My wife and I are in Akutan Alaska for a couple of weeks. We flew from Anchorage to Unalaska on a fairly large aircraft. To get from Unalaska to Akutan, you have to take the Grumman Goose since Akutan has no airport. I will get some more pics later but here are a few for those interested.













The slide show can be found here for those interested.

http://speedbump1.zenfolio.com/p83426003/slideshow

Also a few eagles for the truly patriotic among us.

That's some cool stuff! I'd love to fly on one of those some day. Impressive eagle shots, too!

Lovely photos there, speedbump. Nothing like a Goose and a brace of eagles to make your day!

Some very cool shots of the eagles.


Wheelsup

Great pics, I enjoyed the slideshow as well.

Couple questions:

What did it feel like landing on water versus a typical runway?

and

How did the Goose make the transition from being in the water up onto the ramp? Did they put the wheels down while still in the water and just motor on out?

Yeah, it has wheels that just pop out after it lands in the water. The landing on water was the smoothest landing ever. When it's in the water, the hull is basically like a boat. The pontoons never really even touch the water. I guess it's just for safety. I was amazed at the take off run in the water. It's only around 200 feet maybe and it's in the air. I guess those two little radials are pretty powerful.

Good pictures, I work for an airline who operated 4 Goose and ours have been converted to retractable floats, helps for docking because you can raise one which lifts the opposite wing up to clear the dock. Sadly we lost 2 last year, part of the flying I guess.

Fantastic! The Goose has always been one of my favourite civilian aircraft. How I'd love to own one!