Around the World in (many) Days

People often ask "How far can you go in that thing?". Back in October Mike and I had the opportunity to meet a gent who gave the ultimate answer to that question.

Michael Smith started in Melbourne, Australia in March with the intent of reflying the Qantas Empire Flying Boat route of 1938 from Sydney to London. Long story short, he got to London, took a break, and decided to keep going, making it all the way around the world in his custom built SeaRey, Southern Sun.

Michael was taking a break in Seattle when Mike and I were able to meet up with him for breakfast.

Michael continued from Seattle up into Alaska and along the Aleutians, before making an incredible one-stop leg from Adak-Attu-Kushiro. That's 1,680 miles in one day!!!!


I've got a great life, but it's good to see nice guys do even better. Congratulations, Michael, it was a real pleasure meeting you.

..

Deja Stab

About a year after Osp was delivered PA determined that the fin and rudder needed reinforcing, and sent me a kit with oversleeves to be riveted over the existing tubing.

Further testing determined the oversleeves were not necessary, but by this time I had already installed them. The SeaRey LSA/X is a little porker, a kit that used to come in under 900# often now weighs in the 1,000# range, leaving a small payload envelope to stay below the 1,435# max weight for an amphib. In addition, the SeaRey has a long tail moment and a short nose, meaning any excess weight in the tail requires more to compensate in the nose. Removing them would have left the structure weakened as a result of the holes I had drilled, so I was caught in a Catch-22.

After debating it, I decided to go ahead and acquire new stab frames, and while I was at it I acquired the new Friese ailerons. I'll fly Osp with the "Classic" ailerons, then switch to the newer ones at a date in the future if I want. By building them now I'd be able to paint everything at once and match the paint.

We've been there and done this before, but boiled linseed oil is still a sticky mess to apply and clean up.

Prep the hangar...

 and review old photos about previous assembly/covering days.

I really had to take a breath and ask myself if I wanted to do this again, if it was worth saving the weight. A quick slice of a knife ended the debate. 

That's a lot of junk off a single stab. 

A beat up hangar scale showed just under 2# removed, I stopped at the post office on the way home and got a more accurate reading of 2.1#/side, leading to a 4.2# weight removal from the tail, and saving an undetermined amount of weight I would have needed to add to the nose to counter the oversleeves. Worth it.

A long time ago...

It's not the years, it's the (s)miles.

Covering is FUN!!

I'm not dead yet.... (just been busy)

It's like the beaver said, Life is just one dam thing after another.


The last few years have been good and bad. I've lost more friends due to aviation in the last 2 years than I have in the previous 25, and while my love for flying is unabated, my tolerance for pudknocker pilots has worn thin. It's ok to make mistakes and learn from them, lord knows I've made my share and odds are I'm going to make some in the future, but I've learned to listen and learn from others, and if someone else (experienced pilot or newly minted) isn't willing to do the same, I don't want them in my life anymore.


I took some time to reexamine OspRey last summer, look for things that need updating and worked with PA to identify parts that have changed since my kit was delivered so long ago. It's been funny to occasionally look back at this site and see statements like "She'll fly in 2012... 2013... 2014..." Now I just tell people "She'll fly on Wednesday." without specifying WHICH Wednesday.


First things first. Prior to build OspRey I cut my teeth turning wrenches volunteering at the Heritage Flight Museum, and in late 2009 I participated in the recovery and restoration of a 1950s era F-89 Scorpion. When the museum moved from Bellingham to Skagit/Bayview Airport a few years ago, the F-89 was taken apart again and moved, and while she was in pieces Hal and his crew had her painted. When it was time to put Humpty back together again, Hal "got the band back together" and gave me a call to help.

Think there's a lot of bolts in the SeaRey? Check the wing of the -89 out. Very little clearance in the wing, we had to have custom wrenches machined, and you could only make 1/16 of a turn at a time before you had to reset the wrenches. (I don't remember how many bolts there are, but there are a lot!!) Luckily, the weather was nice once it warmed up, and once we got the critical underwing bolts in we were able to relax, sit in the sun, and leisurely tighten the nuts.

She looks very pretty now. I understand the museum is having some mock Genie missiles fabricated for her pylons, and we might be getting the band back together one more time this summer.

In December the maintenance hangar at Bellingham was sold, and the entire operation has moved to Skagit. It was rather eerie to stand inside the empty space, hear the echoes of good times there and lessons I learned.

Thanks to Bill, Alan, Greg, JR, Hal, Charlotte, Mike, Einar, Eric, and all the others who let me work on their airplanes, and patiently suffered my travel up the learning curve of becoming a mechanic.