The Martin Mars flying boats are household words in my area due to the portion of their lives spent as water bombers. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_JRM_Mars) There were originally 7 of the aircraft built for the USN in the early 1940s, the largest Allied flying boats produced, four of which were converted to use as water bombers after their retirement from the USN in the 1950s. Two of them, the Hawaii Mars and the Philippine Mars were based out of Sproat Lake on Vancouver Island (BangScreech's backyard) and are now the only two remaining. Long a mainstay of fighting forest fires in the province of British Columbia and beyond, they've been replaced over the years with more agile aircraft of different capabilities. The debate on whether they should have been kept in service can become very heated and passionate. Unfortunately, they were retired from service almost a decade ago with the last flight taking place about 8 years ago, until recently.

The Hawaii Mars has been undergoing maintenance and flight testing for the past month in anticipation of a scheduled ferry flight from Sproat Lake to it's new permanent home on static display at the British Columbia Aviation Museum in Sidney, BC on Southern Vancouver Island. Searching youtube should bring up some videos like this one: . These planes are massive, with 4 engines producing over 3200 hp each. In flight, they often appear to be moving slowly, almost hovering making one wonder how they even remain airborne...and yet they do and they have for 80 years. Bangscreech has likely had a great view of several of the test flights.

The final flight for the Hawaii Mars (C-FLYL) will be taking place on August 11th, and will be passing overhead in my area accompanied by the Royal Canadian Airforce's acrobatic demonstration team, the Snowbirds. We're looking forward to watching this spectacle from a local high point with the bittersweet (the colour of my Cutlass!) emotion knowing this will be the final journey of a magnificent lady, heading off to a well earned rest.

I don't have any personal photos of the plane at this point (I'll post some later) but they're easily found in the links I've shared and simple Google searches!

The Philippine Mars has been repainted in it's original dark blue USN livery and will eventually be flown down to Pima Air and Space Museum in Arizona.

 

Thanks for the share. Very cool

 

Great video - thanks for sharing.

 

Thanks for sharing. The owners must have taken measures to preserve this plane since It had not been flown in a number of years. Love to hear those old radial engines start up.

 

Cool story.

 

Yes, Coulson's Air Tankers are the owners and they've maintained both birds in good condition which I'm sure has made their reactivation easier.

 

It hasn't departed, yet; but, when it does it can be tracked here >>> https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/c-flyl#

Martin Mars water bomber's last flight today.

 

Not far from here. I can hear them buzzing the boaters at the other end of the lake!

 

It departed Sproat Lake and is just East of Beaver Creek Rd.

EDIT: False. Apparently I'm tracking a Dash 8 although I find that difficult unless it's equipped w/ floaters. Actually it's a Beaver >> DHC-2 Beaver

 

It was never squawking...wound up tracking it's escorts - first was a Grumman Goose, then a CT-133 Shooting Star and finally the Snowbirds (9 x CT-114 Tutor). We caught a few glimpses in the distance, then the final straightline flight through our area was a bit further away than we'd hoped. Should have taken the binos...But we did see it while some people wound up in the wrong places and missed it. Turns out my brother had an awesome viewpoint right by the museum it will end up at...I should have talked to him sooner!

Jumped in the Cutlass and hoofed it south to where it was supposed to land but just missed the big event as they landed early.

 

Nice!

 

Another remnant of a bygone age going out to final pasture. My are we getting old! I served in the US Navy with P3C aircraft and they are no longer in use and the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (upon which I served as well) will soon be decomissioned, making me feel older than I want to. Oh well, that is life I suppose.

 

thanx for that Clay i was hoping it would fly over lake cowichan and down the valley so we could see it at home but I didn't even hear it

 

I hear you there, my friend! My first ships are now underwater artificial reefs or razor blades. I've sailed in company with IKE a few times.

 

Dad served (BM2c) on USS Anne Arundel (AP76) (troop transport) during WWII. He handed up 50 cal. shells to the gunner while underway & drove a Higgins during landing Operations @ Torch, Husky, Neptune (D-Day, Omaha Beach) & Dragon. He was involved in at least three different campaigns Normandy, Africa & Philippines. I think he debarked troops on five landing runs @ Omaha Beach (maybe seven). Got blown from his Higgins on one run (hit a mine). I think he zigg-zagged across the Atlantic & Pacific seven or eight times. He said he never blinked an eye - it was his job.

 

The last airworthy Martin Mars, the Philippine Mars is destined for display at the Pima Air Museum in Arizona. This plane sat in hibernation for over 10 years without flying so the process of restoring her to a condition capable of a safe flight down has not been without challenges. The flight plan involves departing Sproat Lake on Vancouver Island (where she's been based for decades) with an overnight stop in San Francisco (Alameda), one of her operational harbours while in service with the USN and another stop in San Diego, her other original base. From San Diego, she's to fly to an as yet unnamed lake in Arizona where she'll be dismantled and transported to the Pima Museum.

The trip has been broken into the three legs as she can't fly at night (can't see water hazards when landing!) and has been much anticipated by fans along the route.

The first attempt to fly her out in December came to a swift end due to a faulty oil pressure regulator which force her to return to Sproat Lake for repairs. The second attempt, a few days later, seemed to be going well at first. After delaying take off waiting for visibility to clear up, she headed down towards Victoria for an overfly and final farewell to her sister ship, the Hawaii Mars. I had hoped to watch her fly past my area, but was a bit slow...and she buzzed over me at several hundred feet while I was driving and gawking out the window! All eyes were on her or watching the flight trackers (she only showed up on FlightRadar24 once she was in US airspace). Just as she was reaching the Washington State coastline, near Port Townsend she turned around and returned to the vicinity of the Victoria airport. There were plenty of reports of an observed engine failure, and after about half an hour of circling she sat down in Brentwood Bay, the same area where the Hawaii Mars made her final landing.

A lot of people learned the importance of terminology here! One person had reported (on Facebook, land of the self proclaimed experts!) that one of the engines was "off". OFF??? Cried the collective! Fell off, not on the plane anymore??? No, just feathered but still firmly attached, thanks.

Anyhow, the official report was that one of the cylinders was blown which is apparently a fairly common occurrence with those engines. The problem now was how to effect repairs as there was no suitable location in Brentwood Bay...so she sat there at a navy buoy a long ways away from shore until early January when she was towed to an industrial area in Cowichan Bay. The duff engine was swapped out with one of the known good ones from the Hawaii Mars, then the Philippine returned to Sproat Lake for further overhaul.

After a few test flights this past week, it's been announced that the next attempt to fly her down to Arizona will be tomorrow (Sunday Feb 9). Fans along the way should be watching for their opportunities to catch this epic aircraft's final journey.

The Philippine Mars was repainted in her original USN colours in preparation for an ill-fated purchase by a Florida museum. Here's great photo of her during one of last week's test flights. I wish I could take credit for the photo but it's not mine. A lot more photos and videos can be found in the Facebook group and Google searches.

 

Thanks for the update. I was following along last August. Hope the weather pans out for them. Nice old bird.

Philippine prepares again for final flight

 

Thanx Clay for the update, i will be listening for that ROAR today , i wonder when ?

 

4360's on that........oh how I'd love to hear those engines run.

 

Absolutely gorgeous scene with the water, trees, snow all make the aircraft look almost like a long lost mythical flying dragon caught unawares by a lucky shutter jockey.

 

She went straight to the west coast and is somewhere off Oregon now.

 

You can get a good sense of it through some of the posted videos (with the volume way up!) but of course there's no substitute for feeling their power pulse through the air in person.

 

How are those engines even maintained still? Does Pratt actually still produce any parts for it? 112 jugs on that thing!

 

It was a sound like no other machine made, loud and deep rumbling of all those cylinders. Its sound became known locally as a bad sound because it meant a fire was somewhere close, ive seen guys stop in there tracks and listen, instantly recognizing that drone and knowing it was The Mars. Also it never looked like it was going fast enough to stay in air.

 

Lots of spare parts. In the end they had to swap some of the engines between the Philippine and the Hawaii in order to get the Philippine airworthy for today's trip. I think the Constellation (only one airworthy?) uses the same engines.

 

No the Connie used Wright Cyclone turbo compound R3360's. Almost as impressive of an engine but, to me, nothing is cooler than the 4360's.

 

Pretty cool Documentry