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Otter number
28 was delivered to the RCAF on 13th January 1954 with serial 3673. Its
first posting was to 103 Rescue Unit at Greenwood, Nova Scotia where it
adopted the unit's QZ code. With 103RU it served alongside Otter 3677 and
the unit's Cansos and Dakotas. 3673 was a veryactive machine and is
frequently mentioned in the unit's history, initially on transport flights,
medevacs, training details and parachute drops. On 19th August '54 it is
recorded as flying to the Grand Nanan area to search for a missing person,
escorted by Canso 9830. On 13th January '55 it acted as crew ferry to
Bagotville Air Base, Quebec with the crew of Piasecki H-21 helicopter 9614.
The following day, the Otter escorted the H-21 from Bagotville to Presque
Isle, Maine where they had to overnight due weather, continuing on the next
day via Moncton back to Greenwood. On 11th April 1955 3673 set off from
Greenwood via Montreal and North Bay to Winnipeg, where it went on loan
until the end of the year to 111 Communications & Rescue Flight at Winnipeg,
to cover for Otter 3662 which was away on overhaul. 3673 remained at
Winnipeg until 8th December '55 when it set off to return to Greenwood,
where it arrived back on the 14th December after its lengthy cross-country
flight. On 28th January '56 it flew to Trenton for the installation of a VHF
radio, returning to Greenwood on 31st January '56. In May '57 it was engaged
on “SAR Lorenz”, the search for missing Aero Commander 520 EP-AEA in Quebec,
already referred to in relation to Otter 3665.
3673 continued operating with 103RU for several years. It went to DHC at
Downsview in April
1958 to have some work done, returning to Greenwood on 17th June '58 on
amphibious floats. On 25th November '58 it is recorded searching the Lake
Rossignol area for missing hunters, escorted by Canso 11087. On 28th April
1960 a minor “C” category mishap was recorded in the course of a navigation
training cross country detail out of Greenwood. The Otter was practising
water landings and beachings. During climbout after one such practice, a
vibration in the aft fuselage was noticed.
On landing, the fuselage near the jump door was found to be buckled as a
result of a heavy landing. This was put down to “poor design - known problem
area” and the damage was repaired. 3673 continued flying with 103RU from
Greenwood until November 1962, when it went to No.6 Repair Depot at Trenton,
to be prepared for its next assignment, which was to 102 Communications Unit
at Trenton, the Otter OCU, which it joined in May 1963. In September 1963 a
set of amphibious floats (taken from Otter 3674) was installed on 3673.
Subsequent postings were to 4 Operational Training Unit at Trenton in August
1966 and finally to 411 Squadron, Downsview in February 1967, where it was
to remain for the next fifteen years. It undertook a number of long-range
trips, including to the Northwest Territories in June 1973. It is recorded
as flying Downsview-Kapuskasing-Sioux Lookout on 21st June and the following
day from Sioux Lookout-Thompson-Churchill and onwards into the NWT.
On 12th January 1981, during a maintenance test flight out of Downsview in
the Toronto area, a “C” category mishap was recorded. The pilot noticed the
RPM increasing on its own and was able to control it only by reducing power
or increasing the load. The pilot altered course for base but two minutes
later the oil pressure dropped to zero. He declared an emergency, shut down
the engine and carried out a forced landing in a snow-covered field, during
which the landing gear was damaged. Investigation found that an oil line had
not been properly installed during the maintenance of the engine. That
incident however ended the aircraft's military career, which would have
ended in any event the following year when the Otter was withdrawn from
Canadian military service. A salvage team from Downsview arrived and took
the wings off 3673 and loaded it with the help of a crane onto a truck. The
damaged Otter was taken to the Mountain View storage depot, Ontario where
the following year it was joined by all the remaining CAF Otters as they
were withdrawn from service at Downsview and St.Hubert.
Of the 20 Otters which arrived at Mountain View, 18 were sold, one (9408)
went to the National Aviation Museum at Rockcliffe, and one (3673) was
donated in 1982 to the Pacific Vocational Institute at the Vancouver
International Airport, BC, where it was to be used as an instructional
airframe. At one stage the Institute considered repairing the Otter and
flying it to Vancouver, but in the event it was dismantled and trucked
across the country. At Vancouver, the wings were put back on, the damage
from the forced landing repaired, and the Otter was parked outside the
Institute's hangar, still in its CAF colour scheme and sporting a fictitious
registration “C-FCGP”, the “CGP” standing for C.Gordon Peters, who had been
a long-time instructor at the Institute and a well-known figure on the local
aviation scene. For the next eight years, the Otter did not fly, but was
used as a ground instructional airframe by the Institute.
Standing outside under the elements for such a period would have been the
end of a lesser aircraft, but like several Otter instructional airframes,
this Otter was to rise again. In November 1990 the Otter was registered to
Dajaco Commercial Corporation of Calgary as C-FSVP, in connection with its
conversion to a DHC-3T Vazar turbine. It was towed the short distance across
the ramp at Vancouver to the Aeroflite facility where the conversion work
was done, and it emerged from their hangar in pristine condition as a turbo
Otter. It was then sold to Central Mountain Air Services Ltd of Smithers, BC
and departed from Vancouver on 29th June 1991 on delivery to Smithers, where
it entered service with Central Mountain Air alongside their other turbo
Otters C-GCMY (22) and CFXUY (142).
In November 1991 the Otter went on lease to Ketchikan Air Service Inc of
Ketchikan, Alaska and was registered N252KA. It returned to Central Mountain
Air in February 1993, reverting to C-FSVP and continued in service with
them. The company filed for protection under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency
Act in June 1994 and SVP was sold in January 1995 to Gynn Bay Logging Ltd,
trading as Western Straits Air, based at Campbell River, BC on Vancouver
Island where it served alongside Western Straits Air other turbine Otter C-FEBX
(38).
C-FSVP features in an incident report for 27th August 1995 at Kildidt Sound,
BC. “While en route to a fishing resort, the pilot of the float-equipped
turbo Otter had to carry out a forced landing on the water because the
engine stopped. The fuel supply was exhausted. The fuel gauge was faulty and
had given an erroneous reading. There was no injury or damage”. Later that
year, on 27th September '95, Western Straits Air other Otter C-FEBX (38)
crashed near Campbell River with heavy loss of life, a blow from which the
company was unable to recover. Operations ceased and in December 1995 C-FSVP
was sold to a leasing company, who leased it to Northern Lights Air Service
Ltd of Goose Bay, Labrador, the Otter crossing the country to its new home.
For nearly five years SVP flew without incident throughout Labrador from its
base at Goose Bay, until 11th May 2000 when it was substantially damaged on
a lake 120 miles north of Goose Bay. The Otter, loaded with four full fuel
drums and a snowmobile, and with the two men who had chartered the aircraft
as passengers, had landed at Panche Lake for the night. They planned to then
move the cargo to a new caribou hunting sport lodge which the men were
constructing north of Crystal Lake. The ski-equipped Otter had just taken
off from the frozen surface of the lake. After becoming airborne, the pilot
noticed a “thumping” sound and asked one of the passengers to look outside
to see if they could determine the source of the sound. The rear-seat
passenger, having opened the cabin door to look out, informed the pilot that
the right main landing gear ski was “swinging”, so the pilot elected to land
the aircraft back on the lake. Upon touchdown the right ski dug into the ice
surface and folded under the landing gear strut, and then the landing gear
sheared off.
As one of the passengers later described the incident: “Everything was okay
for about five seconds after we touched down, and then snow started flying
everywhere. We hit down on one wing tip and the plane collapsed on one side.
We had skidded about 150 feet. Fuel was running everywhere - a ski leg had
gone through the main tank”. As the Otter came to a stop, the pilot called
Wabush FSS and reported the accident, and that there were no injuries. This
information was relayed to Halifax Rescue Co-Ordination Centre, and a CAF
CH-146 Griffon helicopter from 444 Squadron at Goose Bay was dispatched to
pick up the pilot and his two passengers. A recovery team was later
dispatched to repair the Otter, which then flew back to Goose Bay.
That incident however ended the Otter's career with Northern Lights Air
Service. It was returned to the leasing company, and ferried to
St.Mathias-sur-Richelieu, Quebec where it was put into storage, still in
Northern Lights colour scheme. In April 2001 it was advertised for sale with
a total airframe time of 14,442 hours. Features referred to in the advert
included its Baron STOL kit, EDO 7170 floats, bubble windows and new metal
floor. The Otter was leased to Labrador Airways Ltd, to whom it was
registered on 16th July 2002, and it returned to Goose Bay. It replaced C-FQOS
(398), the Labrador Airways turbine Otter which had crashed at Goose the
previous September. After the summer of 2002, SVP returned to storage at
St.Mathias-sur-Richelieu, its total time having risen to 14,803 hours. It
was again advertised for sale with an asking price of $1,500,000 Canadian.
It was still in storage there during 2004, still advertised for sale.
History courtesy of Karl E Hayes from DHC-3
Otter: A History (2005) |
