Tahoe Special - ShortWingPipers.Org

Bonnie Kratz
★
TAHOE
SPECIAL
A SEABEE REBORN
AMY LABODA
Photography
38
JANUARY 2007
by
Bonnie
Kratz
and
Phil
High
Hang on, folks, as I take you with me
on an out-of-body experience.
Close your eyes and picture it with me: a tranquil alpine lake, a gentle breeze pushing
ripples to lap the shoreline. The sound of a single engine, something throaty, breaks
the calm, and from a nearby inlet comes a deep blue boat plane. A Republic Seabee?
Except this Seabee is more like a ghost, dressed in a classic Navy paint scheme from
a Cameron Bay P-3 Orion detachment of the Vietnam era, and it doesnʼt sound quite
right—the engineʼs rumble is too bass, too burly to be the anemic Franklin that was
stock on the original water bird.
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JANUARY 2007
A
s the ghost plane slides across the near mirror-perfect water, it begins to accelerate,
and in a few short seconds it’s airborne and
climbing in a classic confined water takeoff circle. But this Seabee, even at a lake
elevation of 6,200 feet, doesn’t claw for altitude. With a
stock normally aspirated Corvette LS-6 engine putting out
more than 400 hp, and an altitude-compensating carburetor, this seabird soars over some of the most challenging
mountain terrain in the lower 48 United States.
If you are a Seabee connoisseur, this airplane, dubbed
The Tahoe Special by its owner, is the machine of your
dreams. It certainly is the airplane that owner-builder Steve
Lantz and his builder-friend R. Paul Shepard dreamed of
when they set out to create this delicious specter.
Photos by Phil High
“I knew what I was looking for,”
he says. “I wanted a project
Seabee that I could take on,
rebuild, and strap on the
Robinson V8 Corvette engine
conversion that has been tested
successfully in Canada.”
“I started flying floatplanes and realized that the ideal
floatplane would have a lot of room, a lot of cargo capacity, a lot of fuel efficiency, and a long range,” says Lantz, a
Vietnam P-3 pilot and retired airline pilot. “That’s when I
decided that there was only one airplane in existence that
could do that, and it was the Republic Seabee.”
A few folks may chuckle at Lantz’s epiphany, especially
since the Republic Seabees were much maligned for their
lackluster original engine installations—a 500 cubic-inch
Franklin rated at 215 hp when turning 2575 rpm—which
could barely push the airplane fast enough to get it off
the water when fully loaded on a standard day, much less
a typical warm summer day on Lake Tahoe, California.
That was a shame, because the bulbous cockpit/monohull of the airplane is luxuriously roomy for four or even
five souls, plus bags, and it carried plenty of fuel for long
cross-countries between lakes. That engine, however, was
its downfall, and the factory run of the beast was short.
Over the years there have been people who have replaced their little Franklins with other engines, notably
the GO-480 series. But this is an expensive option, and
the GO-480 engine is 1960s technology. There are a limited number of other approved aircraft engines for the
Seabee, and they are all expensive.
Lantz had a better idea.
“I knew what I was looking
for,” he says. “I wanted a
project Seabee that I could
take on, rebuild, and strap
on the Robinson V8 Corvette engine conversion
that has been tested successfully in Canada.”
The Robinson V8 is the
brainchild of Brian RobinBuilder-owner Steve Lantz
married a project Seabee
and a Robinson Corvette V-8
conversion to create the plane
of his dreams.
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41
The Tahoe Special bears the classic Navy paint scheme and
markings of a Cameron Bay P-3 Orion detachment of the
Vietnam era. Its modified Corvette engine has an altitudecompensating carburetor, which keeps the engine delivering
power without input from the pilot at all altitudes, simplifying
pilot work load. The V-8 conversion turns a fully reversible threeblade custom propeller created by MT Propellers of Germany.
The instrument panel is polished until it
gleams, and retains the 1950s look even with
a Dynon EFIS and a Garmin 300XL nav/com.
Photos by Phil High
Robinson’s V8 engine conversion is
available as a kit, and runs from $39,000 on
up, depending on the engine requested.
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JANUARY 2007
son of Kirkfield, Ontario, near Toronto, in Canada, who,
like Lantz, was in love with the airplane, but not the engine. When his family’s venerable Seabee was up for an
engine change in 1997, Robinson deduced that there was
really no way to get a “new” Franklin engine onto his machine—after all, new Franklin parts were already decades
old. Instead he searched around for a mod and found
an engine that would fit perfectly in the original cowling. The only problem was that it was an auto engine, the
brawny Corvette LS series, which range from 350 to 400
hp. He devised a clever and efficient chain reduction drive
and engine mount, and worked to reprogram the engine’s
sophisticated electronics so that it would work on an airplane. Robinson had an advantage in that automotive
engines can be used in certified aircraft in Canada under
certain circumstances. This rule is different than what is
allowed in the United States.
Robinson’s V8 conversion was so successful that several other Seabee owners clamored for one, and he went
into the engine conversion business. Today there are more
than half a dozen Seabees and a Murphy Super Rebel flying powered by a Robinson V8 conversion, and Robinson’s
airplane has more than 1,000 hours on it, having traveled
from Canada to Key West and back, burning avgas or auto
gas, depending on what was available. The conversion is
available as a kit and runs from $39,000 on up, depending
on the engine requested, and includes the engine, engine
accessories, engine system modifications, reduction unit,
and motor mount. Options that will add up considerably
include an engine cooling system, exhaust system, cabin
heating, cabin air conditioning, a fuel pump/regulator
system, an engine pre-lubrication system, a drive modified for a constant-speed reversible propeller, and a reverse
valve for a constant-speed propeller.
What it took was 20 months
of eight-hour days in
Lantz’ hangar-shop, where
the two men completely
deconstructed the two hulls,
fabricated missing parts for,
and then reconstructed, from
the two derelict shells, one
stunning airplane.
Lantz knew that any aircraft he rebuilt with a Robinson
V8 would have to be registered in the United States as
an experimental, because the rules differ from those in
Canada. So he and his friend Shepard, who has experience
with aircraft interiors, went on the hunt for a clean, corrosion-free skeleton of an airplane.
That hunt took them from their base in Crystal Bay,
Nevada, all the way to an out-of-theway spot near Pit Meadows Airport,
just east of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. There they found the
first derelict hull that would become
N48VP.
After hauling the aircraft, or should
we say aircraft parts, back to Crystal
Bay, and inventorying what was useable, they realized that they needed
another airplane, or at least its parts.
They found the second derelict Seabee near Madison, Wisconsin, and
with the two aircrafts’ worth of parts
in hand, these builders began what
would become a 4,200 man-hour odyssey to create one eminently flyable
airplane that could prove what a super machine the Republic Seabee can
be with the proper engine pushing it
through the air.
“Steve had no idea it would take
so long, but I did,” laughs Shepard,
who has experience as both a sheet metal worker and in
custom aircraft paint and upholstery during the 1960s.
“We’ve been buddies since we were kids, and he called me
and told me about this project,” Shepard smiles. “I knew
it was going to take a lot of work.”
What it took was 20 months of eight-hour days in
Lantz’s hangar-shop, where the two men completely deconstructed the two hulls, then fabricated missing parts
for and reconstructed one stunning airplane from the two
derelict shells. There was welding, riveting, sheet metal
work, corrosion proofing—they did everything it took to
manufacture a new airplane from the pieces and parts of
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the old. And it certainly was not insert-tab-A-into-slot-B simple.
“Seabees were essentially handmade at the factory,” explains Lantz.
“So you can’t exactly take a part from
one and expect the rivet holes to line
up on the adjacent part from another
airplane.” The biggest problem came
when they began working on the
airplane’s wings. They are built with
only three ribs and have corrugated
metal skins to stiffen them, instead.
The compound curves of aluminum
required for the corrugation are only
the beginning of a sheet metal spe-
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JANUARY 2007
cialist’s nightmare. Because the Seabees were handmade, not jigged together, Lantz and Shepard discovered
that the skins from one airplane don’t
necessarily fit another.
“We ended up looking for original
stock skins, which we found in people’s garages, believe it or not,” Lantz
laughs, remembering their exhaustive
searches. “We’d find the pieces we
needed, buy them, and then have to
rent a truck and truck the stuff home.”
That was probably the one part of the
rebuilding process that Lantz didn’t
bargain for, but he’ll tell you that he
met some interesting folks during the
hunt.
After the corrugated wing skins
you’d think the rest of the rebuild
would be simple, but it turns out that
constructing Seabee doors (there are
three) is a fairly complicated manner,
too.
“The doors on this airplane take a
beating,” says Lantz. “And every Seabee, I think, has had a door blow open
on the ground. We took five doors
from different Seabees and pulled
them apart, then used the good parts
to reconstruct three new doors for
this airplane.”
The only true modifications from
a traditional Seabee on the airplane,
other than the engine and its components, are in the keel and the interior.
Lantz and Shepard created an extra
keel guard to take the beating from
any inadvertent gear-up terrestrial
landing. They hope it will minimize
the damage and help get the airplane
back up on the line faster.
The interior is where Shepard’s special skills come to light. The instrument panel is polished until it gleams.
The two retained the retro 1950s look,
applying a thin layer of wood veneer
with eight coats of clear to create the
panel. The isolation switches and the
propeller reverse toggle with its arm
shield are all airline-quality switches,
and now there’s a Dynon EFIS and a
Garmin 300XL nav/comm, with a
backup Garmin 295 clipped into place
where the pilot can see it.
The leather seats include embroidered U.S. Navy wings, and a polished
Corvette emblem embellishes the pivot point on the double-handled yoke,
but these are just the candy. The real
excitement in this Seabee’s interior
is in the carbon fiber-molded panels,
which add strength and, even better,
simplicity to the airplane. “The entire
ceiling is made from a carbon fiber
panel, and there are two carbon fiber
quarter panels that trim out the sides
and around the rear windows,” says
Shepard.
“If you look at most aircraft the
plastic headliners are screwed in, or if
they are fabric they’ve got bows and
sags in them,” chimes in Lantz. “We
The custom seats include embroidered
U.S. Navy aviator wings.
delivering power without input from
the pilot at all altitudes, simplifying
the pilot workload.
For propulsion Lantz chose a fully
reversible three-blade custom propeller
created by MT Propellers of Germany
because of the company’s reputation.
He’s not been disappointed. “MT has
given us great customer service and
really worked with us to make this
installation come together,” he says.
Because this airplane and its engine
rely so heavily on electrics to keep it in
the air, the two put special emphasis
on that system. The airplane has one
alternator with dual batteries that can
run separately or in parallel. Lantz can
isolate everything electric except the
engine components—he’s put them
on an airliner-style “essential” bus.
“We have four hours, theoretically,
on the batteries if the alternator fails,”
he explains. “The engine computer
is hot-wired to the batteries so that
it can keep running if the alternator
fails. We have the capability of moni-
wanted to get rid of the screws and
come up with something that looks
nice and clean. With this system there
are only two screws you need to pull
out to get access to the trim box and
all the wiring—everything you need
to reach for an annual inspection.”
Creating the panels required threeseparate molds. “It was a lot of work,
but now those molds are available to
other Seabee owners, some of whom
have already contacted us about using them to make their own panels,”
says Shepard.
The engine conversion, it turns
out, was the simplest part of the entire rebuild. The Corvette V8 is sized
perfectly for the original Seabee cowlings, and it is engineered by Robinson
to fit right on to the spot the Franklin originally occupied. The engine’s
black box has to be reprogrammed to
eliminate the smog controls, but that,
too, is textbook with the Robinson
conversion.
And the engine’s advantages over
the Franklin, extolled by Lantz and
Shepard, go far beyond the nearly
doubled horsepower. For one thing,
there’s the air conditioning, which
comes in quite handy during those
warm Nevada summer days. Then
there is the advantage of being able
to burn auto fuel, which is generally
easier to find than avgas at marinas
these days. And finally, there’s the
altitude-compensating
carburetor,
which keeps the engine smoothly
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Soda blasting and an acid
wash, followed by two coats
of PPG DP 90 dark primer
and three coats of acrylic
urethane make up the U.S.
Navy blue.
Lantz’s lifelong friend R. Paul
Shepard is an aircraft sheet metal
and interior expert.
toring all the engine components and
get all of its parameters—even a printout on its performance, with standard
automotive tools, which helps us keep
it running well.”
The final touch to this package was
paint—again, an area where Shepard’s
expertise came into play. “We sodablasted then acid-washed the exterior
surfaces,” he explains. “Then I applied
two coats of PPG DP 90 dark primer
and three coats of acrylic urethane to
make the deep blue that really conjures up ‘U.S. Navy’ when you look at
it,” he says.
To smooth the certification process, Lantz and Shepard were meticulous in their recordkeeping. “We took
4,000 photographs and documented
everything that we could,” recalls
Lantz. At every air show they pull out
two photo albums full of snapshots
caught during the building process,
because so many people ask to see it.
“The Reno, Nevada, Flight Standards District Office was very helpful throughout the different stages
of the project and kept us apprised of
what we had to do to make certifying
the aircraft as an experimental amateur-built aircraft possible,” he says.
“There were lots of phone calls—but
the Reno office encouraged that kind
of communication. It made the process so much simpler in the end.”
During the standard 40-hour test
flight period, the two found minor
things that needed to be adjusted,
which was to be expected in any airplane 50 or 60 years old, even after a
complete rebuild. Since then the two
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JANUARY 2007
have flown The Tahoe Special to EAA
AirVenture Oshkosh and back, putting well more than 100 hours on the
bird, without any significant issues.
As you might imagine, during the
building process Lantz’s hangar-shop
was quickly overrun with extras and
spare parts. Lantz and Shepard noticed
that the project, and its profusion of
pieces, attracted a lot of interest on
the airfield at Carson City, Nevada.
It wasn’t long before his neighbor, a
few hangars down, stopped in to say
that he’d buy the extra Seabee hull
and parts and begin his own project,
if Lantz and Shepard would help.
“When I first brought the Seabee
here, no one in Carson City seemed
to have ever seen one,” recalls Lantz.
“Now we have six Seabees here, and
we’re working on converting them
with the Robinson engine conversion.” Better yet, Lantz and Shepard
have recouped a bit of their outlay by
selling some of those extra parts they
collected during the building process.
So what’s the next project? When
asked, Lantz and Shepard just smile.
“For now we are traveling with this to
the different air shows,” they say.
“I did it for the adventure of making it,” explains Lantz, in true homebuilder form. “Our reward for doing
this is the scores of people who come
over and compliment the workmanship we’ve put into it. It is heartwarming to hear them tell me how
their first ride in an airplane, or in a
seaplane, was in a Seabee.”
And if that first ride was in N48VP,
well, they truly were lucky souls.
AIRCRAFT MAKE & MODEL:
Republic SeaBee Tahoe Special Edition
(originally it was an RC 3)
N-Number: N48VP
Certification: amateur-built experimental
Length: 28 ft.
Wingspan: 41 ft.
Height: 9 ft. 8 inches
MAXIMUM GROSS WEIGHT: 3850 lbs
Empty Weight: 2610 lbs
Fuel Capacity (gallons): 120
Seats: 4
POWERPLANT MAKE & MODEL:
Robinson V8 Corvette LS-6 conversion
Horsepower: 405
Propeller: MT Propeller, scimitar 4-blade,
constant speed, fully reversible
CRUISE SPEED/FUEL CONSUMPTION
115 mph at 8,000 ft. and 9.8 gph
EQUIPPED FOR VFR,
DAY AND NIGHT FLIGHT
VH
VS
VSO
VX
VY
125 mph
55mph
50mph
70mph
80mph
PRICE: two fuselages at $20,000 each,
one engine conversion at $43,000,
plus prop at $17,000, plus lots of
miscellaneous parts that no one really
kept track of.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Steve Lantz [email protected].
For information about the Robinson V8
conversion contact Brian Robinson at:
[email protected]