something to show it in all its glory. There was a balcony which would have had a better angle but that was restricted to some simulation experience. Instead, I decided to try a pano approach instead. It came outs reasonably well although taking out some of the distortion in post processing was necessary.

wpid12588-C59F2915-Edit.jpgI had another go at a pano with the interior of the Albatross. It is a lovely looking aircraft with a great interior which is visible through the side door so getting too much of a shot of the inside was hard to do. A pano gives a bit more of a feel for the layout in there. It looks like a nice plane to take around the world!

wpid12586-C59F2898.jpgThe museum is great and the gift shop is pretty cool too. I have to admit a model helicopter left with me and now sits on my desk. It is an AW101 in Canadian rescue colors and looks pretty sharp!

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Seaplane Base

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If you are at Oshkosh for a few days and the huge numbers of people and the hot temperatures are getting to you, it is time to take a break.  There is no better place to do this than the seaplane base.  A short bus ride from the main bus location will take you down to the lake-shore.  Here the place of things is a little bit more relaxed.  There are plenty of people around still.  however, you can sit by the water and allow the pace to slow down quite a bit.

There are many planes already moored up but the traffic in and out always seems to be enough to keep you amused.  When the aircraft arrive they will head to the dock and then will be towed out to a mooring location.  When they head out it is anyone’s guess what they will consider to be the best departure route so they might power up close in and take off or taxi out a long way before aligning themselves for departure.

We did have a little extra interest with a Beaver that had a hard time getting airborne.  A very pretty looking aircraft, it taxied out and made its first effort at getting airborne without success.  it then tried several more times in differing directions but I never saw it actually get on to the step.  Eventually they taxied back in.  No idea what the problem was and how they fixed it but hopefully they did.