Since we are talking vintage aviation...

Here are a couple of seaplanes that I have had the pleasure to fly in. The larger one is a de Havilland Otter the other is the lessor know Noorduyn Norseman. These are scanned from my photographs.

 

Those are indeed great planes. I have had the pleasure to fly in both types as well. One year at the Seaplane base at Oshkosh, Joe McBryan of Buffalo airways flew his Noorduyn Norseman into to the fly in and parked it right in front of my T-Shirt booth.

 

Coming back from Pa. this past weekend

 

This is one of my favorite threads on the HAMB. My father was born in 1906 and was a Barnstormer around the Chicago area. I was raised at the airports and we flew to many airshows through the years. My father passed away too early in 1970 at the age of 64. He had accumulated over 17,000 flying hours at the time of his death. His first plane was a Curtiss JN-4 ( Jenny ) that he used for his early barnstorming. The Jenny he learned to fly in was owned by his buddy and is now hanging from the ceiling of the Science and Industry Museum in Chicago.

 

Out here in the Pacific Northwest, we had a great old style aerodrome that was owned by Wally Olson in Vancouver Washington. He was our local hero. Sadly the entire field doesn't exist anymore and Wally has passed on into the sunset.

But back in the day, when this photograph was taken, this was Wally at 75 at the controls of his JN4D Curtiss Jenny, and his 52 year old, grandmother of 3, lady friend Mary Ella McLivain walking the wing at 1000 feet over Evergreen field.

Totally with out parachute and barefoot and in a sun dress. There was a high degree of trust in each other as Wally was a consummate pilot and Mary Ella was smart enough to know where not to step on the wings so that she didn't poke a hole in the fabric.

 

I appreciate those Ercoups more and more as time goes by. They are still pretty affordable too.

 

I recently watched a great history of the ercoupe on youtube. I have to admit, I too over the years, I have come to appreciate just how unique these planes are. No two of them are built exactly alike, it means that each one of them is a unique aircraft. Check out youtube for that video, I think you will enjoy it. I hope you are enjoying all of the pictures I have been posting as well. Its great that this thread exist's and that we as HAMB members can share and exchange.
Dennis.

 

Some Kodachromes shot by my Grandad at the Martin Field at Canton, Ohio in 1953 or so.
Aeronca Champions of the Canton Aviation Co.


Dehavilland Dove. From DH Dove Historical Site... "19? The aircraft was registered as N4962N. 19Nov1953 The registration was cancelled."

Grumman Goose. From wdaguy.com/goose... "N69263 S/N 1132. This Goose joined the Kodiak Airways fleet in the early 60’s. It was saved from the tidal wave by Al Cratty who flew it from the downtown seaplane base to the Kodiak Municipal strip as the wave was coming in. The Goose flew with Kodiak Airways until about 1990 when it was sold to Catalina Seaplanes. It is now under private ownership, located in Missouri."

 

I always loved the Wacos. We had a UPF-7 in the early 60's. My father had a chance to buy a Waco cabin like the one previously pictured for $1500.00 that needed the engine overhauled in 1961 but he thought that was a little too much and the guy was firm on the price. Had he only known that prices would skyrocket to today's levels!!! Sure miss those open cockpit days!

 

Roothawg,

That aeroplane looks like a movie prop LOL.

 

It took me a long time to really get to appreciate, just how unique the entire line of WACO aircraft are. The back story of how the company survived is a great read. The last year that I sold shirts at the Seabase at Oshkosh, out on lake Winnebago was 2014, and I used this very cool WACO on floats that used to belong to the founder of OTC tool company in Owatonna Minnesota. You can see the letters "OTC " in the registration number on the tail, and on the wing as well. This is what the shirt looks like. I still have some of the shirts as well. The photography is by me.

 

Nothing like the Waco QCF-2's, and the Taperwings were a favorite, too!!! I sure like the Cabin model on floats you have pictured also.

 

I noticed the WACO land based version has a different tail- shorter than the sea version - where the tail wheel is located. Did the seaplane need a bigger tail because of the floats? Or did they all need a taller tail but that was not possible with a taildragger?

Are those horns on the top of the fuselage or pitot tubes?

 

First of all, those are not horns or pitot tubes on top of the cabin WACO on floats, those are venturi tubes connected to the gyroscopic instruments.

If you scroll back through the various pictures I have posted, the bigger float planes have the extended addition to the lower tail. It provides needed directional stability when taking off as the rudder isn't as effective when sitting lower in the water at slow speeds.

The WACO aircraft history is a fascinating one. So to be clear, when you say " Sea Version " that can be misleading as there wasn't enough sales of WACO aircraft to make a sea version of any one particular model. A lot of the different WACO'S were certified to be fitted with floats, it was just a very smart thing to do back then because of the various needs of the people who bought aircraft and the various jobs that needed to be done with the aircraft. The blue cabin WACO on floats was originally built as a combination freighter/ambulance.
An example is this one, it was originally built as a fighter and this particular model was the only one of this model built, its tail is different than most WACO'S, and the center wing support was unique to this WACO as well.

 

Addison Pemberton's Boeing Mailwing, is truly a masterpiece of his collection, that plane has a very interesting back story as well.

 

I grew-up in the flight path of Fairchild AFB, will never forget the roar from the 6 radial and 4 jets on take off. What a let down when the B 52s replaced them.