eaplane pilots looking at the The airplane was developed by the the Su–27 Flanker, an impres- Beriev Be–103 light amphib- Beriev Design Bureau in western Rus- sive twin-jet fighter. ian for the first time express sia, a company that has been designing Enter Kent Linn, owner of the pub- skepticism about its unusual for more than 70 years and lic use Sky Manor Airport in Pitts- low- to mid-wing configura- seems to have unrivaled expertise. town, New Jersey. Seventy-one years Stion and are curious to know how (Beriev recently introduced the Be–200, young, Linn learned to fly in Alaska such an airplane performs on water. a 90,000-pound twin-jet amphibian where he became enamored with sea- After all, other seaplanes have wings used as a water-drop firefighter.) planes. Now a retired flight-test engi- intended to be kept well clear of the The airplane is manufactured by neer for Douglas Aircraft at Edwards water. These pilots usually are sur- KnAAPO (you don’t want to know Air Force Base, he read about the his- prised to learn that the Be–103 per- what Russian words these letters rep- tory of the Beriev Design Bureau and forms and handles extraordinarily resent) in Komsomolsk-on-Amur in the Be–103 in the 2000 Water Flying well on water. eastern Russia. KnAAPO also builds annual. The airplane so intrigued him Beriev Be–103 FromRussiawith

AOPA PILOT • 98 • OCTOBER 2004 that he ultimately became its North to the water. Because of this, the The wing is swept 22 degrees and American distributor. He accepted de- Be–103 does not need flaps and can from certain viewing angles gives the livery of three aircraft when they were skim the water on its trailing edges. illusion of being a delta or bat wing. disgorged from a mammoth Antonov The aircraft has slightly inverted The 210-horsepower Continental An–124 during EAA AirVenture 2003. gull wings so that the inboard sec- IO-360-ES4 engines are mounted high Linn explains that the Beriev’s wing tions prevent the airplane from to prevent the German MT-Propeller displaces water to help keep the am- rolling when on water. Gone is the MTV-12 three-blade composite, re- phibian afloat and contributes to su- weight and drag caused by wingtip versible-pitch propellers from being perior seaworthiness. floats common to other flying boats. damaged by water spray. Checking oil The low-set wing also takes maxi- Gone also is the undesirable yaw requires climbing on the wing, unfas- mum advantage of ground effect dur- that can occur when a float digs into tening and lifting the upper half of a ing takeoff and landing. No other air- the water during a wing-low water nacelle with one hand, and pouring plane operates with its wings so close landing. oil with the other. (There are no oil-

Now landing in water country, U.S.A. BY BARRY SCHIFF love PHOTOGRAPHY BY MIKE FIZER

AOPA PILOT • 99 • OCTOBER 2004 access doors; in Russia, airplanes are The Be–103 is the first Russian de- phistication rarely seen in light twins. serviced only by ground personnel; the sign to be FAA certified in the Normal This includes a 30-parameter, five- pilot just flies.) The fuel system consists category and marketed in the United hour flight-data recorder, an angle-of- of four tanks, two in the wings and two States. The Russians, however, do not attack system, engine fire-detection header tanks in the engine pylons for a seem to have a firm grasp of general systems, a second attitude indictor (in total capacity of 90 gallons. Refueling aviation operations, probably because addition to a turn-and-bank indica- requires filling the wing tanks, turning there is so little of it in their homeland. tor), a second altimeter, a radome, an on transfer pumps to fill the pylons, Instead, they build small airplanes ice detector, and so forth. and then refilling the wing tanks as as if intended for the airlines or mili- This partially explains the heavy necessary. During flight, the header tary, which explains some of the empty weight. The aircraft I flew, N29KL, tanks are automatically kept full as Be–103’s oddities. has an empty weight of 3,810 pounds. long as there is fuel in the wings. The original three aircraft were de- Linn is hoping to have KnAAPO remove The airframe is primarily lithium- livered, for example, with only one some of the unnecessary equipment to aluminum, an alloy reportedly lighter, control stick. The Russians consider increase useful load, which in the test

stronger, and more corrosion-resistant the right front seat to be for a passen- Russian designers aircraft is 1,201 than conventional aluminum. Stress ger, and passengers in Russia are not favor control sticks pounds. areas utilize titanium, while the wing allowed access to the controls. (Second (even in twins) to Linn also would tips and nacelles are fiberglass. sets of controls have since been in- provide pilots with prefer the air- an unobstructed The airplane appears overbuilt, stalled in all three aircraft.) planes to be de- view of the reminiscent of Grumman-built sea- The Russians favor a stick over a instrument panel. livered green so planes. Jerry Inella, a United Airlines’ wheel perhaps because a stick does not Dual attitude that a sexier paint captain who checked me out in the interfere with a pilot’s view of the instru- indicators and scheme can be Beriev, says, “A really takes a ment panel. I prefer a stick to a wheel altimeters offer applied stateside. pounding on the water. I want it built and found the flight controls nicely bal- added safety and A ladder stow- like a battleship, and this airplane fits anced and harmonized. The ailerons redundancy. ed in the wing root the bill perfectly.” and stabilator are operated with is used to climb The workmanship is not always pushrods; the rudder is cable controlled. into the cabin pretty, but it appears durable. There is The stick contains the pitch-trim through the left gull-wing door. An iden- nothing flimsy or fragile about a and push-to-talk switches. The rudder tical starboard door is for emergency Be–103. trim tab also is operated through an egress. The cabin is capacious and com- Circuit breakers are accessible only electric actuator. fortable for all six occupants. The rudder when on the ground through an exteri- Solo flight requires that ballast be pedals adjust fore and aft to accommo- or hatch on the right side of the bow. placed near the right front seat to keep date the tall and the short. This is the They are inaccessible during flight be- the center of gravity within limits. only light airplane I can recall having cause Beriev does not want popped Because of the builder’s airline and flown in which I could not reach the breakers to be reset in the air. military mentality, the airplane has so- pedals with my seat fully aft.

AOPA PILOT • 100 • OCTOBER 2004 AOPA PILOT • 101 • OCTOBER 2004 The airplane is functionally beautiful more likely to respond by saying, but not aesthetically so. All placards and “Hello?” than lowering the nose. instrument labeling are in English, but The large, tall vertical stabilizer and the lettering is distinctively Russian. closely coupled engines make handling There is a life jacket under each seat, an engine failure relatively easy. Little and sea equipment (such as titanium rudder pressure is required to keep the anchor, grapple hook, and waterproof aircraft on an even keel. gloves) is stowed in sidewall compart- If an engine-driven fuel pump fails, ments next to each pilot seat. an electric boost pump automatically The brakes and landing gear have takes over and delivers the correct their own hydraulic systems. One must amount of fuel pressure as dictated by not forget to turn on the electric brake throttle position. pump before taxiing. This is a mistake If the pilot should respond to an en- you make only once. Differential braking gine failure by pulling the incorrect mix- steers the castoring nosewheel. ture control to idle cutoff (before identi- During flight the Be–103 tends to fying and confirming the dead engine by hunt slightly in turbulence, not unusu- retarding its throttle), the boost pump al for a because of the will automatically activate and keep the destabilizing effect of a long bow. good engine running. It is difficult to shut With the wing behind the pilot, down the operating engine by mistake. cockpit visibility is excellent. Water landings are easy, but landing The wing-in-water concept pre- in a significant crosswind with such a cludes the possibility of flaps. An 11- low wing could be problematical. The foot-long fixed slat on the outboard good news is that seaplane pilots al- leading edge of each wing enhances most always have the option of landing slow flight (and costs only one knot of directly into the wind. cruise speed). The resultant high-lift Attitude remains stable and flat in wing has benign stall characteristics, step turns from downwind to upwind, but the stall-warning indicator sounds a time when conventional seaplanes like a ringing telephone. You might be tend to tip outboard.

AOPA PILOT • 102 • OCTOBER 2004 The wings-in-water The propellers are moved into re- design (above) increases verse pitch by pulling the throttles aft lateral stability on the of idle. There is no independent water water and maximizes rudder, but the air rudder partially ex- the benefits of ground tends into the water and has the effect effect during takeoff and of a water rudder. landing. An 11-foot-long fixed slat (left) on each Docking is not quite as easy with a wing reduces stall speed Be–103 as with high-wing airplanes. In- and compensates for the stead of pulling alongside a dock, you absence of wing flaps. must maneuver the airplane to a corner of a dock so that one edge is alongside the forward fuselage and the other is near the wing. It is not ideal, but it works. Water takeoffs are initiated with the stick held fully forward or aft. Elevator input matters not. The wing in the water forces the airplane to assume the proper attitude and rise onto the step unassist- ed. With the wing roots riding the water, the airplane has remarkable roll stability. On the step, the forward portions of the wings are out of but extremely close to the water, which maximizes the influ- ence of ground effect and minimizes in- duced drag. Nose-down elevator is need- ed to optimize acceleration on the step. One measure of how well a seaplane is built is the amount of water drained from the hull’s watertight compart- ments after extensive water operations.

AOPA PILOT • 103 • OCTOBER 2004 After my water work at New York State’s the most complete and elaborate Greenwood Lake, I found surprisingly handbooks I have ever encountered for little water in any compartment. a light airplane. The trailing-link main landing gear On the negative side are a host of il- makes every pilot seem like a pro when logical limitations that clearly need to touching down on land. The gear legs be removed for general aviation opera- retract forward into watertight wells. tions. For example, it is unreasonable The nice thing about an amphibian to ban water takeoffs and landings at is that malfunctioning landing gear is night, limit operating altitude to 10,000 not as serious as when flying land- feet msl, restrict land operations to a planes. If the gear cannot be made to minimum runway length of 3,900 feet, extend, just land on water. limit takeoffs and landings to eleva- The pilot’s operating handbook re- tions below 3,000 feet, and so on. flects the builder’s airline and military The Russians also include the weight mentality. On the plus side, it is one of of a 176-pound pilot in the empty

SPECSHEET Beriev Be-103 Price as tested: $795,000 (including avionics)

Specifications Powerplants ...... Continental IO-360-ES4 210 hp Recommended TBO ...... 2,000 hr Propellers ...... MT-Propeller GmbH, constant-speed full-feathering, reversible- pitch, 72-in dia Length...... 34 ft 11 in Height ...... 12 ft 4 in Wingspan ...... 41 ft 9 in Wing area ...... 270.2 sq ft Wing loading ...... 18.5 lb/sq ft Power loading ...... 11.9 lb/hp Seats...... 6 Cabin length ...... 12 ft 0 in Cabin width ...... 4 ft 1 in Cabin height ...... 4 ft 0 in Empty weight (of test aircraft) ...... 3,810 lb Max ramp weight ...... 5,033 lb Max takeoff weight...... 5,011 lb Max zero-fuel weight ...... 4,888 lb Max useful load...... 1,201 lb Max payload w/full fuel ...... 661 lb Max landing weight...... 5,011 lb Fuel capacity, std...... 90 gal Oil capacity ...... 8 qt/eng Baggage capacity (volume)...... 28.3 cu ft

Performance Takeoff distance, ground roll ...... 1,275 ft Takeoff distance over 50-ft obstacle..1,921 ft Accelerate-stop distance (to/from 50-ft height) ...... 4,826 ft Takeoff distance, water ...... 1,804 ft Max demonstrated crosswind component ...... 12 kt Rate of climb, sea level ...... 984 fpm Single-engine ROC, sea level ...... 73 fpm Max level speed, sea level (VMAX)..130 KIAS

AOPA PILOT • 104 • OCTOBER 2004 weight, further reflecting their airline i Visit the 300 hp per side on mentality. (Empty weights shown here author’s Web future models. do not include the pilot.) site (www. KnAAPO says it The Be–103 truly is a lot of airplane barryschiff.com). is dedicated to the for the money. Where else can you buy Be–103 for the long a new multiengine amphibian (with a haul, but it has yet to establish a support suite of Bendix/King avionics includ- network or satisfy concerns about the ing a KLN 89B GPS) for only $795,000? ready availability of Russian parts. Be–103s imported in the future, how- One nice thing about KnAAPO’s atti- ever, are likely to cost more. tude toward general aviation is that in It also is a lot of airplane (5,011 Russia, ground crews are sent in ad- pounds) to be pulled by only a pair of vance to a pilot’s destination. Upon his 210-hp engines. The twin could use arrival, they tie down the aircraft, ser- more muscle, and Linn is encouraging vice it, and clean the windshields. I the factory to increase power to 250 or could handle that.

Cruise speed/range w/30-min rsv, (fuel consumption, both engines), 5,000 ft @ 75% power, best power mixture ...... 127 kt/457 nm (19.5 gph) Service ceiling...... 16,405 ft Single-engine service ceiling ...... 3,000 ft Landing distance over 50-ft obstacle ...... 2,364 ft Landing distance, ground roll ...... 787 ft Landing distance, water...... 1,050 ft

Limiting and Recommended Airspeeds VR (rotation) ...... 70 KIAS VX (best angle of climb) ...... 81 KIAS VY (best rate of climb) ...... 84 KIAS VXSE (best single-engine angle of climb) ...... 78 KIAS VYSE (best single-engine rate of climb) ...... 81 KIAS VMC (min control w/one engine inoperative) ...... 62 KIAS VNO (max structural cruising) ...... 130 KIAS VNE (never exceed) ...... 130 KIAS VA (design maneuvering) ...... 116 KIAS VLE (max gear extended) ...... 99 KIAS VLO (max gear operating) ...... 99 KIAS VS1 (stall, clean) ...... 60 KIAS VS0 (stall, in landing configuration) ...... 60 KIAS

For more information, contact Kent Linn, Sky Manor Aircraft Sales, Sky Manor Airport, Pittstown, New Jersey 08867; telephone 908/996-4200; fax 908/996- 3410; or visit the Web site (www. beriev-usa.com).

All specifications are based on manufactur- er’s calculations. All performance figures are based on standard day, standard atmosphere, sea level, gross weight conditions unless otherwise noted.

AOPA PILOT • 105 • OCTOBER 2004