Mesa Sea Monster?

Imagine having to make the dreaded 7 engine landing.

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knot4u said:
I think they didn't. The H-4 never got out of ground effect but the Clippers normally flew at 2000-4000 feet.
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I do agree the H4 Spruce Goose never really flew, ground effect only. It was in hiding for decades, hangered in Long Beach Harbor. They couldn't get it out of the hangar because the ground had sank due to oil being pumped from the earth. Even at extreme low tide when the drydocks (3) were flooded the tail of the aircraft would hit the roof of the hangar. During that time I was one of very few who got to tour the goose while Hughes still owned it. I had just got out of the AF when I heard the company my dad worked for was bidding on getting the plane out of the hangar. Talked my dad into letting me go and hold the dumb end of a tape measure.

To my surprised, in 1979 a full time crew was maintaining the aircraft like it was going to fly again. The NC tail number was replaced with a N number. A VOR was installed in the panel. Staff was cleaning the inside of the aircraft the day I was there. The biggest surprise was the the aircraft was a single pilot aircraft, one pilot and a flight engineer. There was a second yoke but the panel warped around left seat so anyone in the right seat saw very little instrumentation.

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To get the plane out the hangar was jacked up about 10' then removed at low tide.

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Herman The German (crane pictured) picked the plane out of the water and put it on land. Google Herman the German, it was a war prize at the end of WWII.

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fholbert said:
I do agree the H4 Spruce Goose never really flew, ground effect only. It was in hiding for decades, hangered in Long Beach Harbor. They couldn't get it out of the hangar because the ground had sank due to oil being pumped from the earth. Even at extreme low tide when the drydocks (3) were flooded the tail of the aircraft would hit the roof of the hangar. During that time I was one of very few who got to tour the goose while Hughes still owned it. I had just got out of the AF when I heard the company my dad worked for was bidding on getting the plane out of the hangar. Talked my dad into letting me go and hold the dumb end of a tape measure.

To my surprised, in 1979 a full time crew was maintaining the aircraft like it was going to fly again. The NC tail number was replaced with a N number. A VOR was installed in the panel. Staff was cleaning the inside of the aircraft the day I was there. The biggest surprise was the the aircraft was a single pilot aircraft, one pilot and a flight engineer. There was a second yoke but the panel warped around left seat so anyone in the right seat saw very little instrumentation.

View attachment 63326

To get the plane out the hangar was jacked up about 10' then removed at low tide.

View attachment 63327

Herman The German (crane pictured) picked the plane out of the water and put it on land. Google Herman the German, it was a war prize at the end of WWII.

View attachment 63328
Click to expand...
I was there. My dad and I watched from the bridge. I've posted about it here before.
 
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knot4u said:
I think they didn't. The H-4 never got out of ground effect but the Clippers normally flew at 2000-4000 feet.
Click to expand...
I would have loved to fly but be of those. There’s a story about a pan am crew back in the day getting back from the South Pacific during the outbreak of wwii really cool stuff.
 
ppragman said:
I would have loved to fly but be of those. There’s a story about a pan am crew back in the day getting back from the South Pacific during the outbreak of wwii really cool stuff.
Click to expand...

I read that book. They had to get back to NY from New Zealand (think it was NZ?) by going west.
 
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