The Red Bull Albatross

I don't remember a time when I didn't absolutely LOVE flying boats. To be able to combine the 2 things I love to do -be in the air and be on the water - into one item is just too much to ignore. My house if full of artwork with nostalgic flying boats on it and (I didn't realized until recently that) much of my clothing has flying boats on it.

In 2001, I bought the most affordable version of a flying boat and flew it for 3 summers as a business on the Outer Banks of NC - taking tourists for discovery flights over the islands. I've flown a lot of light aircraft - from paragliders, hang gliders, several types of ultralights and various small airplanes and NOTHING came close to the thrill of taking off and landing on water.
My Flying Boat

So, it should come as no surprise that the Grumman Albatross - the largest production flying boat that Grumman made has been a big goal for getting to fly in. Chalk Airlines out of Miami used to fly from there to the Bahamas on a daily basis for passsenger service utilizing the Albatross - until a catastrophic accident in 2005 shut the service down. I'd always figured I go take a trip on that service - but after it's closing, the ability of the average person to fly on an Albatross went down dramatically.






My friend Othar whom I met in the hang gliding/paragliding world is a paragliding national champion, aerobatic performer, skydiver exhibitionist, base jumper and leader/creator of the Red Bull Airforce. I found out he was going to be in the Charlotte area for race week as part of the Red Bull Albatross promotional team. I had invited him to come take a tour of the TV production truck and he invited me to come spend an afternoon out on the lake in the Albatross as they did promotional flights. There was no way I was going to miss THAT opportunity!

So I went out to the Rusty Rudder Restaurant on Lake Norman and met up with the shuttle boat that took me out to the Albatross. It's beautifully painted and as I stepped aboard I was offered access to any type of drink I could want including of course - Red Bull. I got the quick tour of the bird and then took a seat right behind the co-pilot MIke as we made our first take off. It was awesome - with the loud radial engines turning at full power and kicking up huge sprays of water behind us, we slowly converted the boat with wings to an airplane with a hull.


We appeared to be flying extremely slow as we cruised around the lake, but the airspeed indictor showed 120 knots - not setting any records but certainly faster than the apparent speed. The pilot - John - used to be a hang glider pilot as well and after we'd been in the air for about 10 minutes, he moved out of the pilot seat and offered it to me. No hesitation here!


Flying the Albatross was interesting with lots of resistance in the controls and the need to constantly adjust the pitch based on how the people in the back of the plane were moving around. John described it as trying to move an elephant down a hallway by leaning on it. Of course, Mike was there in the co-pilot seat making any correction that I was missing, but for a certain amount of time - I was flying the Red Bull Albatross.

After we landed, Othar opened up a hatch in the top of the plane and we all went up on the wings and many folks jumped into the water and some of us just hung out on top of the wings enjoying the afternoon.

More flying led to me getting to experience more of the plane including the observation room in the nose of the aircraft which has a lexan bubble to gaze out the front. Othar opened up the top section of the barn doors in the rear of the aircraft for us to be more in touch with the air.


It was an awesome afternoon and Red Bull continues to live up to it's reputation as a first class business. They take no money of any type for flying in the Albatross - it's solely for promotion.



Thanks to Othar for inviting me out and taking good care of me. Once again, I'm fortunate to have the friends I do - in many ways. I'll continue to offer what I can to my friends to help to offset the good that is done for me.

Also, thanks to Clyde. Couldn't have done it without you.