It’s not something you see every day, but a DC-3 on amphibious floats made an entrance on Moosehead Lake for the International Seaplane Fly-In in Greenville, Maine, on the weekend. The aircraft is the only one of its kind and has been based in Greenville for more than 30 years and is owned by two local families. It hasn’t been flown much in recent years and the weekend flights were the first since last year. It was originally purchased by local owners for an airline project, but it couldn’t be registered for commercial service. The future of the plane is unclear but there is interest in seeing it preserved in flying condition, according to Vintage Aviation News.
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I wonder what the main stumbling block to commercial use was.
I wonder if it was the expense of bringing everything up to Part 135 standards.
Its experimental/ exhibition certified and neither the C47 nor DC-3 on floats was designed to be used as TC aircraft. Its use-profile was strictly military.
Edo designed the floats for it (Edo Model 78-29400 aka Edo 29400 or 28000) smelling a military market which never materialized. A incredibly small number of this floats was ever produced.
I believe, Wipaire currently produces the biggest market-ready float (Wip 13000) and maybe Amy can give some insights on market demand for this type of bathtub.
I can not remember a time being in Greenville without looking at this amazing machine and it is a joy to see it killing bugs and scaring fish.
It looked like it was sitting rather deep as it slowed after landing. Was it or was that normal?
I would say it looks quite normal for such a heavy bird, but am neither a DC-3/C47 expert nor have I flown the plane. She is certainly moving some water during plow and unfortunately the video doesn’t show her on step and ready to fly.
I found a reel on Fakebook which shows a pretty long run until the old lady is airborne.
Amazing machine and amazing people keeping her airworthy.
https://www.facebook.com/mooseheadlakeshorejournal/videos/%EF%B8%8F-𝐀-𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖-𝐅𝐄𝐖-𝐆𝐎𝐓-𝐓𝐎-𝐒𝐄𝐄-%EF%B8%8Fthere-are-hundreds-if-not-thousands-of-videos-of-the-dc/1566489168553526/
It’s a fascinating airplane and Jakob McKenney has written a book on its history. The reality is that there is a sweet spot in terms of aircraft size, speed, and seat capacity. At a certain point, a large floatplane needs so much water that it becomes very limited in terms of possible water takeoff/landing sites.
The DC-3 in question was indeed never certified but a lot of money was invested putting it together. It was quite the disappointment to not get approved, but I can imagine the maintenance hurdles to operating such an airplane to commercial standards.
Nice to sea it’s flying again! I remember seeing this D Sea-3 at Sun-n-Fun many years ago. Could maybe use a paint spruce-up?
The Bible tells us that there is a time and a season for everything. The DC-3 definitely had its season and served its time well.