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on the very end of Long Island and exposed to the open Atlantic Ocean, it was perpetually windy, and the wind direction was rarely down the runway. Designed to land into the wind on a water landing, the Mallard was a handful to land on a runway in a crosswind. The combination of the high wing, weather-vaning fuselage, and fat pontoons had me hanging on the power levers while working the infinity-shaped yoke throughout the approach, landing and rollout. Once we navigated this big bird onto the ramp, done for the day, it was off to the hotel.
Interestingly, the hotel was a private club adjacent to the marina where the owner kept his boat. We would each get a small bungalow on the stately grounds. This club could have been a setting in The Great Gatsby with eccentric, old-money members who had been frequenting the prop- erty for years. They would sip gin and tonics by the pool and engage in spirited croquet matches to pass their days away. The staff was from the iconic 21 Club in New York City. The 21 Club was only open during the work week, and on summer weekends, they would bring the chefs, servers, and bartenders to Montauk. There were no menus or bills – the servers would simply ask what you felt like having, and it would magically appear. For a young pilot accustomed to FBO vending machines, this was heady stuff, and I’ll always have great memories of my time there. It was a unique and entertaining slice of life.
One afternoon, I heard someone climbing up the stairs while getting ready for a run to KHPN. I turned around to see Jimmy Buffett poking his head into the cabin and asking for a tour. He was as friendly and casual as his music, and we enjoyed talking about aviation and his love of Grumman amphibians. Jimmy recounted his ordeal the summer before when he crashed a Grumman Widgeon in Nantucket Harbor. He hit a rogue swell on takeoff, and the amphibian flipped upside down. Luckily, he swam out with only minor injuries, crediting his water egress training with the Blue Angels to save his life. Later, he would own and fly a Grumman Albatross, the follow-on to the Mallard with an impressive 98-foot wingspan and massive 1,475 hp Wright radials, which he aptly named Hemisphere Dancer.
Admirers and tours were common whenever we were working around the aircraft. Observing how excited both pilots and civilians would become when inspecting the Mallard up close was amusing. Sometimes, I felt more like a museum docent than a pilot, explaining its history and answering their many questions. In all my years of professional flying, I’ve never flown a plane that made so many people smile. It was a unique aircraft that had undeniable ramp appeal.
My only regret is that I didn’t get to operate the Mal- lard on water as she was designed. Already 46 years old in 1995, saltwater operations were ruled out by the chief pilot and our maintenance department to avoid their cor- rosive effects. Although the owner had a lakeside home in the Adirondack Mountains north of KHPN, I didn’t crew any trips that operated into the lake. The right side of the cockpit had rudder pegs that folded out of the way so a
March 2024 / TWIN & TURBINE • 7