By Derek Royal
Seaplane pilot Steve Krug reckons he has one of the best jobs in the world, working his beloved De Havilland Beaver amphibian around Sydney’s beautiful waterways. Derek Royal took a ride to see what all the fuss was about.
Bankstown Airport
It’s a beautiful Sydney morning: clear blues skies and a fresh outside air temperature of 20 degrees Celsius. SeaWing Airways’ chief pilot Steve Krug has completed his flightplan and pre-flight checks and we’re ready to rumble. Steve has what he describes as a ‘leisurely day’ – a scenic charter from Rose Bay to Palm Beach with an orbit of the city, Harbour Bridge and Opera House; followed by another charter from Rose Bay to Cottage Point, on the picturesque Hawkesbury River.
Bankstown tower clears Steve to take off and after manoeuvring the Beaver onto the piano keys, he sends the aircraft hurtling down Runway 29. Once airborne he turns right and climbs to 1000 feet, heading towards the Ryde Bridge.
As a local I may be biased but I’m always mesmerised by the beauty of Sydney from the air. There isn’t another city in the world that even comes close to the majesty of Australia’s largest city. The sparkling blue waterways, jade green parklands, even the terracotta red roof tiles, all give the metropolis a character of its own. But it’s the magnificent harbour with the bridge, opera house and city skyline that captures the heart.
We reach Ryde Bridge and Steve begins his descent towards the Parramatta River. He establishes the Beaver at 500 feet and announces we’ll be following the river at low level all the way to Rose Bay.
“We’re currently in a laneway known as Romeo 405, which is an area accessible only to seaplanes and helicopters,” Steve says. Before long the Sydney Harbour Bridge looms large on our left – seemingly within touching distance – and the Opera House sparkles to our right. The Sydney CBD, Centrepoint Tower and all, stands as a forboding backdrop to the city’s two most distinguished landmarks.
As we get closer to Rose Bay, the Garden Island Naval facility passes to our right before Steve skilfully manoeuvres the aircraft towards a suitable landing area. All I can see are boats, boats and more boats. So how on earth do you know where to land?
“That’s the art and craft of being a seaplane pilot,” says Steve, who boasts almost 30,000 water landings in a 35 year flying career. “Everything in the landing is done with due regard to the wind. You know which way the wind is blowing initially through weather forecasts and so forth but you don’t really know what the conditions are like until you actually arrive at your destination.”
Steve adds that for a seaplane pilot the number of water landings logged is a good gauge of experience and skill levels. Performing more than 25,000 of his seaplane landings in the Beaver, it’s obvious Steve is both skilled and experienced.
Rose Bay
The weather forecast predicted wind at 190 degrees between 10 and 20 knots on the bay’s surface. Steve selects a landing point and with a splash, makes a smooth touchdown in Rose Bay. Flying time from Bankstown Airport is exactly 14 minutes.
“The main difference between seaplane and standard land operations is that the seaplane has to be manoeuvred around various types of seacraft such as ferries, yachts and boats,” Steve says. “Boat wakes are an important consideration in Rose Bay but the main skill a pilot needs is situational awareness, which must be maintained at all times because we operate in a forever changing environment. Thats what sets us apart from normal land operations, there are more variables to consider (on the water).”
Steve alights from the left-hand seat and ties the Beaver to a swing mooring. Within 10 minutes his first passengers arrive via a special vessel driven by Toby, whose job is to deliver clients between land and the aircraft. The passengers are a father-son duo - dad is visiting from Nicaragua and junior has decided to treat him to the best of Sydney before he returns to Central America.
With the passengers and yours truly fitted with life jackets, Steve delivers a safety brief before taxiing for a position in the bay for takeoff. “The taxi can often be a long one,” Steve says. “The pilot needs to assess the strength of the wind and the expected performance of the aircraft with due regard to things like air pressure, wind, humidity and other factors. I need to calculate the appropriate distance required for the take-off and I also need to be mindful of changing traffic on the water and changing wind conditions and boat wakes.”
Seven minutes later we’re positioned for a southerly departure. Steve pushes the throttles forward and after reaching 55 knots he eases Sierra Whiskey Bravo into the clear blue sky.
This half-hour scenic takes us from Rose Bay to Palm Beach, location of Channel Seven’s popular television show, ‘Home and Away’, before diverting to the city where Steve will orbit the Harbour Bridge and Opera House. We depart north through the Sydney Heads and climb to an initial altitude of 1000 feet, then cruise between 1500 and 2000.
Steve says the conditions are generally smooth at this time of year because most of the winds tend to be onshore. “It’s fine now but between July and September we get stronger westerlies and north westerlies,” he says. “Today, the conditions are perfect, and the onshore winds makes flying up the coast a very smooth and pleasant experience.”
Steve’s passengers are enjoying the scenic, with many photos being snapped and much agreeable nodding as we cruise past the northern beaches. Manly, Long Reef and Narrabeen all pass by and after overflying Palm Beach, Steve heads back and makes a radio request to enter controlled airspace. It’s time to complete that orbit of the city for his eager passengers.
Steve’s initial request is denied due to heavy traffic but within minutes he receives the go-ahead. I ask him if he has ever had to deny clients the opportunity to see Sydney’s most famous landmarks at close range.
“Never,” he says. “The joy of our operation is if we can’t get an airways clearance we’ll just proceed into Romeo 405 somewhere between 500 feet and 1000 feet to conduct our orbit operations. So we don’t suffer if Sydney ATC (Air Traffic Control) can’t accommodate us. We only get an airways clearance if we want to be above 1000 feet.”
On arrival back at Rose Bay, Steve farewells his happy customers and with more than an hour to kill before the next mission, we make ourselves comfortable in the spacious confines of the Beaver and sit back for a chin-wag.
Steve’s aviation career began when, fresh out of high school, he worked as an aircraft detailer and refueller for a Piper aircraft agent at Sydney’s Bankstown Airport. He started studying for his PPL in 1975 and by 1980 earned his commercial licence. “I was able to increase my hours by working as an aircraft salesman for the Piper dealership,” he says. “That gave me a lot of experience in the aviation game.”
He then purchased a Piper Warrior “in the days when you could buy a beautiful aeroplane of only a few years old, for $20,000 dollars”. “I used that plane to gain experience and flight hours and achieved my first seaplane job by puchasing a Lake Buccaneer endorsement with Air Whitsunday in the Whitsunday islands,” he says. “I stayed with them for about five years and gained endorsements on the fleet,” before thinking that starting a seaplane business in Darwin might just be the way to go.
Darwin
After purchasing Sierra Whiskey Bravo from a New Zealand owner, Steve meticulously prepared the De Havilland Beaver for water flying and with partner Jenny Belfield, established SeaWing Airways in Darwin in 1996.
“Darwin was an interesting five and a half years,” Steve says. “The core of our work was short, scenic flights from Darwin Harbour and around its environs and through the riverways and coastline. We did that route many times a day.”
Then there was ad hoc charter with several organisations, including the Bureau of Meteorology, Northern Territory Police, Telstra and various government agencies.
“We’d fly Bureau of Meteorology technicians to McClure Island, a remote location some 260km north-east of Darwin,” Steve explains. “The technicians would service the island’s distant automatic weather stations and we’d fly back without refuelling.” This cut a tremendous amount of cost for the Bureau (of Meteorology) and time for the technicians. They’d previously used boats and helicopters but the Beaver streamlined the whole operation.
“We also did charter for the NT Police, quite often for forensic investigations and so forth, which required landing at remote locations. So there was plenty of variety in the Top End. Transport in Darwin is everything because it’s so remote. The Beaver’s STOL capabilities and abiity to fly from Darwin Airport or Darwin Harbour into any patch of suitable water was useful.”
What about crocodiles?
“Crocodiles were part and parcel of working in Darwin: they’re frequently sighted in Darwin Harbour. On occasion we’d have crocodiles swimming alongside the aircraft at taxi speed ... something tourists found a little ‘interesting’. And at some of the remote locations where people had to get to shore, they needed to be very careful they didn’t end up being crocodile food. Our Darwin operation was interesting, it was varied and unique.”
But the onset of yet another wet season, coupled with the collapse of Ansett and the September 11th terrorist attacks in the United States, prompted Steve to move back to Sydney.
Back in Sydney
“We relocated the business on a trial basis,” Steve says. “Sydney was my hometown; it was a big market and a place I wanted to return to. We ferried the aircraft to Sydney and commenced operations in accordance with the requirements of our charter licence. The move was no big deal.”
As Steve speaks of crocodiles, he receives a phone call. It’s Toby calling to say that the couple who are flying to Cottage Point have arrived. “Yeah, bring them over mate,” Steve says, before doing some last minute tidying up in the cabin. The couple, in their thirties, board the aircraft and settle in as Steve delivers a safety brief. The male looks confident but his spouse appears a little uneasy. Steve does his best to make her feel comfortable and after a while we’re taxiing into the bay for a southern departure.
“The Beaver is a beautiful aircraft to fly,” Steve says. “It’s a STOL aircraft and very light on the ailerons. The elevators are beautifully balanced and the effort needed to get the aeroplane on and off the water and through the various phases of flight is minimal. Flying the Beaver doesn’t involve enormous physical effort. It’s also an aircraft that was designed to be utilised and worked, not a fancy piece of equipment. But it’s a machine that pilots and customers love because it’s stable and provides a very pleasant flying experience.”
Steve manoeuvres his trusty Beaver into a suitable takeoff point facing south and eases the throttle forward. The aircraft speeds along the water and shortly after becoming airborne, Steve makes a low level right-hand turn around 150 feet above the bay.
Cottage Point
The sun’s getting lower in the west and after a quarter hour’s flying, Steve has made an inbound radio call “two miles from Cottage Point”. The Hawkesbury is delightfully serene, the lush green bush bordering either side of the clear sparkling blue waterway. The Beaver breaks the silence as it touches down and a few minutes later the passengers disembark and we’re ready to head home to Bankstown. “They’re dining here and overnighting,” Steve says of his clients. “I’ll be back to collect them some time tomorrow.”
This part of the world is stunning and as we complete a long taxi for our departure to Bankstown Airport, I understand why Steve Krug says he has one of the best jobs in the world. As he eases the throttle forward for the last takeoff of the day, the scenery surrounding us is breathtaking. At 55 knots the Beaver levitates and we follow the curve of the Hawkesbury at low level. This is pure, unadulterated fun. Finally, we emerge from the river valley and climb towards Pennant Hills for our inbound journey to Bankstown.
“During summer I average around 17 flights a day, so it gets pretty hectic” Steve says. “I’ve had up to 22 flights in a day but I make the most of those days because during the winter months it slows down considerably.
“The joy of operating a very well regarded classic late 1940s-designed seaplane; maintaining its condition and operational reliability and the challenges of running my own business and making all of the ingredients of a small business come together are what make this job so special. The satisfaction gained from achieving all of that is tremendous in view of the fact that we fly over some very special scenery in some beautiful parts of the Sydney area.”
That’s why Steve Krug believes he has one of the best jobs in the world. And after spending a day with him, there’s no way I would argue otherwise.
