Seaplane Resurgence?

"TMOliver" wrote:

I note that the poor deluded and apparently deranged woman who died -
strangled in an attempt to get out of the irons - while cuffed and shackled
at Sky Harbor, the Phoenix Airport, was the daughter of a retired SA Navy
CDR.

Nope - never knew a Cmdr Henry Stiger. Cannot find him on the Navy
list during the time I was in the service or the press has the name
wrong. Supposed to have been OC diving school. Rings no bells,
unfortunately.

Eugene L Griessel

Communication - the art of transferring thought from one brain
to another successfully.

- I usually post only from Sci.Military.Naval -

On Oct 2, 1:52 pm, (Eugene Griessel) wrote:
"TMOliver" wrote:
I note that the poor deluded and apparently deranged woman who died -
strangled in an attempt to get out of the irons - while cuffed and shackled
at Sky Harbor, the Phoenix Airport, was the daughter of a retired SA Navy
CDR.

Nope - never knew a Cmdr Henry Stiger. Cannot find him on the Navy
list during the time I was in the service or the press has the name
wrong. Supposed to have been OC diving school. Rings no bells,
unfortunately.

Eugene L Griessel

Communication - the art of transferring thought from one brain
to another successfully.

- I usually post only from Sci.Military.Naval -

Some confusion on my part. This is a New York Times article on the
wedding of Carole Anne Stiger and Noah Eliot Gotbaum says she was
going to retain her Stiger name. Also the Johannesburg Star says it
has no reference to Stiger.

WEDDINGS; Noah E. Gotbaum, Carol A. Stiger



Published: June 11, 1995

Carol Anne Stiger, a daughter of Comdr. and Mrs. Henry B. Stiger of
Cape Town, was married last evening in Manhattan to Noah Eliot
Gotbaum, the son of Victor Gotbaum of Brooklyn and Dr. Sarah C.
Gotbaum of Chevy Chase, Md. Rabbi Charles Lippman performed the
ceremony at the Loeb Boathouse in Central Park.

Ms. Stiger, 33, is keeping her name. She is a senior buyer in London
for the House of Frasier, a department store company. She received an
M.B.A. from the University of Wi****ersrand in Johannesburg. Her
father retired as the commander of the South African Navy Diving
School in Simonstown. The bride's previous marriage ended in divorce.

Mr. Gotbaum, 35, is a director of the Central Europe Trust Company, a
consulting and investment firm in London. He graduated from Amherst
College and received a master's degree in public policy management
from Yale University.

His mother is a public affairs and health-policy consultant in
Washington. His father, the former executive director of District
Council 37 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees, is an author and consultant in New York. The bridegroom's
stepmother, Betsy Gotbaum, is the executive director of the New-York
Historical Society.

On Sun, 30 Sep 2007 08:16:23 -0700, Ken S. Tucker wrote:
On Sep 29, 7:01 pm, "Mike Kanze" wrote:
but will they now make a comeback in the US?

Short answer: No, IMHO.

Longer answer: Attempts at large-scale revival of seaplanes in
the U.S. will likely meet the same ends as attempts to revive LTA.
a.. Too few suitable seadrome possibilities near most U. S. coastal
population centers. And no possibilities at all in the continental
heartland, other than the Great Lakes cities like Detroit or Chicago.
b.. Constant pre-landing obstruction clearance would be a major headache
for near-urban seadromes - would not take a very large piece of harbor
flotsam to hole a hull at takeoff or alighting speed.
c.. Need for major infrastructure improvements (large hangars, ramps, etc.)
along increasingly expensive / scarce near-urban shoreline.
d.. Even a modest sea state can hinder or prohibit operations in more
open waters.

One of my fav's is the Martin Sea Master,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-6_Seamaster

Martin tried hard, even to go commercial,
but practical issues intervened.

The seaplane ramp at the former Martin factory airport still exists [1],
so there's a seadrome ready-made less than an hour's drive from our
nation's capital.

Sure, I suppose it's possible that Frog Mortar Creek may have silted
up a bit in the forty years or so since Martin last launched seaplanes
there. Yes, arriving and departing aircraft might have to avoid the
locals' crab pots and pick their way through swarms of recreational
boaters while taxiing past Bowley Bar between the upper Chesapeake
and the airport, but so what? Minor details.

So-called "practical issues" can not be allowed to stand in the way
of the inevitable comeback of the seaplane!


ljd

[1] 39-18-56.06 N, 076-24-19.52 W

"R.C. Payne" wrote in message
...
Bill Kambic wrote:
On Mon, 1 Oct 2007 18:51:14 -0500, "TMOliver"
wrote:

The awful truth....

Them dannable Tscherman N*zis and the Hirohito's aggressive pursuit of the
East Asian Coprosperity Sphere sealed the doom of the flying boat and sea
plane by causing we Merkins to pave or at worst lay steel mat over the
majority of the Western World's (and some Eastern's too) long flat places.
When there were runways everywhere, planes that floated were relegated to
niche market status, quaint curiosites in the midst of a dynamic world.

Yup, what he said.

Floatplanes are romantic as all get out, but lack economic
practicality.

Maybe someday somebody will figure out how to make money on them the
way some folks make big cruise ships pay. Until then they are just a
chapter in Naval Aviation (and aviation) history.

I know it's a niche market, but there are at least two companies flying
otter and twin otter float planes between Victoria and Vancouver in BC (as
well as a few other destinations in the area). The geography of those two
cities is such that the seaplanes can provide a downtown - downtown service
with a short journey time, indeed in less time than it would take to drive
to the airport. They seem to cope quite well with the other traffic in the
harbours.

I chartered one of their Twin Otters to take the Standing Committee on
Fisheries and Oceans to look at the situation of salmon farms in the Broughton
Archipelago back in 2002. It was a bit like being on a date with the family
car because we had to return in time for the a/c to fuel before its evening
commuter run. Great flight, though -- we were about 1,000 feet all the way up
and down the Island, and we could see the white-sided dolphins rolling to take
a look at us as we dropped down.
--
Andrew Chaplin
SIT MIHI GLADIUS SICUT SANCTO MARTINO
(If you're going to e-mail me, you'll have to get "yourfinger." out.)