it took off, I swear it must have
been under 200m, and climbed
like a champion. I was soon given
the controls and got a feel for the
aircraft. After the Searey it felt
huge, heavy, high off the ground,
much more slippery and with a lot
of momentum.
We did a few circuits. Okay,
there were a few bounces on
the first try, but on the second I
decided not to be intimidated. I
relaxed and thought, it might be
a tail dragger, but it’s just a big
Searey. The second landing feltmuch better, with the third even
instilling some confidence, which
meant it was time to get wet.
On the way there Dmitry asked
me to put the plane in a climb,
then gently pulled one engine
back to idle. We kept climbing
comfortably at a few hundred feet
per minute and there was plenty
of control authority on hand. Now
I don’t have a twin endorsement,
so that was enough of that for
now... but I suspect it will be on
my to-do list soon. Once beyond
the airfield he kept indicating
thumb down, and it was clear we
were to remain below 1200 feet
above the ground. There was a
noticeable lack of radio calls so
I’m assuming we were staying in
the Russian equivalent of Class G
airspace, and I noted there wasn’t
a transponder fitted.
We headed 15 minutes cross
country to the Volga river for
some all important Splash’n’Go’s.
The Volga is the longest river
in Europe and considered
the National River of Russia,
working its way through Central
Russia for 3350km before passing
out to the Caspian Sea. Along
the river banks were multitudes
of small cabins and campsites.
Dmitry explained that “winter is
so cold, -15 degrees, is horrible,
when summer comes and is 35degrees we make most of it and
move family from house to the
river for three months”. Sounds
delightful.
The L44 specifications claim
operations in half-metre seas
which we would not see on the
river, instead finding rather
short-period waves of 10 to 15
centimetres. We conducted
around 20 water landings where
I found the plane was more pitch
sensitive than the highly forgiving
Searey, but I got the hang of it
soon. Alighting with the twin
turbo engines and the Airmaster32 Russian Seaplanes
AUSTRALIAN FLYING November – December 2017men like bears, they are big and
strong and need room to move!”.Flying the bear
The next day we test f lew the L44,
from SeaBear Aircraft. Start up
was interesting, as all switches
were labelled in Russian with
Cyrillic symbols, so with Dmitry
the builder it was a two-man
operation. What I discovered
was a magnificent aircraft; it
f lies beautifully, smooth, well
balanced and surprisingly quiet.
I was shocked just how quicklylots of surrounding grass. We then
visited various factories and found
composite construction quality
I’d usually associate with building
high tech racing yachts.
The quality of finishes was
very high, the structure rock solid
with a mixture of glass and carbon
layups. The f loor structures
were incredibly rigid and seemed
carefully engineered, multiple light
members yet a very strong grid
structure. Inside the cockpits were
all very generous in space, because
by their own admission, “Russian“ The aeroplane building
there was of the highest
quality and ingenuity.”
ABOVE: Cold War
relics abound on
Russian airfields.
LEFT: L44 hull under
construction with
healthy use of carbon
fibre in key areas.