Backcountry Pilot

[TangoFox offline]

I've been watching Tales of the gold monkey from netflix lately.
When I was a kid it was my favorite show (while it lasted).

Kind of corny but worth watching.

Every episode has : Flying, Fighting, Drinking, Women & at least 1 Engine Out .

Has anyone here ever flown a Goose?

[Zzz]

Wow, it's on Netflix??!!! It only recently came out on DVD. Been following that one for while.

Nice find. Loved that show when I was a kid.

[porterjet offline]

So everybody else was a kid when the show was on?

[GumpAir offline]

[mtv offline]

The show was filmed in Hawaii, I believe. They needed a Grumman Goose, and Bob Hall of Kodiak Western Alaska Airlines had a couple for sale. He sold the producers one, and they hired a couple of guys to ferry it to Hawaii. Instead of tanking the airplane properly, they loaded several barrels of avgas into the back, ran a fuel hose into the left wing tank from a pump, via a left side window, and routing the hose up over the wing and into the fuel filler.

The idea was that they'd run that tank down in fuel, then re-fill it from one of the barrels in the back, using a hand pump. When that barrel was empty, they'd move the pump to another full barrel, etc.

They made it some fifty or sixty miles out from land and ran out of gas on one engine.

A Goose will not fly on one engine with a load, so splash. They were rescued.

Show still needed a Goose, so Bob Hall sold them his other Goose, and tanked it and ferried it to Hawaii himself, as I recall.

The Goose is one of the nicest flying airplanes around, as long as both engines are turning.

I too watched the show, but the Goose was a working airplane in Kodiak during that time, not just a peculiarity on TV.

Our senior Senator and the senior Senator from NY took our last two Grummans away from us, without bothering to tell us about the resolution they passed, which gave one of them to the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum in ANC and the other to the Grumman Museum on Long Island, NY. It seems we were flying museum pieces, and didn't know it.

I had the opportunity to fly them under adult supervision, but could never justify getting rated and fully qualified in them.

MTV

[flynbeekeeper offline]

I remember when Tug Kangus was able to fanagle an Alaskan NPS Goose for use on Lake Powell back in the late eighties. He figured they could use it for SAR missions. We would sit on Lone Rock Beach sipping adult beverages watching him conduct splash & goes. At 4000 MSL, that poor old Goose would travel for miles before she could muster enough to get in the air! Very, Very cool!

[onceAndFutr_alaskaflyer offline]

I remember when Tug Kangus was able to fanagle an Alaskan NPS Goose for use on Lake Powell back in the late eighties. He figured they could use it for SAR missions. We would sit on Lone Rock Beach sipping adult beverages watching him conduct splash & goes. At 4000 MSL, that poor old Goose would travel for miles before she could muster enough to get in the air! Very, Very cool!

You know Tug is still there working. Now very much the most senior pilot in the DOI AFaiK. He still grins every time he talks about that Goose.

[Rhymes offline]

"Flying, fighting, drinking, women and engine outs?" What's not to like??!
I couldn't help myself: ordered it this morning. $29.99 for the Complete Series from Amazon, free shipping.
Should make good hangar-lounging entertainment...

[flynbeekeeper offline]

Yeah, saw Tug last Oct. in PGA. Super Guy!

[Throttle Pusher offline]

well you guys talked me into it, I just bought the set from amazon.
I cant believe I missed this when it first came out.

[Zzz]

Wasn't Corky played by Ernest Borgnine? Or am I thinking of Life Goes On?

[TangoFox offline]

Corky was played by Jeff Mackay.
He was also in the Black Sheep Squadron.


Which was another of my favorites.

[SixTwoLeemer offline]

Trent, are you sure they had televisions in Green River when you were growing up??

I'm callin' boleshevic

[TangoFox offline]

Trent, are you sure they had televisions in Green River when you were growing up??

I'm callin' boleshevic

They actually did.

But... we did have to wait for it to warm up.

And we had
4 channels ABC,NBC,CBS & PBS.

Sometimes you could get decent sound on one with crappy picture, decent picture on another with crappy sound, crappy sound and picture on the other.
And PBS would come in just fine. Too bad there was usually nothing good on PBS (unless they were trying to raise donations).

[hardtailjohn offline]

That's the Goose in my avatar.... N327. I worked on it in the 90's when it was at Bayview and Jim Chrysler owned it. First time I saw it, we had to go to Bremerton, WA and fix the left main gear, as they'd ground looped it while doing touch and go's. He bought it and had it painted blue and yellow at Viking Air, up in Victoria if I remember correctly. Last I heard, it crashed in 2005, back East and burned. I've got a pic on my other computer I'll try to post later. A guy in New York State owns it and is rebuilding it from what I hear..... he's got a helluva project ahead of him, from the looks of it, but it sure can be done.

Here's the pic of her after the crash. Both people got out ok. I had a picture of the guy rebuilding it, but the link doesn't work anymore. It looked like he was doing a great job from what could be seen. I sure hope she's in the air again soon!

[RanchAero offline]

I remember when Jim had it, too. He also got that Caravan on straight floats from Yellowknife. Flew in that a few times.

[150Mike offline]

Our senior Senator and the senior Senator from NY took our last two Grummans away from us, without bothering to tell us about the resolution they passed, which gave one of them to the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum in ANC and the other to the Grumman Museum on Long Island, NY. It seems we were flying museum pieces, and didn't know it.

MTV

I assume that you meant Sen. Stevens of Alaska (as opposed to MN when you said "our") who arranged to "donate" Fish & Wildlife's N789 (s/n B-102) to the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum on Lake Hood in Anchorage, but I am not aware of a Goose actually at the Grumman History Center at Bethpage. There is an ex-Bureau of Land Management Goose at the Historic Aircraft Restoration Project (aka HARP) at the old Floyd Bennett Field on the other side of Jamaica Bay from Kennedy Airport. That Goose is N644R (formerly N644), s/n B-130. When HARP got it, it was still painted in BLM's color scheme of base white with brown and orange trim and a brown lower hull, but it has since been repainted to represent a Goose once used by the NYPD Aviation Unit.

[mtv offline]

Yep, that was the Goose. At the time, I was an Alaska resident, hence my reference to Senator Stevens as "our" senator.

I knew that 644 went to New York. To me, New York is all one big mish-mash, so pardon my failure to get the museum right.... In any case, it was a big surprise when the two museums called our aircraft folks up and said "when are you going to deliver OUR Grumman Goose?". We actually had flights scheduled that week for 789... And, there's really nothing else flying that will do what a Goose will do. Bulletproof airframe, good engines, and tough as nails.

MTV

[EZFlap offline]

Sorry to drift the thread, but as an aside, I had the opportunity to visit Floyd Bennett Field a few months ago. Unfortunately I did not get into the hangar/museum (it would have delayed me on the way to JFK to leave New York city). But WOW what a place it is, even from the outside. Anyone who loves aviation history, and who can "feel" the ghosts of aviators past when they walk around an old airport... needs to go see this place (anytime you have the misfortune to be in New York, that is).

The old hangars are absolutely a beautiful sight to behold, Taj Mahal compared to the common corrugated steel or wood hangars. This place was built when aviation was the most exciting thing in America, and that love went into building those hangars. Just driving by them in 2011, I swear I heard the crowd cheering as Roscoe slid back the canopy of the Meteor. Anyone else here get those feelings when you're at an old airport?

Never mind, I know damned well I'm much further around the bend than the rest of you... and that's saying a lot.

[Clay offline]

Thread creep but yeah, I get that way too. Ferried a YMF WACO from LA to Atlanta this summer and did it in two full days. Channeled the Bendix racers the whole way. Helped that I had left my charge cord for portable GPS at home, hence flying long stretches with chart and compass. Really was kind of neat, pushing hard and thinking about how it still didn't hold a candle to Turner or Doolittle...etc.