Goose News

[mdwflyer]

European coastal have gotten their Canadian registered goose back up and running.

[Rajay]

European Coastal have gotten their Canadian registered goose back up and running.

I actually talked to Mike Ingram at Victoria Air Maintenance Ltd about that over the last 2 weeks - apparently thanks to you, Mark. They are still working on formally "conforming" it to meet new EASA requirements for a fresh certificate of airworthiness. (Since Croatia only recently joined the European Union and came under EASA jurisdiction.)

Apparently some records were lost and they have to prove that the McKinnon STC to remove the aft cabin bulkhead was done correctly. In the meantime, even though it is still actually located in Croatia, they have re-registered it in Canada as C-FMXW (with VAM as the nominal owner) until the conformity and airworthiness issues are fully resolved. (*Note that the previous Canadian registration it has been carrying all this time was not valid after it was officially de-registered in Canada in 2005 and C-FVFU had actually been re-assigned to a different aircraft there.) In any case, Mike told me that he has plans to make another trip over to Croatia soon to finish up that work - and paperwork.

He also mentioned a mod to increase the seating capacity to 10 pax seats but I have never heard of such a thing pertaining to the Grumman G-21A. Some of the McKinnon conversions under TC 4A24 were certified for more seats (9 in the G-21C & G-21E, 14 in the G-21D, and 10 in the G-21G - all including the pilot and co-pilot seats) but none of those conversions had anything to do with mods or alterations approved for use in the legacy Grumman G-21A series. According to TC 654, the G-21A was never approved for more than 8 seats total, also still including the pilot and co-pilot seats.

[Rajay]

As of a month ago (April 7th) Bob Martin's (& Bill Rose's) former Goose, N600ZE, s/n B-100, finally sold and has a new owner and a new home. It was bought by Mike Rinker, a competition aerobatics pilot based in Union City, TN (way up in the NW corner toward the Mississippi River.) He's a member of the IAC chapter based in Memphis and has a Sukhoi Su-26M for aerobatics as well as a Robinson R-44 helicopter, an old C-W Travel Aire, and a Howard DGA-15 too. Sounds like a good home for the Goose. I hope he takes good care of it.

[MrWidgeon]

Glad it's found a new home.

Bill

[Rajay]

Addison Pemberton's restoration of Goose N95467, ex-British JRF-6B serial no. 1161, has been completed and it was flown last Monday, April 17, 2017, for the first time in probably something like 25 years! Addison smartly hired one of the most experienced Grumman seaplane pilots still active in the world, Fred Ball, to do the honors. Fred, who used to be chief pilot for Pen Air in Alaska and has something like 16,000 hours or more in Gooses and Widgeons, conducted the initial test flight as well as completing all of the check-out time required for insurance purposes for Addison and his oldest son, Jay. Addison reported that the plane was almost squawk-free (just a slight bit of left wing heaviness) and that the Covington-overhauled R-985 radials were "turbine smooth" and dry too. He also praised the "pull" of the long-blade Ham Std. 2-bladed props, which he says are much cheaper and maybe even stronger than the 3-bladed Hartzells, although he did concede that they may be louder. I know that one of his concerns early on about the Ham. Stds. was that with the original installation of them on the Goose they were not featherable, so Addison got an STC to install a feathering system based on a similar installation on Beech 18's. The photos that he shared with me and others were awesome and included some water landings and take-offs in the first 20 hours or so that they have already put on the airplane since its restoration. Second son Ryan is a gifted photographer and has a lot of experience show-casing the Pemberton fleet in air-to-air shots. Ryan also plans to start working on his MEL and MES ratings in the Goose after Addison and Jay get more time in it themselves.

All my congratulations to Pemberton & Sons Aviation on another fine job!

[dogsbody]

Good news. Thanks for posting.


Chris