Flying boats are fixed-wing aircraft with hulls like boats, allowing them to land on water instsead of runways. Lakes, seas, reflecting pools, you name it.
In the early history of flight this kind of thing was popular because there were a lot of places without runways and airstrips, and a lot of those that did exist were too small to accomodate larger, long-distance airplanes. There were other advantages too - because their size wasn't limited by the length of runways, they could be built to an impressive size, and had longer range than land-based airplanes. I imagine it was also comforting to be able to land safely on the water in case of mechanical problems.
I think my favorite flying boat is the Dornier Do X (pictured in the thumbnail) which was made in the 1920's. In addition to seats for about a hundred passengers, its three decks contained an onboard kitchen, a dining room, multiple bathrooms, and a bar. Each nacelle on the top has two engines, for a total of twelve. There's just something magnificent about it.
In the 21st century flying boats are quite rare, although there are a few models used for fighting wildfires. The CL-415 Super Scooper for example, can skim the surface of a lake or reservoir for a few seconds and take in more than six thousand liters of water without stopping!
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bottom surgery recovery talk, kinda graphic
Had an orchi last fall, it's great but when i compare my recovery to all the girls in my friend group who got vaginoplasty i wouldn't say the recovery is as easy as everybody makes it out to be. You spend several weeks with a sack swollen to the size of a pomegrenade if you're lucky and a cantaloupe if you're not, it's pretty awful both as far as physical discomfort goes and because you spend the hardest part of your recovery with a junk that's the exact opposite of why you did the surgery. The dysphoria from looking at that was murdering me.Yes, you get to leave the hospital a few days earlier, you have notably less incisions, you do not have to spend the next two years dialating, but all of these things very quickly get better.
When you weigh your surgery options, base them on which results you want, not how hard it is to get there. You will be able to handle it either way and it will kinda suck either way, but if you go for what you actually want and need it will also absolutely be worth it either way.
Thanks. This is the exact sort of thing I need to hear.
It's fine if you don't want to answer
cw: genitals, surgery, sex, dysphoria, etc
Are you fully healed now? how long would you say it took? does the skin eventually tighten up a little or (i'm so sorry and wish there were a better way of putting this) is it still kind of loose and flappy? (sorry)I think that mine has shrunken over the years (i've had good t suppression for 7 years or so, so the testes are small and tend to sit in the bottom of the inguinal canal), so i wonder if it will shrink more when it's fully empty
Are you happy with the result? Do you regret not getting a zero depth or even full bottom surgery? Has it eased your dysphoria?
Purely from a functional perspective, I can pee just fine and I don't require a vagina to have sex. But not having to worry about cleaning out or what I'm eating would be nice, and maybe I'd appreciate it more when I'm older.
Idk though. It's not a huge source of dysphoria for me (I have a face and ribcage to fulfil that role) so maybe I should just leave it as-is.
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Scar tissue can shrink for up to 2 years, but i have no actual wounds anymore or anything like it.
About 3 months in total, but i likely took longer due to the wound getting infected after i left the hospital.
It can do that, but that usually takes time. I'm about 7 months post surgery and haven't noticed anything. I also don't have any notable scarring, and besides the fact that there are no more balls, the only visible difference is a slight fold where the outer incision was made, but that is only visible when i hold the scrotum up a little. The scar itself isn't really visible.
It is possible to tighten the remaining skin surgically right away, but that can lead to complications like painfully stretched skin during erections or less material for an eventual future vaginoplasty, so i decided against that.
Yes, it feels wonderful. I would not have thought the absence of something can feel so relaxing and affirming.
Honestly, i sometimes regret not having gone for a full vaginoplasty or salmacian. I like having a dick, i'm kinda top leaning, but i still get phantom vagina from time to time and i regularly think to myself "i could be fully healed from my second round of vaginoplasty by now" (i originally had an earlier bottom surgery date, delayed that bc i was unsure and decided to have an orchi instead, so i would be more than a year after my original surgery date now). But it would have been fairly difficult in the situation i'm in rn, i live fairly far from almost my entire support network and have unmedicated ADHD. I could have pulled a bigger type of surgery off if i would have moved to where anybody else lives and if i was in a different spot as far as managing my ADHD goes, but as it is it would have been overwhelming to do more than this and may have led to me suffering another burnout. Or maybe not, but it would have been tough.
Massively, my balls were my biggest bottom dysphoria trigger. Anything else is so-so, some days there is dysphoria, some days i'm ok with things as they are and i have a lot of moments where my girldick actually makes me feel euphoric. I more or less expected it to go like this, too.
I can easily tuck now, that was impossible before bc i always felt pain after just a few minutes. Now i can tuck all day without issues. My testo levels are basically the same as before with EEn monotherapy.
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Your comment earlier about having a sac the size of a cantaloupe was really funny. Idk why why I didn't process it the first time but yeah I'm having a little giggle.Thank you so much for this and I'm glad you're mostly very happy with your result. Hope your ADHD is more under control now, too.
It's making me feel like, for me, it would be a half-measure. It's less that I hate my current genitals and more that I wouldn't mind if they were gone and I'd really like if they were replaced. I'm a bit same though re support network. People aren't a million miles away but it's a long way to travel frequently and I don't have much space here. And i'd never get rent this "low" again if i moved... unless???
Oh i've seen pics of this before. Cool af honestly. You could still get that right, if you wanted?
Did you do the whole recovery on your own?
I mostly did that on my own, yeah. I mean, i was obviously in contact with my friends daily via VC n stuff, but i had little physical contact to the rest of the world for the first month or so. My mom came over a few times, a close friend visited me about weekly and she helped me a lot during that time, but i was really isolated before i had healed up enough that i could travel again.
more details, pain meds
Important note: If somebody tells you that you can easily do an orchi as an outpatient procedure, they are not completely wrong but it's just cruel. Also you will regret not getting a good donut cushion bc you think that's just for more invasive forms of bottom surgery. The two cuts they make to sever the balls can still hurt like hell and that can last a long time. Doesn't have to, i almost never even felt the cut on the right side, but the nerve that used to be hooked up to my left ball really hated me for a while. Took me two months before i could drive without painkillers again (metamizol, i actually didn't need opioid medication past the first day after surgery).Thanks. Super helpful again. I hadn't even considered long-term nerve pain actually. Has that gone away fully now?
Yeah, that has fully gone away by now.
Oh good! Thanks again and sorry for being annoying
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Fuck my chud life