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My front office
in Montauk (KMTP) and Walkers Cay (MYAW). For those unfamiliar, Montauk sits at Long Island’s eastern tip, and Walkers Cay is a small island north of the Bahamas, about 100 nm from West Palm Beach, FL.
The owner was a par- ticularly nervous flier. He would bring the New York Times and intently work at the crossword puzzle to distract himself during flight. Since most of his flights were conducted over water, he reasoned that he should own an amphibian on the chance that his air- craft would have to ditch. The owner employed an equally colorful character as his Chief Pilot, and each
summer, a local First Officer was selected to fly with him. In the summer of 1995, I was chosen to fly right- seat on this classic machine.
The Grumman Aircraft Company was founded by Leroy Grumman and headquartered in Bethpage, NY. They designed some of the most successful World War II Navy combat aircraft, including the famous cats – the Wildcat and Hellcat, along with the Avenger dive bomber. Grumman was affectionately known as the Iron Works because their ruggedly built airframes would bring their crews back to the carrier, even after battle damage.
Before the war, Grumman had manufactured am- phibians, starting with the J2F Duck, a single-engine biplane that saw widespread military service. The Duck fuselage was attached to a large center-mounted pon- toon with smaller wing-mounted pontoons for stability. Grumman produced a total of 632 Ducks.
In the 1930s, some wealthy New Yorkers commis- sioned Grumman to design a twin-engine amphibian, which they could use to commute from their Long Island estates to Manhattan, conveniently landing in the city rivers. The result was the G-21 Goose, a 7,500-pound model with a 49-foot wingspan powered by twin 450-hp Pratt and Whitney Wasp radials. First flight was in 1937, and Grumman marketed the Goose as a flying boat that could carry two to four passengers in nautical comfort. As war broke out, the US Navy, Army Air Corps, Coast Guard, and Civil Air Patrol adopted the Goose in transport, reconnaissance, and rescue roles. Grumman built 345 G-21s.
Post-war, Grumman sought to re-enter the civilian market with a larger model that could accommodate 8-10 executive passengers. The G-73 Mallard first flew in
‘Lux accommodations in the back
March 2024 / TWIN & TURBINE • 5