Goose News

[MrWidgeon]

That IS good news.
These things NEED to be overhauled regularly.

Bill

[Rajay]

Recently, N401SJ (ex-JRF-6B, c/n 1168) was offered up for sale by the family that has owned it for the last 35 1/2 years. (The "SJ" stood for Seward Johnson, aka John Seward Johnson I, son and heir of Robert Wood Johnson, co-founder of mega-conglomerate Johnson & Johnson - yes, "oh, that Johnson family!")

Well, although its official FAA registration has not yet been updated, it appears to have been sold.

I recently noticed that it was no longer listed as being for sale on any of the usual sites (Trade-A-Plane and Controller.com for examples.) And then yesterday, it popped up on FlightAware.com flying from the panhandle of Florida to Clarke County, Mississippi. Note that for the last several years during which I have been keeping track, it only ever flew back and forth between West Palm Beach, FL, the Bahamas, and for periodic maintenace in Bartow, FL up in the Lakeland area.

Today, it filed a new flight plan and took off for Lea County Regional in Hobbs, New Mexico.

Now I'm just curious to see where it's going and to whom!

[Rajay]

Still no clue where he's going or what his final destination for this trip will be, but today it has flown across NM and AZ and is now flying north-northwest up the central valley of CA with a filed destination of Oakdale, CA near Modesto, just east of the S. F. Bay area.

[Rajay]

Just noticed an updated registration in the FAA database - N401SJ (G-21A s/n 1168) now belongs to Brett R. "Rex" Mayes of Williams Soaring (gliders) in Williams, California. Rex bought a Goose "project" several years ago, but I guess he got impatient to have a real "flyer".

FYI: the "project" Goose he owns isn't far off from the new one - both are ex-British model JRF-6B Gooses and the other one is N74588, s/n 1165. I might hazard a guess that at this point that it might become just a source of spare parts for the "flyer" N401SJ.

[Rajay]

I've just been reading about the crash of a Goose in western Montana that happened 2 days ago. It appears from the evidence I've seen to be the very same Goose about which I started this thread - N888GG. The pilot, Michael Blume of Burnsville, MN, was ferrying it from Florida to Montana for the owner and he was apparently killed in the crash. This is very sad news! Condolences to the pilot's family....

Here are a couple of links:

http://www.ktvq.com/news/pilot-identified-in-fatal-montana-ski-area-crash/

http://missoulian.com/news/local/authorities-release-name-of-pilot-killed-in-lost-trail-pass/article_5c5d7c6c-f7d5-11e3-ad7a-001a4bcf887a.html

[MrWidgeon]

Thanks for the update Rajay, I got the news that afternoon, but didn't want to post it until more info was available.
That ski area is about 200 miles north of me and the weather here was really crummy for June.
Locally it was rain & 60°F., up there it was snowing pretty hard at times.
There were 2 eyewitnesses to the crash and hopefully they can provide enough info to help the NTSB solve this one.
The airplane hit in an empty parking lot and no damage was reported to anything other than the aircraft.

R.I.P. Michael, Fair Skies & Tailwinds.

[Rajay]

It's been almost 2 years - since Dec. 2012 actually - that the Collings Foundation has had Goose N985R (c/n B-86) bought from Pen Air for them by one of their patrons, Frank Dworak, but they have only just recently been able to ferry it from Alaska to their HQ in Stow, MA. The news was posted just 2 days ago on their Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/collings.foundation

I'm so glad that their 3,000 mile journey was completed safely and without incident.

[harrysone]

Good news!
Pacific Coastal Airlines has returned 2 Grumman Gooses to service

http://www.pacificcoastal.com/id/221/ne ... /News.html

http://www.pacificcoastal.com/id/189/Se ... ision.html

[mdwflyer]

I don't think anybody was hurt

http://www.avcanada.ca/forums2/viewtopi ... ilit=goose

[Gord21]

Yes, nobody was injured. This happened last Tuesday. We're still looking into the causes. Maintenance crew replaced tailwheel and patched up damage to nose/hull and I flew the aircraft back to base on Monday. Will be doing some sheet metal work for a while but the aircraft is otherwise in good shape and should return to service soon.