Billabong breaks its maiden voyage

S.J. Cahn

It just might be the nightmare flight path for Newport Beach

residents who complain about noise from John Wayne Airport.

And probably it’s the nightmare plane, too: loud, with two radial

piston engines, a 96-foot wingspan and about 23,000 pounds.

But for surfers anxious to find inaccessible waves, this plane is

a godsend. And the flight on Monday -- from John Wayne, low over the

Back Bay and Newport Beach Country Club, out past Crystal Cove, over

and around the mouth of the harbor three times and then down into the

water off Big Corona -- was a heavenly taste of things to come.

The Billabong Clipper, an old U.S. Air Force “Albatross” water

plane, survived its maiden flight through Newport’s sky at about 2

p.m. Its next flight, which could come as early as this week, will be

the first in a wave of explorations as part of the Billabong Odyssey,

the surf company’s ongoing worldwide expedition to find big, as in

50-foot-plus, waves.

At the center of that quest is Newport Beach resident Bill Sharp,

who organizes the trips and managed Monday’s flight and the plane’s

public mooring in China Cove that continues today.

Pre-flight, on the ground at John Wayne Airport, the Clipper

looked like a fat, freshly painted boar. It had minutes earlier flown

in from Kingman, Ariz., where it had been emblazoned with Billabong’s

logo and colors. Its girth and height were inflated by the dozen

sleek corporate jets nearby.

Equipped to carry 1,680 gallons of gas, the plane can fly for

about 17 hours at 155 knots -- nearly 180 miles -- per hour, said

Mike Castillo, one of the plane’s two pilots.

“It is, indeed, Hawaii capable,” Castillo added. “And after

Hawaii, everything’s in range.”

Once properly outfitted, it will have bunks and storage for

surfboards and will carry beneath its wings the personal watercraft

the surfers use to tow into otherwise impossibly big waves. It can

land and take off in open ocean, provided the seas aren’t too rough,

and operate as a boat, capable of propelling itself through the

water.

This being the plane’s maiden flight -- as maiden as a 1951 plane

can be -- there was a mix of nervousness and stoked enthusiasm among

the half-dozen surfers aboard.

“Is it cool to talk on the phone?” Hawaiian big-wave surfer Shane

Dorian asked Laguna Beach’s Donavon Frankenreiter as the plane taxied

toward takeoff.

“I’m saying goodbye to my dad,” Frankenreiter replied.

His fear was obviously feigned. As the plane circled off Corona

del Mar and banked just above Newport’s big-wave claim to fame, The

Wedge, Frankenreiter led the screaming surfers who hung partway out

the plane’s rear door, their yells escalating as the plane tipped

deeper into turns that pressed the G-forces into their chests.

“This is incredible,” Frankenreiter said over the roar of the

engines and the shake of the plane. “This year coming up is going to

be ... we’re going to be in spots we’ve never seen.

“Oh my god, it’s going to be nuts!”

After its three circles off the coast, the plane splashed down,

water shooting past windows as on an exaggerated water ride. It then

was towed into the harbor.

Once bobbing on the water, reality quickly intruded back into the

scene.

“Hey, Scott Peterson got the death penalty,” Santa Cruz surfer

Adam Replogle announced, cellphone still at his ear.