Sault pilot Terry Mortimore is looking forward to flying his new Osprey 2 on the lakes and rivers of northern Ontario.
With a 26-foot wingspan, the Osprey 2 is a home-built amphibious sport aircraft.
Its landing gear retracts, allowing it to land and take off from water.
“I've had my eye on this type of airplane for 40 years. When I first saw the design I bought a set of plans for it and I was bound and determined I was going to build it but it just never happened until about four years ago,” Mortimore told SooToday.
In 2021, Mortimore saw an ad for an Osprey 2 frame for sale in Oka, Quebec.
“It looked impressive,” he said.
Mortimore and fellow pilot Bryan McDougall of Thessalon travelled to Quebec to purchase the frame.
The two men co-own the Osprey 2.
“I went there and looked at it and it was every bit as good as what it looked like in the photos of it that I saw.
"A man in Montreal built the frame but he didn't finish the plane. He passed away and a gentleman in Oka just put it in his garage and thought he was going to finish the plane but it just never happened,” Mortimore said.
Mortimore and McDougall bought the Osprey 2 frame in Quebec and transported it back to Sault Ste. Marie on a small boat trailer.
He completed construction of the aircraft in the garage of his home before recently transporting it to a hangar at the Sault Ste. Marie Airport.
“It needed the engine, the instrument panel and the wiring, and it needed to be painted. I assembled an engine for it and got it mounted.
"The airplane is built just from a set of plans. You buy materials and you start building. There's no kits or anything like that for it,” Mortimore said.
He’s waiting for a final inspection to be done on the plane and anticipates getting it up in the air and landing on water in the near future.
“We'll take it down into Mark's Bay and start playing with it on the water. My grandson's an avid fisherman, so I hope to take him up to the lakes up north that are known for fishing. And then Bryan has a house on Big Basswood Lake at Thessalon, so I'm sure it's going to spend a lot of time there as well,” Mortimore said.
The Osprey 2 has a range of 500 miles for a return trip.
“There's at least a dozen of them flying around in Ontario. It's a pretty good machine,” he said.
Now in his 60s, Mortimore earned his pilot’s license at 16.
He has owned two previous planes.
Mortimore purchased a kit airplane - an RV-6A - built by Van's Aircraft of Oregon in 1994.
While working as an Algoma Steel employee, he slowly but steadily built the plane in phases in his garage over the years and began flying it on a regular basis in 2017.
Now retired from the steel plant but keeping busy as a crane operator for Sterling Crane, Mortimore has loved flying his RV-6A and has done a great deal of travelling, flying over the American Southwest and doing some sightseeing with his wife Betty last year.
He said he’ll keep flying the RV-6A as well as the Osprey 2.
“My dad flew planes. He had his license and so I was exposed to flying through that. He did a lot of flying across North America so it was just natural that I would fly as well,” Mortimore said.
“I like flying because you get a different perspective from 7,000 feet. You get to see the land and you get to travel to different places.
"I would never have been able to make that trip and see the sites in Texas and Arizona that I’ve seen any other way. I thoroughly enjoyed that and the Osprey 2 flying boat will be another experience to have.”