I ran the Pipestone River, N.W. Ontario rapids, with the 1957 KPF in 1978. The next day the T/O area was frozen. The Indians used a birch bark canoe as an ice breaker while I heated up the oil pan of the Continental engine with the help of a rusted out tin can stove that was lying on the shore. I routed a stove pipe to the bottom of the engine right beside the carburator. (SMART, eh?) Well, what else could I do? I could do chin-ups on the propellor. It was a chilly -15 degrees C the night before.
When I was finished with scraping off the 5 mm hoar frost from the top side of the wings, I had to chip off the 100 pounds of ice with over size screw driver from the spreader bars. (The water from the leaky floats I did pump out the night before! I knew that much that one can't get another 100 lbs of water out of the floats after it freezes, right?)
The air was still thick and all 230 horses were a hell of a racket. That did the trick because I couldn't hang around too long! I must have punctured huge holes in the floats on the way down the rapids. And I had to back up over them one more time since the next rapids were even bigger than the one I so ably navigated the day before.

I wonder if anybody from Weagamow Lake Air Corporation knows where KPF is now?

Yikes.

This photo from airliners.net says it's in Ottawa. Dated 2002.

I believe that Mr. Christies 180 that used to be docked in the East end off the Ottawa river..... Haven`t seen it in awhile....

Twotterflogger, you know you can't kill a 57'!

You back in town?

Hey man,

How've you been? Still with the CF?
Yeah, I'm back for awhile, but I just got a new job based in Canada flying internationally.... That will hopefully allow me to come back during the Summer, and fly my 57' 180 on floats for the first time in two years..... Ah... the possibility to fly on floats again....

Yeah, I'm still here!

Glad the hear you're based at home now; maybe we can get together for a couple of burgers at .'s this year! Did James get your floats fixed or are you putting them on the way they are?

Give me a call anytime and we'll meet at .'s for some grub...
The floats have been refurbished and hopefully she wont sink while tied up at the dock this year.... what a story that was.....

Its a deal! PM me with your cell number. I noticed a real nice looking 57 180 on .'s site! I'm on slis right now and I don't know if the ice will hold for much longer. It would be nicer on floats anyway!