Only 28 of These Flying Boats Still Fly

[@FerrowTheFox]

I will forever love flying boats. There's just something romantic or almost nostalgic about them; the bush-piloty style and being able to go pretty much anywhere. Thanks for sharing these great vids with us, Matt!

[@roadking99jokerst60]

I envy your experiences.

[@carloscortes5570]

A few times I flew in a Grumman Goose G21A from San juan PR to Charlotte Amalie St Thomas and to St Croix. It was a great beautiful experience seeing the clear blue waters and all the islands.back in the late 70s they allowed you to sit in the cockpit on the right seat.those where flown by 1 pilot only..this airline Antilles Airboats had a bunch of those aircraft. Around a dozen.landing was amazing! Splashing down then riding the waves towards a concrete ramp then accelerating up the ramp was fun.i loved it.i was around 14 yrs young

[@roadking99jokerst60]

I envy your experiences.

[@OneTequilaTwoTequila]

Capitalizing the first letter of every sentence would make your post a little easier to read.

[@Dave-hc6pp]

I took flying lessons back in the 80’s with the idea of having a float plane. Unfortunately business and family obligations killed that idea. Now health issues won’t allow me to pick back up on that desire so I’ll enjoying living vicariously through you.

[@alexdarcydestsimon3767]

Know of the 3F rule ? It is true. So don't regret. Why don't you rent yourself a ride once in while ?

[@Dave-hc6pp]

@@alexdarcydestsimon3767 my daughter is rated multi-engine jet and so is her husband. I can always get a ride. I can’t fly anymore, I can’t get a permit. I’ve got cancer and with the opioids I’m on, I won’t get a permit. I’m also diabetic so I’m out on 2 counts.

[@sky173]

Sounds like my story from the 80's. T'was a dream that didn't happen, so I got into flight sim instead. Cheers.

[@Dave-hc6pp]

@@sky173 I thought about doing the same but just never got around to it.

[@krotchlickmeugh627]

Rc is always an option

[@fatesandmyths]

Great video! I am looking forward to the next episode. I'm invited to see friends in Wisconsin next summer and have to make sure to visit Oshkosh.

[@halothefluffyderg]

Remember flying the goose in my first ever flight sim fsx. Will forever have a place in my heart. Love it

[@SootHead]

Matt, once again you took me someplace I've never been. Thanks for the ride.

[@Tmanaz480]

I love the "how to read the water" stuff.

[@farmerbobross]

Awesome video! Thanks for sharing a second of my plane (N1177S) near the end of the video. Keep up the good work.

[@adrianflower3230]

Superb experience, thanks for sharing Matt 👍👍🛶🛶🛩🛩

[@billweedmark6915]

A friend of my father's who had a seaplane service had a Widgeon and I remember flying in it back in the late 50s and early 60s. It was an awesome experience. I fly seaplanes and I own a J3 on floats but nothing beats a flying boat!

[@MikeKobb]

Very enjoyable look at a really cool airplane. I really enjoy content like this, and hope you'll do more in this style rather than the somewhat sensational style of some of the other recent videos.

[@DownundaThunda]

I absolutely love the look of the old Grumman flying boats. This is such a cool aircraft, and I wish I could have been in the air with you guys.

[@savagecub]

Got my multi engine seaplane rating in a widgeon. Nice water manners but I wouldn’t want to lose engine in one on land.

[@baomao7243]

I saw one of these near Clearlake, California. A very cool flying boat.

[@reason6835]

I grew up there. Kelseyville. Many years ago.

[@campbub]

What a beautiful modern marvel of a machine! I can’t help but hold on to my seat watching a water landing... Thanks for taking us along ☺️

[@MarkSnop]

Merry Christmas Matt! Hope you have a wonderful time

[@BilGriffith]

Excellent I really enjoyed watching this!

[@Whirlynerds]

These planes are so majestic

[@ericbullock3188]

love it my dad had one back in the 60's .

[@michaelfraser5723]

" Variety, is the spice of life " , cheers, Mathew.

[@johnfitzpatrick2469]

"Gettin salty ©" Merry Christmas and happy New year Matt from Sydney Australia. Great KZbin channel. 🌟 🌲🇭🇲

[@roadking99jokerst60]

Closest I got was alongside Kermit Weeks Shorts up near the museum and a Lake at the small general aviation strip near Kississimmee. Love water planes.

[@roadking99jokerst60]

Well. And Jimmy's Albatross at D.W. in Orlando.

[@Prifly70]

Grumman forever !

[@GuitarMAXMusic]

Great video! What does he mean by "you want positive torque on the prop"?

[@mattguthmiller]

Want the engine driving the prop and not the other way around

[@turbowidget]

They try to maintain enough power through the prop that the gear drive does not become “unloaded”. The prop loads the gears and keeps them tight. In the unloaded condition the gears chatter with the engine power pulses. This is destructive to the gears and their bearings. A good operator feathers the throttles to just keep load on the gearbox.

[@Tmanaz480]

Always a freshly-surfaced runway!

[@clydecraft5642]

I have a pond in michigan where i grew up and a guy with a cesna float plane asked if he could land his plane there while i was young, it was cool

[@michaelthomas7898]

Would have liked to see a little more of the plane from the outside

[@sblack48]

I was at the brennan seaplane base in I think 87. A widgeon was out and got caught in the wake of a pby and got into a porpoise. He had to shut down and get towed in. He had taken in water. The porpoise was so violent that the entire bottom skin of the hstab was completely staved in. I guess it caught a wave. No idea how they got it out. It certainly should not have been flown. I think the PBY belonged to Connie Edwards.

[@davef.2329]

Decades ago, I took some instruction in one of these, then known as N41988. Does anyone know where she is today?

[@rogueviking9268]

All I could think of was Frank Bama and his flying boat touching down at Desdamona's space station and bait shop in Boomtown. 🏖

[@leifvejby8023]

I saw one in a museum in Thailand a few years ago, with the Ranger engines, but not flying.

[@av8rshane491]

Had a blast getting my Comm MES in a Goose.

[@FrozenLionsFan]

The museum near me (that I spent a summer working for) has a widgeon and a goose in flying condition. The boss and I almost sank the widgeon getting it ready for a flight.

[@flacodebuenosaires]

Que loco todo eso che!!!👀🧿☝🏼👍🏼🦾👌😮

[@soulsreaper7145]

id think that be sooo cool, when i was little me and my dad be fishing on the lake and we would see planes with the flooting things on them, and they would land and pull out a pole and fish. i always thought id get one and fly my dad way up north to fish and land on a insanely beautiful lake

[@patchmack4469]

nice bird - conjures up ideas of island hopping

[@macedk]

Sea planes are just cool :)

[@jessekiefer0206]

This is cool! Nice airplane!

[@sblack48]

What was the S part of the “WOODS” check? I couldn’t make it out

[@HigherLearningFlight]

Reminds me a little of the Talespin cartoon plane. :-)

[@RonixViva]

The SeaDuck was the baddest float plane ever! :D

[@MrSkiman111]

My first ever flight was a widgeon! Such a great airplane

[@paulwoolvett2285]

I thought these days you were going to rest instead of uploading videos. enjoy family, girlfriend, friends, etc. Merry Christmas

[@keemez]

lulz. "girlfriend". lulz.

[@keemez]

@Mindy Janis :D

[@jaratt85]

I'd love to have a PBY5 Catalina.. those things are so cool and have such amazing history. It seems like flying anything other than doing aerobatics, or at least quick turns, is boring as hell.. like having a Harley with cruise control and just sitting at the same rpm on the freeway going across country.. it's loud and boring as hell and not very comfortable.

[@navelriver]

Should not the throttles on a geared engine be advanced very slowly?

[@rhysjames3850]

My first flight ever was in a Widgeon in Auckland New Zealand

[@MBCGRS]

There is one currently being restored at Ardmore Airfield in NZ. Maybe the same machine...

[@cosmodog4845]

You need one Matt!

[@theawesomegamingchannel2618]

I love your videos

[@pumarolz]

My dad flied a Grumman turbo mallard in the Dominican Republic 🇩🇴

[@mars7786]

I need to go to Oshkosh

[@thomasloper1205]

So he says the Beaver does everything the Widgeon does, but then says you can "pick the Widgeon up off the water, roll it over, and land it back on the water." I didn't realize a Beaver could do a roll.

[@jadeng1147]

Lmao, just realized my photo of this plane up on flightaware has you in it.

[@SOU6900]

My first thought was this was a Grumman Goose.

[@rbryanhull]

I know, I know... It's designed to land on water... But that sure FELT like a ditching!

[@dandersen464]

27… one sustained damage this last week at lake hood from the wind storm.

[@grafhilgenhurst9717]

My general impression of landing a seaplane: All the risks of crashing with the added risk of drowning!

[@mattguthmiller]

It's very hard to get insurance 😂

[@grafhilgenhurst9717]

@@mattguthmiller Got my seaplane rating from Jack Brown in Cubs (fun), and flew for an hour in an ICON flying boat (really fun). Isn't the Widgeon the one that Jimmy Buffet crashed hitting a wake off Martha's Vineyard a few years back?

[@grafhilgenhurst9717]

Also have 3 hours in an L-39. Don't listen to your detractors. It's a real fighter plane! Complete with switches that say "rockets" and "bombs". What a joy to fly, all except for the steering on the ground.

[@WalkthroughPlanet]

is that young sully flying that thing.

[@robertkbrooks951]

my flying boat is a LAKE LA-4A-200. Seaplanes RULE !!!!!!

[@sumdumbmick]

considering that zero of the flying boats I've made still fly, that's a lot. I've never made a flying boat, btw. just illustrating that 28 examples of something like this is actually a lot.

[@geoffgold6773]

I fly once a year in Australia in Mallard Gurrman 1954 into remote parts of the islands in north Australia they are completely rebuilt with turbo props replacing the piston engines the company that charter them have 3 of them and are the only company in the world to fly them commercially if your interested you can look them up Pearl Aviation located in Darwin Australia they are owned by Australia’s largest Pearl manufacturers Paspaley Pearls and use them daily to ferry there works to the pearl farms in the ocean the interior of the planes have all the original seating and the cockpit switches

[@clarencewiles963]

Flying in water

[@yeagerchaplin5968]

I've seen alot more than 28 widgons flying.

[@BellyUpFishGarage]

There are only 28 air worthy Widgeons in the US..

[@MBCGRS]

Anyone else remember " Tails of the Golden Monkey" ...

[@gocirf3433]

My grandfather maintained Vaught os2u kingfishers on the uss indiana where upon a mission to retrieve a downed hellcat pilot he and pilot along with the downed pilot lost their lives upon takeoff from choppy waters in and around Okinawa

[@Hawkeyepenny]

I actually have two of these for sale if anyone wants one

[@FlyingMarc]

"...a boats the worst investment you can make... an airplane second... combine the two..." But I'd never sell my seaplane for anything

[@loganh1998]

Everybody has different definitions of what a 1 ft, 2 ft, etc wave is, but there is no way that thing could land in true 2ft waves, as defined by NOAA. He acted like that was a little rough for the plane, and it looked waaaay less than even 1 ft to me.

[@rogersmart1766]

Matt; do you hold a Multi engine rating?

[@Mike500912]

I hate videos using fish eye / distorting lenses.

[@michaelnorris4629]

Flying boats do not have wheels.

[@Zanthorr]

I swear I just saw one that did.

[@michaelnorris4629]

@@Zanthorr what you saw was an anphibian.

[@Onemattressatatime]

Fighter jet to a seaplane😂

[@Flumphinator]

Fire your editor.

[@keemez]

followed immediately by himself

[@thomasmckendry8566]

Only 28? Lol jk

[@miznitic5574]

Grown men don't wear boy shorts.

[@Tmanaz480]

Some of us pasty-skinned guys need the sunlight.

[@Micg51]

Sounds like you don’t got the legs for em

[@BellyUpFishGarage]

Grown men don't concern themselves with what others wear.

[@krotchlickmeugh627]

If you are unable to fly. For medical, age, whatever stops you. For most its money. Remember. Rc aircraft are nearly the exact same feeling. With less risk and no certs

[@YouTubeCommunists]

Matt flew a soviet mig,nuff said lol

[@pleasureincontempt3645]

Doesn’t fly and can’t mix audio properly.