floatplane - taking off frozen lake

B24
wrote in message
ups.com...
| Dan,
|
| Actually the airplane that came to a stop in the whiteout
over
| Greenland was a B-17 (My Gal Sal). That began a very long
rescue
| effort (some months) in which a number of people died
getting the crew
| out.
|
| What you may be recalling is that the legendary Bernt
Balchen (first
| person to pilot an aircraft over both poles, Byrd's pilot
across the
| Atlantic in 1927 and over the South Pole in 1929) landed a
PBY, gear
| up, on the ice pack a number of times during the rescue
(he also
| successfully took off). He also landed on a temporary
lake that formed
| on the ice pack due to melting ice.
|
| All the best,
| Rick
|
| Cub Driver wrote:
| On Mon, 5 Dec 2005 22:50:29 -0800, "Seth Masia"

| wrote:
|
| My buddy Buzz Fiorini used to fly his C180 floatplane
over to Sun Valley and
| land on a snow-packed meadow. Did it regularly, for
years, with no damage.
|
| During WWII in a whiteout, a PBY Catalina was flying
over the
| Greenland ice cap at 10,000-plus feet when the crew
realized that
| though the engines were developing full revs, the plane
wasn't moving
| any longer. They'd landed on the snow. They piled out
and ran around,
| laughing. Then they realized that, no, they weren't
going to take off
| again.
|
|
| -- all the best, Dan Ford
|
| email: usenet AT danford DOT net
|
| Warbird's Forum: www.warbirdforum.com
| Piper Cub Forum: www.pipercubforum.com
| the blog: www.danford.net
| In Search of Lost Time: www.readingproust.com
|