Flying the Turbine Grumman Mallard

Get an inside view of what it is like to fly the turbine Grumman Mallard. Built in 1947, this amazing aircraft is operated in Darwin, NT Australia, flying into the Kimberley of Western Australia.
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Music at the start and end: Joakim Karud - Vibe With Me

[@triggerpointtechnology]

As an Ex Pan Am captain, the cadence of a fully professional crew is music to my ears. Well done.

[@massimotronci9389]

Che bello! Io sono nato nel 1972 e sono cresciuto con "Più forte ragazzi!", con Bud Spencer e Terence Hill, in cui usavano un DC3 e un Catalina! Un saluto dalla Sardegna!

[@christopherpardell4418]

The most elegant looking of all the Grumman waterfowl.

[@cmtehigorr44]

Excellent! Can't wait to see more videos like this!

[@pascalcoole2725]

Great to see !!!! i thought all (turbo)Mallards where grounded after the Chalk's 2005 crash. It's such a cute plane. Can i have one for my birthday ? Why is auto-feather switched of after T/O ? Boy... she's so cool !

[@alantough9554]

Great video mate. The last 2 minutes were the best.

[@bobwalker5564]

Proud to say, that my uncle was Angus (Mac) Mckinnon...

[@johnmudge4599]

One of the best plane videos out there nice.

[@thatmallardguy7955]

John Mudge thanks John!

[@jamesnewton8977]

Awesome video! I used to fly a chopper out of Broome YBRM and saw this beautiful plane there on a few occasions. It’s a real stunner ! Keep the videos coming :)

[@skyking7964]

Very beautiful we used to have here in Miami fl.

[@markramsay6399]

Love this, fab video

[@h2oski1200]

so awesome!

[@FelixRigg]

Fascinating. Thank you.

[@benitonoriega507]

CRM at it’s best, congratulations, just came back from the Kimberly very nice back country.

[@thatmallardguy7955]

Benito Noriega thanks for the feedback!

[@c140flyer]

1st officer busy on this flight. Not only did he do most of the flying, he had to pick up the mooring buoy!

[@emmycrafts1945]

Soo exciting!!!!!!

[@johnthomasp.j.1170]

Thanks for posting such a very nice informative video.

[@stratoleft]

What exactly in informative about it?

[@Kenjh71]

@@stratoleft for know it all's no video can be informative.

[@philconey11]

My dream airplane is an Albatross. I'd like to do a similar conversion, from the Cyclones to PT-6's. I'd imagine you had to replace the spars with reinforced spars and put extra work into the sheet metal for the wings so they didn't get ripped off of the airframe. What kind of performance changes did you see with the PT-6 versus the R-1340 Wasp?

[@bladenrexroth2555]

I have a similar plan. HU-16 with better economy and range. Wish there was a diesel engine option.

[@jacobhenderson6572]

awesome video! Ive been following on instagram for a while glad to see some in depth full flight videos! Where mallard original built with the turbo props or are where they converted from old albatrosses?

[@thatmallardguy7955]

Jacob Henderson they were built back in 1947, way before the turboprop engine was around, so had old radial engines. The albatross is the next aircraft up

[@reddog0820]

My old Taxi to work

[@jimsonbrown9768]

I believe a company in Miami used to fly these.

[@thatmallardguy7955]

Jimson brown yes Chalks Ocean airways

[@bladenrexroth2555]

Does the turbine swap increase your range and economy?

[@triggerpointtechnology]

Is this a Paspaley Pearl Mallard?

[@thatmallardguy7955]

Yes it is. We have 3 of them

[@triggerpointtechnology]

What would you guys charge for a Mallard type rating, assuming zero time amphib but 12,000 hours jet, 1,000 rotorcraft, all the certificates?

[@thatmallardguy7955]

@@triggerpointtechnology We don't provide type ratings unfortunately, only for employed pilots.

[@GT47179]

A very thourough check list

[@markjennings2315]

That alt alert is annoyingly loud. Checklist items seem done rushed, is there a race? Seem to be memory items rather than verified look and confirm?

[@robertflores4537]

Great Aircraft...But I am wondering about the hazard of water getting into the air intake and drowning One or or Both Engines. Correct me If I am wrong but with Radials the risk is far less.

[@thatmallardguy7955]

Robert Flores yes but this generally only occurs in very rough water. The intakes have inertial separators which help to some degree but the reliability of the turbine over the radial far outweighs any risk of occasional water ingestion

[@user-mt4zr5kp7h]

I get that she's a classic and all, but why has no one thought to upgrade the radio? 🤔

[@TheFlatCapFromWN5]

Which engines did this particular plane have? The original R-1340s or the PT6As?

[@thatmallardguy7955]

The Sons of Epsilon the PT6 engine was originally developed over 10 years after the Mallards were, so all Mallards started with the R-1340.

[@TheFlatCapFromWN5]

@@thatmallardguy7955 Fair enough. I was just curious as to whether the plane in this video had been refitted with the PT6s or not.

[@thatmallardguy7955]

Oh sorry I get you, yeah PT6’s for all our aircraft

[@richardwoodland5596]

@@thatmallardguy7955 Hi There, Actually I worked on this aircraft and one other Grumman Mallard which were both sold to Air Whitsunday around 1981/82 from West Coast Airlines In British Columbia where I worked In maintenance. I worked extensively with Gulf AIr, Island AIr and other float operators flying Beavers, Otters and ll manner of Cessnas...Cheers... Just A Canadian Who works with seaplanes.

[@Agislife1960]

Im curious, what is your mission profile for the turbine Mallard, what economic situation allows you to operate the aircraft over normal land based aircraft.

[@thatmallardguy7955]

Monster's Inc. pearling operations in the most remote locations in Australia

[@Agislife1960]

@@thatmallardguy7955 Ya know back in the day Conroy put some Rolls Royce Dart turbine engines on a Grumman Albatross, but the Darts are very thirsty engines, so it didn't work out, but you could currently use something like the -67 or -68 PT6's on an Albatross, they have much better specific fuel consumption numbers. I always wondered why nobody ever did a turbine engine conversion for the Albatross, it was produced in much greater numbers than the Mallard, and its a well proven airframe.

[@thatmallardguy7955]

Monster's Inc. couldn’t agree more! They would be a perfect machine

[@johnthomasp.j.1170]

how can I get in touch with you regarding this aircraft .

[@thatmallardguy7955]

john thomas p.j. What do you want to get in touch about? Follow me on Instagram if you have it, @thatmallardguy and send me a message

[@dwightk.schruteiii8454]

Is the mallard rated for single-pilot operations?

[@thatmallardguy7955]

Kev Man456 the original one yes, ours no as it is >5700kg

[@dwightk.schruteiii8454]

That Mallard Guy Gotcha. So whats the weight qualification for single pilot operations?

[@georgepainter7364]

Freedom’

[@LuisMiguelGarciaTorres]

hows the salt water treat her?

[@scotabot7826]

This isn't the Mallard that stalled and crashed into the bay a while back is it?

[@thatmallardguy7955]

Scotabot no

[@scotabot7826]

OK, didn't remember that the one that crashed was radial powered!!

[@lanthanh1938]

Sell me this goes amphibious aircraft, and sold me this water lake, how much it costs, I used as a means to go to school,

[@stratoleft]

Why do the both of you have your hand on the throttle, or over the throttles, or whatever? It looks ridiculous. It's not like the levers are going to move or anything.

[@thatmallardguy7955]

Stratoleft you’ve tried setting power whilst charging through rough swell? “Guarding the levers” helps the pilot flying from unintentionally retarding the throttles in rough water. Also the pilot monitoring’s job after the initial application of power is to fine tune the power so the pilot flying can focus on actually flying the aircraft, so having their hands ready to go is a much safer practice.

[@pascalcoole2725]

Same goes in fact for some antiquated airliners (like for instance Fokker F27) that operate on regular concrete runways.

[@triggerpointtechnology]

Professional pilots do this as part of a well defined and tested standard procedure. Initial setting of power by the flying pilot, backup callouts by the non flying pilot with flying pilot hand removal at V1 and non flying pilot guarding the power levers is all a well thought out ballet based on many many accidents caused by power lever mismanagement at a crucial time.