Lake Aircraft

I got to fly right seat in one of these from Elyria OH out to Put-in-Bay for the day and back about 6 years ago when I was working up there. It was a hoot and a half (maybe even two or three hoots!)

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SteveCanyon said:
I've got a bunch of time in that one. Hauls six people off the water easily. Slow and somewhat limited range, but unlimited fun in the air and on the water.
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Sounds kind of lame. Normal land 6 passenger twins powered by twin IO-360s are considered to be under powered and sluggish. Add in draggy amphibious requirements and I can't help but think disaster and/or useless. IO-540s would seem more appropriate. Hell, it's Russian so why not a pair of M14Ps and make it really cool?!! :yes:
 
The chief mechanic (now deceased) for the flying club restored a twin bee for one of the members. It was a beautiful job. The member wanted it to fly to the Bahamas. He wanted an amphibian and his wife insisted on a twin. According to Lenny (chief mechanic) it burned 20 gph to make 90 kts. And, as a sea bee it looked very odd. They only did one trip out and back in it.

John


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There's been a derelict Lake at Watsonville for going on 20 years. It gets towed to various places and then parked for a while. (Come to think of it, I haven't seen it for a bit, so I don't know where it is right now.) Anyway, if you like the things, you could probably buy this one for five dollars.

Tim
 
There is a Seabee sitting on the bottom of lake Champlain probably free for the taking. Been there for decades.
 
Shepherd said:
Seabee: Big, heavy, slow, loud.
I flew a bunch of them way, WAY, back in the day.
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That is one gorgeous plane, right there. I am sorry that there are so few, that they burn so much fuel, and go so slow.

By the way, I've been to Hopewell Jct. It's a nice little town. Met the chief of police, probably retired now, but i thought he was a great guy.
 
timwinters said:
I got to fly right seat in one of these from Elyria OH out to Put-in-Bay for the day and back about 6 years ago when I was working up there. It was a hoot and a half (maybe even two or three hoots!)

0049651.jpg
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Now that's nice
 
Everything you ever want to know about a SeaBee

http://www.republicseabee.com/

I looked into getting one when we bought a lake house. As with many things, the entry price is rather good, but the ownership costs are - breathtaking.

Then I looked at a couple of Lake planes. Each time, the owner had a list of 'small squawks, things that you might want to look at some day'. Sadly, the ones they admit to, aren't the ones that cost you thousands after you buy it and find the rest of the issues.

I only demoed one plane, and it was the Colonial Skimmer, which is technically a Lake Amphib, but it's the early, early model. Again, buy-in isn't too back but keeping it running is a humdinger.

<edit, funny thing about the SeaBee, the design was for a simplified construction, and off the shelf components where they could to reduce building cost, and maint. They might have reduced build cost, but the mx costs are staggering sometimes.>
 
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It seems to me that in this day and age, if you want a seaplane to play with, you should get one made of plastic instead of aluminum. I wonder what it would take to build a Lake, but with a plastic fuselage?
 
There are advantages and disadvantages with glass over aluminum.

Aerocet makes some glass floats, some people like them some folks stick with aluminum Edos and Wips, I'm a Edo guy myself.


Also glass has been around for quite some time and there are still more metal floats out there.
 
ktup-flyer said:
You can get one in good shape for almost half that
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I haven't seen any that cheap that were complete and flying, last I looked I didnt see a complete flying one for less than $200k, but I haven't looked in awhile.
 
pigpenracing said:
Weldon's plane crashed landing on glass smooth water, not taking off and nosing over. I hear the hardest thing is to land one of these planes on glass smooth water because it looks like a mirror and you can't judge how high you are.
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That's what the bag of rocks is for next to the seat. Drop a few out of the storm window on downwind and you get ripples.
 
There is only one way to do floats the right way.
 

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A couple of years ago the entire company, type certificates and jigs was for sale. Did it change hands at the time ?
 
Tom-D said:
PBY --- Floats.?. Focus Henning
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Like I said, I would take a PBY over an Otter for the same money or less, I don't particularly care if it's on floats or a boat hull. Besides, if I wanted floats, to do it right would be a Twin Otter on Amphibs, or a Bassler DC-3. One engine doesn't cut the load I'd need to haul for that much investment.
 
Henning said:
Like I said, I would take a PBY over an Otter for the same money or less, I don't particularly care if it's on floats or a boat hull. Besides, if I wanted floats, to do it right would be a Twin Otter on Amphibs, or a Bassler DC-3. One engine doesn't cut the load I'd need to haul for that much investment.
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Your imagination has no bounds, there isn't a flying PBY that could be bought for less than a mil.

The radial Otter is a classic, they will go for $500,000 for a fresh P&W 1340 and good floats.
 
Tom-D said:
Your imagination has no bounds, there isn't a flying PBY that could be bought for less than a mil.

The radial Otter is a classic, they will go for $500,000 for a fresh P&W 1340 and good floats.
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It's hard to find a Beaver in good shape with a fresh engine at that price.
 
How did we get from a 2+2 like a Lake to a Beaver ?
 
weilke said:
How did we get from a 2+2 like a Lake to a Beaver ?
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Heck, I'm surprised by now it isn't Hillary's or Bush's fault that Lake aircraft is gone or that we're talking about bbq recipes and the best beer ... :lol:
 
Henning said:
It's hard to find a Beaver in good shape with a fresh engine at that price.
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Nice beavers are expensive, no matter which type we talk about.
 
txflyer said:
Heck, I'm surprised by now it isn't Hillary's or Bush's fault that Lake aircraft is gone or that we're talking about bbq recipes and the best beer ... :lol:
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You're saying it's Hillary's Bush's fault that we're talking about Beavers? :D
 
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