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Splash and Dash Searey Seaplane Delights

May 2 2:11

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Posted By: Hal Brown

Date Posted: Apr 26, 2011

Description: Getting a dunking got me a demotion to the back seat. Steve is a flight instructor and he decided Ann was a better candidate for learning how to drive a complex flying machine.

Back at the boat, MK was put away. After anointing her body with corrosion preventing spray, I folded her wings and rolled her into the sarcophagus of the ship. I turned and walked away. “She’ll fly again,” I told myself without conviction.

The boss met me while I was just staring at the plane. “Why don’t you and Ann take the touring bikes? Keep them as long as you like.”

I pondered the prospect for about 1 second: “Thank you, but no.” I didn’t tell him that I was in no mental condition for riding the winding roads of New Zealand. I was too busy pondering alternate universes.

Date Taken: Apr 26, 2011

Place Taken: Cook Strait, NZ

Owner: Dan Nickens

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Category: 446, Yacht Tending NZ

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Read what others had to say:

Dan Nickens - Apr 26,2011 Viewers | Reply


	So this is what it is like to tour from ground level? Really? You have to share beaches?<br /><br />In one alternate universe, MK’s hull failed when it smacked the water so hard back in Fiji. In that version of reality, I was just an observer. I stayed dry. I never really knew her back then anyway. The boss and Paige went for a short swim in the warm waters before being brought back aboard SuRi. Paige and I returned to Florida and the SuRi never had a SeaRey again. New Zealand never even happened.<br /><br />		Attachments: Low Down View

Dan Nickens - Apr 26,2011 Viewers | Reply


	So this is what it looks like to view the world from down low and up close?<br /><br />In another reality, damage from MK’s hard knock showed up quickly. The hull failed spectacularly on the next rough water splash down off a small uninhabited island in Fiji. She sank into the warm waters taking the pilot and passenger down with it. Steve and I searched for days in the helicopter, but found no trace. After the dust settled, Steve went back to New Jersey and flew tourists over the City. I went back to local Florida flying. No one ever knew what happened to MK and her flyers.<br />		Attachments: Up Close View

Dan Nickens - Apr 26,2011 Viewers | Reply


	Sometimes a car can get you to some pretty strange places. After abseiling into the glow worms caves, we found overnight lodging nearby. Unfortunately we did not find these rooms: a boat and an airplane converted to a boutique hotel. There were also train car rooms, a hobbit house, and a theatre covering the history of New Zealand, complete with explosives.<br /><br />In another reality, MK’s hull failed when I took it far off to a remote island in Fiji. It sank leaving me stranded for a long, long night and day until the rescue boat arrived. No one knew why the hull failed. Official Probable Cause: “The hull failed for unknown reasons. Pilot in Command Dan must have screwed up the landing somehow.”<br /><br />		Attachments: Rooms with a different view

John Robert Dunlop - Apr 26,2011 Viewers | Reply


	Glad you and Ann were able to enjoy some of your adventures together!

Dan Nickens - Apr 26,2011 Viewers | Reply


	The long beach was lined with clouds and all I could think of is what a great runway!<br /><br />In another possible reality, Mary fell apart on one of the many landings in the sparsely populated Sound. The passenger and I got out for a swim in the cold waters. The wicked current, however, swept us out to sea. We spent a long night in cold water with our emergency beacons. One of us was no longer alive when a fishing boat finally arrived.<br />		Attachments: Cloud lined beach

Dan Nickens - Apr 26,2011 Viewers | Reply


	Oh the landing opportunities!<br /><br />In a different version of reality, MK barely held her hull intact until after Ann and I had took it for a tour of the South Island. It finally failed somewhere in a cold southern fjord and sank in the deep waters. Once again there was no evidence of what happened other than the pilot screwed up somehow.<br />		Attachments: Fields for Landing

Dan Nickens - Apr 26,2011 Viewers | Reply


	The Waterline CafU seemed a great opportunity for SeaRey dining. Not in my universe. MK sat back on the dock in Whangarei awaiting estimates and investigations.<br /><br />My conclusion: in any universe other than this one, the outcome of the hull failure could range from bad to catastrophic. Somehow Mary had held it together and only let go when no one would be hurt. Good girl, that Mary.<br />		Attachments: Riverfront Dining

Dan Nickens - Apr 26,2011 Viewers | Reply


	The Arai te uru lookout point was easily accessible by car. Too easily. It would have looked a lot better if MK was parked on the beach below.		Attachments: Cliff View

Dan Nickens - Apr 26,2011 Viewers | Reply


	A better view from ground level? Maybe, but we could have landed in the river and hiked to the top of the cliff from a SeaRey.		Attachments: Cliff View Too

Dan Nickens - Apr 26,2011 Viewers | Reply


	Ok, well, this was on the roadside. I’m pretty sure landing on the road in a SeaRey would have been frowned on. From above there would just have been fuzzy patches of blue. That would have been pretty cool too.		Attachments: Pretty in Blue

Dan Nickens - Apr 26,2011 Viewers | Reply


	Maybe it was a bad ending for a sculpture, but not for a road trip. This sculpture garden was located next door to the inaccessible pastures of sculpture at the Gibbs place.		Attachments: Not a bad ending

Dan Nickens - Apr 26,2011 Viewers | Reply


	Mary Kay’s sister ship readies for her maiden flight. In short order the flight testing was completed. N415SR was loaded into a shipping container and sent off to meet the SuRi in Fiji. Paige will be there to make the introductions. If she's half the heart MK had, she'll be a beaut.<br /><br />When I got back home from New Zealand there was a package waiting. It was a new camera to replace the one that got salt soaked: a gift from the boss. In a few days old 220WT will be ready to go out for some shooting. Some people just never learn. Here we go again.<br /><br />This reality is good. Really good.<br />		Attachments: Heading Out Again

Kenneth Leonard - Apr 26,2011 Viewers | Reply


	Manual flaps for a guy where price is no object? Mmm. Perhaps weight is an object in any reality.<br /><br />Good story Dan and glad to see that Ann was able to share in it.

Eric Batterman - Apr 26,2011 Viewers | Reply


	Ken, The big the handle is to ring for dinner.

Frank A. Carr - Apr 26,2011 Viewers | Reply


	Dan, Do you have any idea how many dozens of newbies out there are trying to decide if <br />you're for real or not? Might be the subject of a poll. But not by me. Keep the SeaRey <br />Tales acomin'

Richard Rofe - Apr 28,2011 Viewers | Reply


	Funny and glad you wrote that as this is my first time on the site and I was just scratching my head <br />over that exact question! Dan is quite a good writer though I must say...

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