Floatplane Heaven
By David BrownMany years ago, I gained my seaplane ticket at the Salton Sea in California, flying a Piper Cub on floats. In two days, I learned the art of operating from water, coming ashore on beaches and ramps, reading the water, assessing the wind, sailing without the engine, and the ins and outs of operating from rivers and lakes.Fast forward through a number of years of landplane flying, interspersed with a couple of delightful flights in a Twin Otter on floats out of Ketchikan, landing on Lake Wilson, and a scenic tour of the Great Lakes with Chuck Greenhill in his twin-engine Mallard flying boat from his base at Kenosha. Recently, I was offered the chance of a right-seat ride in a floatplane Turbo-Otter from Lake Union to Victoria Inner Harbor in British Columbia, Canada.Victoria is a delightful vacation destination on Vancouver Island.The fun started when I arrived at the Kenmore Air Terminal at Lake Union in Seattle. As I waited for my plane to arrive, I was treated to the sight of a constant stream of Turbo Otters and Beavers taking off and landing. But here was the difference. My Cub flying had involved just a student and instructor on a deserted lake. There was no boat traffic. I must admit we had a couple of ducks paddle past one morning. But that was it.
Having a crane on final approach is all in the day’s work for a Kenmore Air Otter pilot. Here a Turbo-Otter is on a curving final approach past the construction cranes. (David Brown)This Lake Union operation was a different kettle of fish. There was a constant flurry of floatplanes loading up, taxiing out,and taking off, or side-slipping down through an obstacle course of construction cranes and apartment buildings on the south side of the lake. Other traffic on the lake includes sailboats and powerboats.The flying was all expertly done.The Beavers are six-seaters, the Otters are 10-seaters. While the 1950s vintage Beavers are still powered by the trusty 450HP radial engines, the bigger Otters have been upgraded to the PT6A-34 turboprop with 750SHP, which was adopted by Kenmore Air, especially to enable operations from Lake Union, which has a none-too-large operating area.
Here came my ride. In contrast to the regular yellow and white Kenmore paint schemes, this Turbine-powered Otter had a special and very distinctive paint scheme, registered N50KA, blue with yellow trim and “Evening” in script along the side.The passengers disembarked, and when it was time for us to board (passengers and baggage had already been weighed before boarding), we walked out along the jetty and climbed aboard up the external steps. All baggage was stowed aft of the cabin, and I was soon installed in the right seat and strapped in.The two-seat cockpit was as expected with standard controls for the PT6 on a center console, manual trim wheel, and big silver levers for seat rising and lowering.The avionics? Using Garmin G1000s for the past few years has obviously spoiled me. Here we had 1990s vintage radios and avionics, including a small GPS display on the pilot’s panel.
By now, we were all on board, and the doors were closed. We started up with the PT 6 whining into life, then the prop started to turn. Our handlers pushed our nose away from the quay, and we taxied slowly out, aiming to take off to the north.We had to slot ourselves in with the stream of other Beavers and Otters coming and going. Pre-takeoff checks were quickly accomplished, flaps were lowered to takeoff setting, trims checked, and the water rudders retracted. When it was our turn, we went to full power, and the noise level went up dramatically. Takeoff was standard seaplane technique as I remembered it, accelerating slowly with water spraying out from the floats until we came up on the step, then the nose was eased down a touch to accelerate more quickly. Once off the water, we turned to the west, slowly climbing along the canal towards Puget Sound while the flaps were retracted.
Once over Puget Sound, we turned northwest and headed for Victoria, slowly overtaking a cruise ship heading north from Seattle.In the climb, our 750SHP PT6A turboprop was at 45 percent Torque, propeller turning lazily at 1,800 rpm and pulling us along at just over 100 knots. We were climbing at about 400 fpm. I’ve flown Embraer Tucanos, TBMs, and Caravans with the same basic engine (and higher speeds), but here we had a big, heavy airplane, 10 passengers, all their baggage, two big floats under us with a full suite of struts, and a profusion of handling ropes hanging from the airframe. From a load-carrying point of view, we were doing well, but the Otter on floats will never be regarded as a speedy airplane.Off to our right across Puget Sound was the main Boeing assembly plant at Everett, where I had an appointment later in the week.We continued climbing slowly, with the Hood Canal ahead and the rugged mountains of the Olympic Peninsula off our left wingtip. We were talking on the radio to Seattle Center and then Whidbey Island Approach. At the north end of the Hood Canal, we passed over the floating bridge and continued climbing to the north.Reaching our VFR cruise altitude, we leveled out at 4,500 feet. Power was reduced, and we settled into our cruise at 120 knots. Ahead and to the right, the snowy upper slopes of Mt. Baker came into view. During the next few days, we would find that it dominates the Eastern horizon during our visit to Victoria.We headed out to sea over the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Protection Island, with its Nature Reserve famed for seabirds and seals, slid slowly past under the right wing.We started our descent, keeping a sharp lookout for pods of whales. Orcas are common in these waters, and pilots will circle to point them out to passengers. But we saw no Orcas this day. We actually did see the Orcas from a whale-watching boat the following day.Ahead of us, drawing an arrow-straight wake across the sea, we saw the “Victoria Clipper,” the ferry nearing the end of its four-hour trip from Seattle to Victoria.Scorning its plodding pace, we overtook the ferry and continued descending, aiming for the breakwater at Victoria Harbor.We turned base over the breakwater and set up for a landing in the inner harbor, flaps coming down, and speed reducing to 75 knots. It was a strange feeling to be over land, with floats under us, and trees and houses looming ever larger, until in the final few seconds, the Otter was over the water again. With speed around 55 knots, we leveled out, splashed down, and once down to taxi speed, dropped the water rudders and taxied into the jetty.Victoria Inner Harbor is a busy seaplane base, with Otters and Twin Otters constantly flying in and out from dawn until dusk. Destinations are split between Vancouver and Seattle, with the odd charter flight thrown in. In our three days in Victoria, we generally had five or six floatplanes in view at any time.The floatplane pilots have to contend with water taxis, sailboats, flocks of Canadian Geese, and kayakers. The jetty is so crowded that the bigger Twin Otters have to be manhandled by their handling ropes around to the backside of the jetty to enable the crowd of single-engine Turbo Otters to come in and out on the seaward side. Despite that, it’s definitely floatplane heaven.Specifications of Turbo Otter (DHC-3)Span: 58 feet 1 inLength: 45 feet 1 inHeight: 16 feetEngine: PWC PT6A-34 750 SHPCapacity: 10 passengersWt empty: 4,959lbTOGW: 8,000lbCruise spee: 105 knotsStall Speed: 50 knots
