Rare flying boat spotted over Suffolk

Remember knowing from the sound when Lake Buccaneer G-BBGK was in the area back in the 70s. I think it used Strathallan for maintenance. The sound certainly stood out from the usual Cessnas of AST Perth! Also surprised, given distances and the amount of surface water we have in Scotland, that there aren’t more seaplanes in use. One of the lochs nearby has been used in the past and may possibly be used again though all seems to have gone quiet presently on that plan.

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With the current “Summer” weather we could be needing more amphibians up in Scotland

The way it’s going we’ll all be needing webbed feet and gills soon lol

There was a P.166 at Turnhouse on 24th July. Too far away to get reg. though.

The Cessna 336 / 337 series are pretty noisy too, though I didn’t find that noticeable when on board one of those. The Piaggio P.136 though appears to be quite noisy on board based on this video clip!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9scHYvG92Sc

Tim

I’ve always thought the way pushers sound so different to any other type powered by the same engines was very much due to the propellers chopping up the exhaust flow. The Piaggio 136 & 166 both sound different to anything else Lycoming/Continental powered and the P 180 and Beech Star ship sound different to anything else turbine powered.

Certainly a rare bird. The last one I recall in this country was I-FIMA in the spring of 1963. It was flown to Eastleigh for demonstration to Bruce Campbell. Sadly the aircraft was destroyed on the Solent within a few days of arrival. I guess it could have graced the UK register, had the purchase gone ahead. Bruce Campbell did not have much luck with flying boats SCAN 30 G-ARIX met a similar fate about a year earlier!!

http://www.planes.cz/en/photo/1041733/piaggio-p-180-avanti-i-fema-private-kunovice-uhe-lkku

Don’t recall that incident and I was there then!

Hope the same doesn’t happen to this Piaggio I-FEMA! 😀

I went looking for a photo of G-ARUJ

You’ll find one on this thread

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?90861-Piaggio-P166-flying-survivors/page2

Moggy

I’ve found most pushers have a unique sound, I assume from sound bouncing off airframe.
A few years back I saw/heard an Avanti, it has a different sound as do a more common type around here, a Cessna 337.

NOW the OP mentions the sound!? That would have been the FIRST thing I would have noticed – it’s as characteristic of the type as it is of the Harvard/Texan. It was a regular feature of my earlier life in Harpenden and unlike the Harvard is not made by prop tips nearing the speed of sound but their interaction with the trailing edge airflow. On some pusher types you will see the wing chord reduced to pull the trailing edge away from the props in an attempt to make life more pleasant for the passengers and crew but for this aircraft the designers didn’t bother.

I assume the assumption that the unidentified aircraft was single engined was because it had no obvious engine projection ahead of the leading edge?

Robin

Two Piaggio P.136 amphibians (G-AOFN and G-APNY) were once registered in the UK.

Tim

Thanks everyone for contributing to this thread and fuelling my knowledge of this lovely aircraft! It was thanks to mum who encouraged me away from the telly, you see I live next to Rougham airfield and we get light aircraft over the house all the time & there was me thinking ‘oh it’s nothing much’.
If I had got up quicker I might have been able to grab the camera!
It did have a distinctive sound indeed! Only wish it had made a stay over at Duxford as I could have had a look at it, but that’s being selfish.
I guess the nearest I have to a photo of one would be the land based version seen at a couple of shows last year..
Piaggio P166C I-FENI by Martin Laurance, on Flickr
Well I know nothing and the P166C is probably more than simply a non amphibious version!

I went looking for a photo of G-ARUJ but came across this which may be of interest. Its a Grumman Mallard G-ASCS at Turnhouse 5th July 1963. It was noisy beast but not as loud as the Piaggio.
With the current “Summer” weather we could be needing more amphibians up in Scotland..

It’s been a good few weeks for seaplanes in the North Atlantic and Scotland. There has been the Beech 18 floatplane from Vancouver to Belgium, the Piaggio in this thread and Plane Sailing’s Catalina which has been covering many miles between the UK and Greenland via Iceland during Worksop College’s Operation World First.

Oh, so it wasn’t that one that flew over me a few weeks ago? It was such a particular shape that I interrupted the gentleman I was interviewing, a former member of 22 Regt, to view its passage. He was not as interested and regaled me with stories of the RAF having to navigate by iPhone in Afghanistan or missing a dropzone in daylight despite it being on an airfield with runways, hangers and smoke being let off to assist with wind direction, amongst others.

I wish that I could have captured the noise, it was incredible.

I’ve found most pushers have a unique sound, I assume from sound bouncing off airframe.
A few years back I saw/heard an Avanti, it has a different sound as do a more common type around here, a Cessna 337.

Certainly a rare bird. The last one I recall in this country was I-FIMA in the spring of 1963. It was flown to Eastleigh for demonstration to Bruce Campbell. Sadly the aircraft was destroyed on the Solent within a few days of arrival. I guess it could have graced the UK register, had the purchase gone ahead. Bruce Campbell did not have much luck with flying boats SCAN 30 G-ARIX met a similar fate about a year earlier!!

It’s been a good few weeks for seaplanes in the North Atlantic and Scotland. There has been the Beech 18 floatplane from Vancouver to Belgium, the Piaggio in this thread and Plane Sailing’s Catalina which has been covering many miles between the UK and Greenland via Iceland during Worksop College’s Operation World First.

I was lucky enough to catch the Piaggio at Glenrothes this afternoon, here’s the set of eleven photos that I posted onto my Flickr site.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wwshack/sets/72157622850258825

I wish that I could have captured the noise, it was incredible.

I was lucky enough to catch the Piaggio at Glenrothes this afternoon, here’s the set of eleven photos that I posted onto my Flickr site.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wwshack/sets/72157622850258825

I wish that I could have captured the noise, it was incredible.

Well yes he did but the thread is about a rare flying boat type …

My late father was the UK demo pilot for these in the late 1950’s. I have a great picture of him standing in the forward hatch when the aircraft I-GULL was moored in front of the tower of London. Shame I missed seeing it today, I live three miles from Wattisham it must have passed close by.

He did say P166.

And yes it was Bass Charrington / United Breweries. As I recall it had a toby jug insignia on the fin.

Moggy

Well yes he did but the thread is about a rare flying boat type …

He did say P166.

And yes it was Bass Charrington / United Breweries. As I recall it had a toby jug insignia on the fin.

Moggy

Flew over East Fortune below the clouds at about 2,500ft this afternoon. Beautiful. Its many years since I have seen one. We used to have a visitor at Turnhouse in the 1960’s G-ARUJ a P166 United Breweries (from memory)

Not quite – G-ARUJ was a land-plane, not an amphibian

Flew over East Fortune below the clouds at about 2,500ft this afternoon. Beautiful. Its many years since I have seen one. We used to have a visitor at Turnhouse in the 1960’s G-ARUJ a P166 United Breweries (from memory)