Canada is float flying heaven. With thousands of remote lakes spread across the country and vast coastal waters on the east and west coast it makes for, what I believe to be, the ultimate float flying experience. I took this shot a few years ago from the remote, west side of Cowichan Lake which sits on the south end of Vancouver Island. If you ever visit Victoria you can drive up to Cowichan but getting to the more remote west side of the lake requires a boat or airplane. The best part of flying floats is that you don't have the same requirements as you do in a wheel plane; You can land in just about any body of water, beach the airplane and hop out for a swim, picnic or even a little water skiing behind the airplane! This airplane is a completely restored turbine Beaver. If you have flown in a Beaver before you will probably be more familiar with the old school thumping of a radial engine Beaver (which is a dream to listen to by the way). This one has a special conversion to hold a Pratt & Whitney PT-6 turbine engine that puts out 760 HP. I don't like the sound as much but I love the power. Some cool facts about this airplane.....it has wheels tucked into the floats making it possible to land on water and land and it can go in reverse making docking a piece of cake.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment