Perserverance / tea on a beach. (NLC)
Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 11:55 pm
This is so far off topic it isn't true but having read so many good stories of other folks exploits on here I thought you might like this...
Three years ago my best mate, after wanting to do it for years, flew out to Canada and got his float plane rating.
There aren't any float planes for rent in the UK because of insurance problems so he joined a syndicate and bought a share in G-DRAM, a C172 "Reims Rocket" float plane, based at the time on Loch Earn. Whilst GDRAM was a float plane it was on fixed floats, ie it couldn't land on land, only on water. Not ideal when all the maintenance facilities in the UK have no water access. So with a service approaching they were forced to put her back onto wheels (hoisting it with a JCB, taking the floats off and bolting the wheels back on in a field adjacent to Loch Earn) and then flying her back to Glasgow... The plan was to buy and import a set of amphibious floats (ie floats with retractable wheels) from the US and have them fitted. But the floats weren't approved for use in Europe.
So Hamish, on an incredibly tight budget and with the rest of the syndicate not really able to support him, singlehandedly got the CAA approval to use the new floats. Airlines wanting approval from the CAA would have a whole dept to ldeal with the astonishing amont of buraucracy the Campaign Against Aviation demands.
He cut deals to get them shipped over, even got sponsorship from the float company to use it as an advertisement for their product, until last August the new floats finally arrived, only to receive another setback as they were weighed and found to be too heavy, reducing his useful payload and making his plan to pleasure fly around Scotland, and one day possibly teach in it, unfeasible. So back they went, another set were manufactured and this set while lighter pushed the C of G of the aircraft too far forward forcing yet another compromise which means that extra ballast has to be carried in the tail to balance up the plane. Disappointing but a compromise he was happy to accept after 2+ years of trying.
The first flight was last December, whilst waiting for the floats the plane had had a bare metal respray, been re-upholstered and had some new RNAV. It looked the business and was exactly what the last three years had been aimed at. The aircraft was parked up whilst he went up North for Hogmany, then on New Years Day he received a phone call from friends at the airport, during the storms on New Years Eve one of the tie down ropes had broken in 60 knot winds and the plane had blown over, bending a wing and holing a float. He had flown it once.
The insurance paid out though and once again parts were sent from the States Earlier this week it was flown again for the first time, and this evening we all went out as his first passengers for tea on a beach on Loch Lomond. It was also Millie's first time in a plane, well other than holiday flights....
Pictures here (I'm the tall one Millie is the very small one and my daughter and I'll leave you to work out which is Hamish and which is my wife Suzy).
Just a weee story to show perseverance and one Scotsman's sheer bloodymindedness can achieve what a lot of folk thought was unachievable....
(I know this is completely off topic but I thouight folk may find it interesting - I hope I was right.)
Pete
Three years ago my best mate, after wanting to do it for years, flew out to Canada and got his float plane rating.
There aren't any float planes for rent in the UK because of insurance problems so he joined a syndicate and bought a share in G-DRAM, a C172 "Reims Rocket" float plane, based at the time on Loch Earn. Whilst GDRAM was a float plane it was on fixed floats, ie it couldn't land on land, only on water. Not ideal when all the maintenance facilities in the UK have no water access. So with a service approaching they were forced to put her back onto wheels (hoisting it with a JCB, taking the floats off and bolting the wheels back on in a field adjacent to Loch Earn) and then flying her back to Glasgow... The plan was to buy and import a set of amphibious floats (ie floats with retractable wheels) from the US and have them fitted. But the floats weren't approved for use in Europe.
So Hamish, on an incredibly tight budget and with the rest of the syndicate not really able to support him, singlehandedly got the CAA approval to use the new floats. Airlines wanting approval from the CAA would have a whole dept to ldeal with the astonishing amont of buraucracy the Campaign Against Aviation demands.
He cut deals to get them shipped over, even got sponsorship from the float company to use it as an advertisement for their product, until last August the new floats finally arrived, only to receive another setback as they were weighed and found to be too heavy, reducing his useful payload and making his plan to pleasure fly around Scotland, and one day possibly teach in it, unfeasible. So back they went, another set were manufactured and this set while lighter pushed the C of G of the aircraft too far forward forcing yet another compromise which means that extra ballast has to be carried in the tail to balance up the plane. Disappointing but a compromise he was happy to accept after 2+ years of trying.
The first flight was last December, whilst waiting for the floats the plane had had a bare metal respray, been re-upholstered and had some new RNAV. It looked the business and was exactly what the last three years had been aimed at. The aircraft was parked up whilst he went up North for Hogmany, then on New Years Day he received a phone call from friends at the airport, during the storms on New Years Eve one of the tie down ropes had broken in 60 knot winds and the plane had blown over, bending a wing and holing a float. He had flown it once.
The insurance paid out though and once again parts were sent from the States Earlier this week it was flown again for the first time, and this evening we all went out as his first passengers for tea on a beach on Loch Lomond. It was also Millie's first time in a plane, well other than holiday flights....
Pictures here (I'm the tall one Millie is the very small one and my daughter and I'll leave you to work out which is Hamish and which is my wife Suzy).
Just a weee story to show perseverance and one Scotsman's sheer bloodymindedness can achieve what a lot of folk thought was unachievable....
(I know this is completely off topic but I thouight folk may find it interesting - I hope I was right.)
Pete
Makes project rough love seem like a walk in the park ...
