The 13th Annual Boulder City Albatross fly-in. Fred rides in the nose bubble over Lake Mead.
I returned last night from the (13th Annual!) Boulder City, NV Albatross fly-in. What a great trip.
Drove out from here, because the plane I was supposed to fly, N26132, had a 100-hour inspection that went long. Would have taken me a lot less time to fly — about six hours driving each way versus around 2 1/2 hours flying, I calculated.
Obviously, I like planes, and for some reason I really love floatplanes. Of the floatplanes, the Albatross is certainly my favorite. Dennis Kuhn is actually living one of my dreams — his company, American Warbirds, resurrects Albatross from the Tucson “boneyard” and brings them back to flying condition. There were eight Albatross on the flight line at various times this weekend, ranging from bare metal to dolled-up, but all flying. Two from the competing surfwear companies, Billabong and Quiksilver.
“With that camera you’ve got, you’ll want to ride up in the nose,” Bill told me. Up in the cockpit, under the dashboard, is a little door to the bow hold, which apparently used to house the radar dome, but now is capped by a plexiglass bubble, so (like T.S. Garp the nose-gunner) I got to lie on my belly in the very front of the plane as we flew in a 4-plane formation, over the airport and out over Lake Mead. Down through a slot canyon, only a few hundred feet up, which I heard the pilot say was flying stop-to-stop on the controls as he weaved through, then out over more lake and hills and down to “Big Sandy,” a long beach out at the east end of the lake. After a low fly-over of the beach, we landed on the water and did a fast step-taxi back. Riding in the nose of the plane was truly like being able to fly.
I thanked the pilot with $200 that probably paid for 5 minutes fuel. I felt like an outsider but loved taking pictures of the planes. The canyon run was especially exciting, tilting back and forth and weaving down between the rock walls. And the water landing. And the flyovers.