But this time with a different kind of aircraft…or shall I better say: flying boat. Because where we plan to go today, there aren’t too many places to land. The plane is a Lohner Type “R”, which was used during WWI as photo-reconnaissance plane. It was designed and built in Austro-Hungary and came equipped with a 100hp Mercedes engine. It offered space for two to three people, had a max take-off weight of 1,040 kg and could achieve a top speed of 100 km/h. I can imagine that being almost fully exposed to the elements, nobody had the desire to fly any faster in this thing.

 

Here is a photo of the plane from around 1920

 

And here at a beach somewhere in Samoa in Sept. 2016  :smile:

 

We get ready to turn the plane around. It will be a challenge to navigate through all the corals without hitting anything

 

Just a few scratches, but all went well and we are up in the air

 

 

 

With the tank filled to capacity, we can cover a distance of around 500km. That should be enough to cover this part of Samoa

 

 

 

 

 

 

This looks like a nice cove, where we can land and have our lunch

 

After lunch with a few locals it’s time to get airborne again to do some more photo-shooting

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for viewing. 

The perfect observation airplane to fly the very scenic Samoa....airport not necessary....essentially a ultra lite flying boat!

 

HLJAMES

Beautiful.

 

nebojsa

Thank you both very much. I'm happy that you like them.