Page 7 - Aerotech News and Review, September 3, 2021

From Grand Turk to Mojave in an HU-16 Albatross

by Cathy Hansen
special to Aerotech News
More than 30 years ago, my hus-
band Al and I headed to the British
West Indies, in Cockburn Town, on
the Island of Grand Turk, south-
east of the Bahamas in the Turks &
Caicos. We weren’t on vacation; we
were on a mission to retrieve a big
seaplane.
Al has always had a love for sea-
planes and has owned six different
Grumman HU-16’s over the years.
One of them came from a bid sale
on Grand Turk. Preparing the plane
for the ferry flight home took a lot Photograph by Cathy Hansen
of time and work over a period of The 23,000-pound HU-16 Albatross sits on a grassy area of the airfield on
several months. Grand Turk island. Before towing the aircraft to a paved parking lot, the Hansen’s
had to get rid of a large wasp nest in the right landing gear well.
As stated in an article in the LA
Times years ago, the Turks and Caicos Before towing the 23,000-pound
is not the place to come for shopping aircraft from its grassy resting spot up by the previous owner and it was an
and nightlife! But, if you like pristine, onto the paved parking area, a rather interesting experience buying it back.
powdery beaches, clear turquoise wa- large nest of wasps in the right land- But, day-by-day, Al was getting to
ter with coral reefs and deep-sea div- ing gear well had to be eradicated. know the airplane more and felt it
ing, it is right next to heaven. Hot Shot bug spray, that shoots out would be possible to return it to fly-
This British territory is where ing status in possibly a month.
Christopher Columbus first set foot a solid stream for 20 feet, worked One day after the engines were run-
in the New World and also where pi- nicely. ning again, he wanted to do a full-
rates would stop and pillage the salt Birds discovered how nice it was to power run up before a test flight. We
that was harvested by the islanders. build nests between the cylinders on were running the right engine hard
English is the primary language. the two Wright 1820 Cyclone 9-cyl- and as he was checking the gauges
for oil pressure and temperature, there
was a loud bang. It was unmistakable
that something terrible had just hap-
pened. Since we didn’t bring a spare
engine with us, we decided to head
home on a commercial flight, regroup
and return in about a week.
I mentioned to Al that a hurricane Photograph by Cathy Hansen
was brewing and headed towards
Grand Turk. He mumbled something Al Hansen removes bird nests between the cylinders on one of the Albatross’
engine.
about the weather guessers and how
they always show you last year’s
weather anyway, and off we went. a great airplane and seemed to like starting the Wright R-1820-76 cy-
The year was 1988, and we waited our company! clone 9 nine-cylinder, single row, air-
at home in Mojave while Hurricane The guys spruced her up with a cooled radials. Loved all of the noise
Gilbert hit with a vengeance and last- bright basic white paint scheme with and smoke!
ed for five days! Fortunately, Grand red, orange, and yellow stripes along The fuselage length of the Alba-
Photograph by Cathy Hansen Turk was not hit as hard as other is- the side and up the tail. She finally tross was 62-feet, 10-inches; wing-
The Hansen’s bought a rebuilt engine from a company in Burbank, Calif. After lands in the area, so our Albatross sur- looked happy! span 96-feet, 10-inches; height was
shipping the engine to Florida, they found the company in Florida was flying vived the storm, but the not-knowing The Grumman HU-16 Albatross is 25-feet, 10-inches and loaded weight
their engine to Grand Turk on a Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter. Cathy asked, and a large twin-radial engine amphibious was 30,353 pounds.
Hansen’s were allowed to fly with their engine — as cargo! was nerve racking.
We bought a rebuilt engine from seaplane that was used by the United She was too large to fit into the
Aircraft Cylinder in Burbank, shipped States Air Force, U.S. Navy and the hangar at Mojave, so was parked out-
We were most interested in making inder engines over a period of five or it to Florida and flew back down there U.S. Coast Guard as a search and res- side — a wandering Albatross miles
sure this poor, sad-looking Albatross six years, so we cleaned out enough to arrange shipment to Grand Turk. cue aircraft. from the ocean, basking instead in the
could be made airworthy for a nearly sticks and nesting material to fill a An airline in Miami specializing in I always tried to get a photo of Al desert sun.
three-thousand-mile trek home. She pickup! cargo was recommended to us. When
had a two-tone green paint job and Most of the systems seemed to still we arrived at the office, I was amazed
we nicknamed her “the ‘Bogota Cu- function. The APU had been taken out to see a Boeing C-97 on the ramp. It
cumber.’” by a local for non-payment of work turned out to be the aircraft they used
for flights to the Turks & Caicos.
Since I had always wanted to fly in
a C-97 with four Pratt & Whitney R-
4360s, I worked up the courage to ask
if we could fly with them to Grand
Turk. He said, “Sure, but you have to
go as cargo.” So, we stepped on the
scales, paid so much per pound and
flew across the crystal-clear Carib-
bean Sea at 500-feet to our destina-
tion! The Manta rays were fabulous to
watch as they flew through the ocean.
Next trip, Al took his son Dor to
Grand Turk. They changed the en-
gine, did several test flights, filed all
the necessary paperwork with every
governmental agency under the sun Photograph by Cathy Hansen
and headed for Florida. I met them
Photograph by Cathy Hansen The HU-16 Albatross at its new home in Mojave. The aircraft was too big for
The Albatross on Grand Turk, almost ready to fly to its new home in Mojave. in Panama City, Fla., and we flew the hangar, so the sea-plane had to sit out in the High Desert sun.
across the U.S. to Mojave. She was

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