Republic RC-3 Seabee - Spirit Of Adventure! Review, History and Specs! 

Great video that brings back memories from 1954. I was 7 years old. We were visiting my grandpa in the little town of Strängnäs, Sweden. Grandpa Ragnar Ragnegård had a house right on the Västerviks harbour. One day a Sea-Bee landed there and for a fee dad and I boarded the plane in the backseat. We got going with water spraying on the windshield and all of a sudden we broke free from the water and away we went. The feeling of freedom has never left me. I actually saw the seagulls from above and the Lake Mälaren spread out below us. Like a dream. Later in my life i emigrated to Alberta Canada and with the memory of that first flight I got my pilot license and my own airplane. The rest is history.

A friend's wife's family had one. They did camping trips up the west coast as far up as Alaska.

I grew up between ages of 4 and 12, 1970-1978 in Grosse Ile, Michigan. There is an airport at the bottom of "The Island" as people call it, and not only is there a great pizza shop, but there is a ramp with a lot of odd airplanes there. I remember seeing Piper Aztecs with their strange nose in 1971, and hearing the strange sound of Garrett turboprops on a Merlin about the same time. And there was parked on the ramp, probably owned by some doctor/surgeon....A Republic Sea-Bee! I remember it from the strange shape when I was six years old; We went one night to the library in Trenton, across the river, and I looked it up in a book. Since the airport in Grosse Ile was a bit too far away for me to ride my bike down to, I never looked into it. But it put a "post it" note in my mind, I.E. to look it up again. Where I live now, at age 58, you cannot land a seaplane due to local ordinances, which is ridiculous, since the Middle River behind my house is open for water sports; A 26 foot boat or less can tow people up to 35 mph. I guarantee an ultralight on floats can get airborne at less than that speed! GREAT video!!!

We have a gent doing a complete restoration at our facility as we speak, and she’ll be flying soon! Another guy on our field just bought TWO, and I have no doubt we’ll see the fruits of that in the not so distant future. Unique/cool airplanes.

I rode in our family doctors Seabeee once, I remember we landed on the lake and the boats all raced us during takeoff. First takeoff was aborted because the gear had semi extended and was dragging in the water, but after retracting the gear again we- were able to get airborne and win the race. Great memory.

I have always really enjoyed these birds

I fish some flats along the shore of Kaneohe Bay, Hawai'i. There was one beautiful property on the water with a large yard along the shore with a ramp going into the bay, and a small hangar. In the hangar was a beautiful example of a Republic RC-3 Seabee. I thought to myself "what a beautiful location, and a perfect plane to occupy it. When ever I'd fish the area I'd look for the plane, and admire it. I didn't fish the area for several months, and on my return I could see the plane in the hangar all in pieces. I believe the property and plane were sold separately, and the plane taken apart for shipping back to the mainland US to it's new home. This was about 12 years ago. Sad to see her go, but I have no doubt she went to a good new home. She was a school-bus yellow in color. Never did see her in the air.

A SeaBee resided at _Ten Mile Point_ on _Skaneateles Lake_ in the 60s & 70s. It was one of the local mechanical "celebrities" along with a white-painted army DUKW that served as a water ambulance & fire boat, and a '62 Amphicar 770 owned by one of the town "characters." 😊💜

Growing up in the 70's-80's Farmer Johnson had one at his private airstrip. He would fly that thing almost everyday somewhere. It was an interesting sight for sure

I remember back in the 70's one of the local radio stations here in Melbourne used one of these around port phillip bay as a shark spotter .

I'm the only person left with capability to overhaul the Cabin heater. I do a Seabee heater once in a great while.

Well, of course the "best" airplane is the RV-8. Several years ago the guy across the taxiway from me had a Seabee (he's still there, I moved to a different hangar). He offered to take me flying one day. Didn't take long to make that decision. We went and dropped into Lake Stevens a couple of times. It was tremendous fun and different than anything I had flown before, but it was so slow. We had to circle Lake Stevens several times just to gain enough altitude to get across the trees and ridge to get home. I enjoyed it very much, but wouldn't really want one myself. As previously mentioned, with more power would make a better airplane.

Seeing the design, the Icon A5 comes to mind. Thank you for the video :)

As seen in "The Man with the Golden Gun".

I wish they still made them. I always like them .

One of my "dream about planes". I'll never be able to own one, let alone do any of the great mods available, but I still dream...

Love the Seebee!

I would love to have something like this .i live on georgia straight in british columbia canada ,it would be damm close to perfect for this area

In the late /70's there was a whole gaggle of them home based at a dirt strip just off I95 west of New London, CT. They even had a twin engine one in the flock there. I was playing navy at the time and never could hook up with an owner for a hop. The potential for getting to good fishing holes and such sure stuck in my head though.

Bravo.Thenks.go Ahead

You talked about this aircraft like people were happy with the engine. They were not. It climbed just slightly better than a rock. Most surviving examples have a much better powerplant in them. Also, you neglected to mention the twinbee, and one of its most famous owners...

This plane was going to put Victoria, BC and Vancouver Island on the map for the new industry: aviation small planes. Government money came in, but it never got off the ground! Lots of articles in flying magazines in the 1970's.

If anybody is interested there is an RC3 apparently abandoned at Larnaca Airport Cyprus.

Wonderful . . . ! Guarapiranga SP BR 1973/1974 I flew with some German children at the dam who had some of these for rent, we took water from inside with a can of milk and flew around. . . Unmissable adventure experience!

Growing up in northern IN ca. 1958-ish the local AP who ran a grass strip near our place had a SeaBee. My uncle and his neighbor (who rep'd Zebco) would hire Ed (Schenk) and his plane for wk end Canadian fishing trips.

The airplane in your U Tube Thumbnail is NOT A SEABEE. Its a similar looking but very different airplane, a Spencer Aircar ! - Its build totally out of wood as a homebuild, build from plans. They are very rare. Of course I am glad to see that you are mentioning the Aircar in your video etc, all good. In general one should point out that one can buy a mint-condition Seabee right now and spend way less than he would have to pay for a ICON A5 and have a perfectly viable 4 seater instead of a 1 and a half seater for midgets only. Plus, with spending less money than for the Icon A5, you would have enough money left to fly the Seabee for 2500 hours. Besides, I would guess that Icon A5 likely takes your down payment and you'll never get a plane??? - BTW thanks for crediting the use of my video in your product. Best Regards from Alaska

There is one at a airfield near me. Or there used to be if its not anymore used to be a An 2 as well.

Nice, I love seapanes, they're the coolest

Grumman produced a similar plane.saw it a lot around Vancouver bc canada in the 60s and 70s

My Pop had one a long time ago when i was very young. I believe him and his buddies would take it up to Kenora Manitoba fishing. Correction, Kenora is in Ontario, far north edge of Lake Of The Woods. I was thinking it was on the north end of Lake Winnipeg, but it's not. Dumby me!

Aren't the plans available to build these as a kit? I think they'd be pretty popular!

there used to be a Twin Bee in Switzerland.

yeah thanks for reminding me in the end there that i can never afford this kind of hobby

Looks very much like the Nardi FN-333 Riviera

Only Balu's plane (Sea Duck) was cooler from TaleSpin.😄Shame this bird never made anymore.🙄There is a Russian one, the Beriev Be-103. But I think the "current situation" is not something to be in favor for this type any soon.🤔

The original bird was very underpowered, and flew like a truck. With a bigger engine it wasn’t bad.

And your thumbnail is a spencer aircar, the wood version, 👎🏻

That was a terrible airplane and a worse boat. The twin Bee was a death trap. Non feathering propellers etc...