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Old 02-23-2017, 07:16 AM
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MJD
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Originally Posted by proptop
FWIW Ernie..I think the Anson is in "Captains of the Clouds?" (Jimmy Cagney, Dennis Morgan, Alan Hale, George Tobias, etc. etc... )
Just something that popped into my enfeebled brain... Now I will have forced myself to look that up...

Seen it in at least one British movie...anyway...WWII time span..

There were Hudsons in it AFAIK. And Norsemen (Norsemans?).

Sorry a bit OT, but funny.. a local aircraft restorer/mechanic who has done some work for me on the Moth, has a hilarious story about his early days working on someone's Norseman. He doesn't mention the gash on his leg from the float, not vital to the story:

The following story came to me from Stan Vander Ploeg who used to work for Fred and Ann Chiupka in Lynn Lake. Fred ran a small fleet of air planes in conjunction with his fishery in Northen Manitoba. CF-EPZ, an ex Ontario Central Airlines Norseman that Hank Parsons bought in January of 1959, was leased to Fred before he bought it. As an operator, Fred wanted his planes in the air, not sitting at the dock being loaded or unloaded. To that end, he had lots of help available to assist his pilots. Stan was one of them.
As the tubs of fresh fish were brought in from the north they would be unloaded at the filleting plant and the guts from the previous load would be put on the plane. I would be called from the main dock to go to the filleting plant to assist. The pilot (Ernie) would start up the engine, I would untie the aircraft and stand on the left float and ride the aircraft to an island across from the main dock and dump the guts there, and ride the float back to the main dock reload and refuel the aircraft for the next flight.
It was at one particular time, as I stepped on the float of EPZ after dumping the guts, that Ernie detailed me to hang on because he suspected a magneto problem and that he would carry out a high power run on the way back to check out the mag problem. He turned the air craft into the wind and revd her up, checked the mags, then he throttled back and taxied back to the start point. It was a bit breezy hugging the float struts but I toughed it out any how. After turning into the wind, again he reved her up. This time it was balls to the wall. I pounded on the side of the fuselage to remind Ernie that I was still there, but to no avail. The big Norseman was about to get on the step, and as I thought she might get airborne, I crouched into ball and rolled off the side of the float. I rolled at least one rotation on top of the water before going in. After surfacing and getting my breath back I watched the aircraft lift off the water.
As I was wondering if he would come back to get me I heard a racket from the dock, Sal (Stan Warschuck, I think), came out with a motorboat to rescue me. Ernie came back after a test circuit and apologized up and down for his part in this.
This of course was the talk of the dinner table. They concluded that I probably could have hung on for the entire circuit. Now that might have been exiting but I'm glad I got off when I did anyway. As a result of this ordeal I still wear a scar on my right knee where I hit the chine above the step of the left float on my way down. Today there would be a hell of an investigation over this, and an episode like this would be called an incident wouldn't you think? Back in those days, stuff like this was quite common. We are today so cautious and safety minded that there are few stories left for the next generation. Maybe that is just as well.
Contributed by Stan Vander Ploeg

Last edited by MJD; 02-23-2017 at 07:21 AM.