(photographer not known)

Later re-registered as VH-MBA. Was intended to serve the Yakuave Resorts, but the deal fell through. Ex US Navy, Royal Navy, Bay Valley Air Service, Alaska Coastal Airlines, Alaska Airlines and Kodiak Airlines before migrating to the warmer South Pacific (photographed by G. Bühlmann)

Thanks to the Airport Manager, flew with him and the owner from the water at Lake Hood to the runway at Talkeetna for a burger break. Returned to the Lake Hood but could not get ashore at the entry slipway. Had to water-taxi across to the Government Dock and take the road round the Lake back to the hangar. Wonderful experience !!

Sitting outside its Pacific Coastal base hangar at Port Hardy Airport on the northern tip of Vancouver Island BC

Sitting outside its Pacific Coastal base hangar at Port Hardy Airport on the northern tip of Vancouver Island BC.

The second Grumman Goose, owned by Henry Morgan, one of ten affluent Long Island businessmen who requested the design of the G-21. Morgan's wife and friends made a trip all the way to Texas in the aircraft. Like other early Geese it was acquired by the Canadian air force in 1940. It crashed at Nassau in the Bahamas in 1947 as VP-BAE. Photo from: San Antonio Light / University of Texas at San Antonio

Crashed while in service with the Peruvian air corps, with two dates given - December 6, 1943 or April 10, 1945. Photo by: Rudy Arnold / Smithsonian Institution

registered to Tropical Sea Air Co., sold to European Coastal Airways, Munich in 1995. Shipped to Hamburg / Landsberied for restoration

Photographed stored after the closure of Antilles Air Boats the previous year. The aircraft was built as a US Navy JRF-5 BuNo 37793 but was sent to the Royal Navy, and later the RCAF, as FP471 and civilianised as NR46497, then NC1048V, post WWII. It was trucked away from Opa-locka in October 1983 and is thought to have been dismantled and used in the restoration of Goose N327 c/n 1051. (Thanks to Joe Baugher and Bill Bailey for information).

The full civilian history of this aircraft can be found at http://www.wdaguy.com/N87U.html. The aircraft was last reported painted in blue US Navy colours undergoing restoration at Northwest Regional Airport, Roanoke, TX., in June 2019.

Delivered to the US Navy in June 1943 as JRF-5, Bu No. 34071. Retired to NAS Litchfield Park, AZ and registered N9547C in 1957. To Coastal Aero, Houston, TX as N27Q (1957-1964). To Gordon Gulbertson, CA in 1963. Imported to Canada by Northern Mountain Airlines in March 1964 and upgraded by McKinnon at Sandy, OR in May 1964. To Midwest Airlines, Winnipeg 1969-1972. To West Coast Air Services (WCA) in Nov. 1972. The G-21A was on a scheduled flight from Tofino to Vancouver on Sep 9, 1974 when it crashed in Nitinat Canyon, Mount Cooper, about 10 m north of Lake Cowichan in poor weather. 9 killed.

Grumman G-21A Goose, C-FUAZ was delivered new to the US Coast Guard in February 1940 as V185 and was sold by the US government in November 1946 as NC95400 and later N95400. The aircraft was registered to three different owners in the Bahamas between 1963-1965, then imported to Canada in December 1965 by Northwest Industries (NWI) which was large MRO company based in Edmonton, owned by CAE. In May 1966, NWI sold the Goose to BC Airlines, a subsidiary, and the aircraft was registered C-FUAZ. It joined the Trans-Provincial fleet in April 1969. With Wilderness Seaplanes in Port Hardy in 2022.

Pacific Western Airlines of Vancouver, BC imported Grumman G-21A Goose, CF-UMG, from Alaska in August 1966. It had previously flown with the US Dept of Interior's Bureau of Land Management in Alaska as N643 and with Fleet Air Transport in 1963-1964 as N643H. In August 1968, PWA sold CF-UMG to Trans-Provincial Airlines (TPA) which had a landline base in Terrace and a seaplane base at Seal Cove in Prince Rupert. The airline's main business was servicing coastal communities and logging camps on the northern BC coast. TPA was acquired by Jim Pattison Ind. c1980 for Air BC, but remained separate.

Forest Industries Flying Tankers (FIFT) acquired the Grumman G-21A Goose (ex-Bu84806 and N62899) in April 1967 to support its water bomber operations using a pair of four-engine Martin Mars flying boats. Goose C-FVFS served with FIFT until 2000 and with its successor Flying Tankers Inc. until it was sold to Klaus Dieter Martin in Munich, Germany and ferried across the Atlantic in Nov. 2001 for use by European Seaplane Service in Croatia but was damaged when the gear collapsed in 2002. Registered to Victoria Aircraft Maintenance at CYYJ in Oct 2015 as C-FMXW. Cancelled/Exported in Nov. 2021.

West Coast Air Grumman G-21A, CF-GEC, on the ramp at Vancouver Airport on June 15, 1977. One year later the aircraft struck an object and sank just off Powell River, BC on 14 August 1978, with no loss of life. This Goose served with the RCAF Western Air Command from Dec 1944 to Jan 1946 and was based at Vancouver from 1948 with BNP Airways (1948-1966) and the BC Hydro and Power Authority (1966-1968) then flew with Midwest Airlines in Winnipeg (1969-1972) before returning to Vancouver in 1973 to join the fleet of West Coast Air Services.

Grumman G-21A Goose N88821 was imported to Canada in 1973 and sold by Viking Air at Victoria Airport (YYJ) after overhaul to Alert Bay Air Services in January 1974. The company served the mid-British Columbia coast from a waterfront base in Alert Bay on Cormorant Island located a few miles off the northeast coast of Vancouver Island. Acquired by Jim Pattison Industries in the early 1980s during the creation of AirBC and primarily operated by sister company Trans-Provincial Airlines until it ground looped on landing at Sandspit Airport in Feb. 1991. The wreck was acquired by the Tongass Historical Society in Ketchikan (AK) in 1992 as N88821 and was still under restoration for static display with them by 2022.

West Coast Air Services Grumman G-21A, CF-GEC, undergoing and engine change and painting in the company's old RCAF hangar at Vancouver Airport in about 1973-1974, based on the slide film I was using before switching to Kodachrome. This aircraft was later repainted in West Coast Air's new blue and white colours not long before struck an object and sank with no loss of life at Powell River, BC on 14 August 1978. I also photographed G-21A, CF-PVE outside the same West Coast Air hangar at YVR before it crashed in Nitinat Canyon, Mount Cooper, Vancouver Island on September 9, 1974.

This Grumman Goose was photographed at Stewart Airport (CZST) while operating scheduled service to Prince Rupert. In the early 1980s, Jim Pattison Industries bought and merged several coastal airlines to form Air BC, including Trans-Provincial Airlines (TPA) which flew C-FEFN in this yellow colour scheme. When Air BC added new Dash 7 routes, most of its seaplane services (except DHC-6 routes) were transferred TPA, which became separate airline again. Steward is at the head of the Portland Canal which forms part of the border with SE Alaska. It is the northernmost coastal community in BC.

Sitting on the apron at its Port Hardy base, with a backdrop of the waters of the Queen Charlotte Strait and the mountains of the mainland, awaiting its next scheduled service for Pacific Coastal Airlines.