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November
2005 |
Craig Paul has noticed an error one of the pictures he sent
recently. The one of C-FNFI at Hutchison Lake Geraldton should be C-FWRA. Karl Hayes has kindly added to the recent information from
David Matthews. The Otter owned by Mr Kakeldey, N197TT was actually written
off in a crash on Karl also notes that Otter 338, registered N338D, had quite
an interesting history which again is on the CD, and has been lying derelict
for many years. He spoke to the owners, who say that a few months ago they
sold it to a Mr Mike Spisak. It is now registered to a leasing company, but
hopefully the new owners are going to restore it to airworthy condition.
Thanks Karl. “N49PW has had the PZL engine removed and the naked, stripped fuselage
awaits prep for painting. It will receive a Garrett turbine. C-FZDV has been painted (beautifully) but there is still much work
going on in the interior. It will be an all new interior. It has been fitted
for the PT6 engine. I can’t wait to see this beauty outside in the snow on a
bright sunny day. N336AK is presently in the fuselage jig. The Garrett has been mounted,
but much work is needed on the fuselage. Quite a lot of skin will be replaced
and the inside has been fairly well stripped. N362TT is coming to Still don’t know if there are any Otters coming to AOG in New contributor William Hohenstein has kindly sent through some shots
of his favourite Otter C-FNFI (379) which he has had
the delight of watching in action for over 35 years. [here]. He has also sent what must qualify as
the oddest Otter shots of the year.
Can anyone top these? Many thanks William. Another new contributor Craig Paul has sent shots of FMIQ, FNFI, GLCS and FSOX. He lives and works in Here is the next instalment from
Michael St Amand has note the NTSB report on C-GOFF (65) which is contained here. Otter pilot and regular contributor I was delighted to hear from Kenneth Swartz the Director of the David Mathew of Northern Aviation has
been in touch to update information about certain of his client’s aircraft
and provide some excellent additional photo’s here.
Many thanks David and I’m grateful for the heads up! David reports; N362TT (362) is owned by Ron
Kakeldey of 197TT (197) is also owned by Ron
Kakeldey of N17689 (431) is owned by Katmai
Lodge. N361TT (361) is also owned by Ron
Kakeldey. Charles
Wisner has sent a great shot of N1018B (392) landing at the Pullout at A further
round of Rubens photos including a recently acquired shot of LN-LMM (31) here.
As
promised last month Larry
West, an FAA Safety Inspector based at |
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October 2005 |
In
relation to some earlier photo’s Thor has asked the Taquan maintenance
director about the identity of an Otter lost after being sold it to a
Canadian operator and he confirmed that it was 9895B and not 1018B. He
thinks 18B ended up at Wings in Other
shots show 342KA from the summer of 2003 airborne and tied to the dock at the
Pond at Thanks
Thor. STOP
PRESS: With grateful thanks to Karl Hayes
I have just received a copy of his Otter CD and there is no doubt that it is
THE most comprehensive record of every Otter ever made. Over 800 pages with
plenty of excellent photo’s and detailed text. A must for any Otter fan and
ideal if only to find out where your old steed might be now. He
reports that:- “N336AK
arrived on Nice
one John and many thanks. To view his shots click here.
This
months Shot of the Month is provided
by Bill
Hann from “Traditionally
September is Harbour Air's busiest month for scheduled flights and Thursday
is generally the busiest day of the week. This past Thanks
for the update Bill. He
also noted in the last Aviation Letter that the ‘Ottermeister’ Karl Hayes is
offering an 840 page cd-rom with 300 colour photos and history of all 466
Otters build. Karl very kindly kicked me off with some suggestions for this
site and I’m more than happy to recommend Karl’s hard work which I can only
hope to scratch the surface of on this site.
[Karl, the email I have for you keeps bouncing back, so if you
could let me know your current point of contact I would be happy to forward
any purchase enquiries] New
visitor His
picture first picture shows N472PM (472) before being turbinized and was
taken back in 1995. This airplane had belonged to ProMech and was sold
to Wipline and then purchased by Taquan in early 95. The turbine was
installed in 1996 and put back on straight Edos. The
second set show an aircraft that Thor thinks was N1018B that was rebuilt and
subsequently lost in The
final set show a couple of shots of N11250 (171). These were taken at |
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September 2005 |
You
want Otters, you’ve got them! Another round of Post holiday workload is leaving little time
for website action but in the mean time Otter pilot Steve Taylor has kindly
referred to his Otter rich Blog at :- His latest entry shows a delightful trip to drop
campers in the wilds with a blow by blow photo record of Otter HYB carrying
two canoes, and scroll down for IAF being worked on and VDQ landing on grass
with loads of internal and external shots. Nice one Steve. I am in
the process of building a radio controlled Otter and would need some detail
drawings of the plane. I don’t know if you have drawings, pictures, cross
section views etc. So if you have any information you could pass me I would
greatly appreciate it. Thanks in
advance.
Téléphone (Phone) : (418) 549-6879 _ 231 Télécopieur (Fax) : (418) 549-3991 |
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August 2005 |
A rather Scandinavian flavour to this month. “Seeing the news about c/n 397 C-FQEI jogged my memory as I
saw the aircraft in From his lofty perch on board an oil rig in the
Norwegian Sea CF-BCG (408) in Burrard Air colours at
Vancouver June 83 C-GCMY (22) of Wolverine Air still in CMA
(Central Mountain Air) colours at Vancouver 92 C-FUJM (159) of Trans-Provincial at
Vancouver September 1986 I
should go away more often. There have been a number of new contacts, photos
and Otter information which I shall be applying myself to in the next week or
so. Henry
Friesen and his wife, Lin I have self-published a book entitled
"The Beaver Bush Plane at Home in Ontario" which also includes a
complete history of the Otter and pictures of most Otters still flying in
Ontario. You can preview the book at their website www.beaverbushplane.com. Welcome
to new visitor Dirk
Septer is another new visitor who also has a huge (15 years) collection of
Otter photo’s. (can we cope!!) and he has kindly agreed to send some through
in due course. In the mean time he has a couple of queries: In
1997 I took a picture of an Otter fuselage along the fence at the Saskatoon
SK airport. dark blue and white. No markings. Any idea? Also fate of c/n 453 FDIV now N6868B being rebuilt? Any suggestions out their chaps (and chapesses)? Finally most of you will by now have heard about
the crash of Otter C-FQEI 397 (Air Nootka, Gold River,
BC) which apparently experienced an engine failure on the west coast of
Vancouver Island near Louie Bay. The aircraft was force landed and collided
with the beach causing damage to the airframe. All passengers and crew
apparently exited OK with minor bumps and bruises. Any landing you can walk
away from etc…. Well done to the pilot on a successful job.
I’m
off on vacation for a couple of weeks so the site will be silent for a while
but do keep the shots and information coming and I’ll be back in harness
later in the month. Dennis
Newell has sent an intriguing photo of
an Otter in formation with a Boeing Vertol. When you realise what they are
doing it will make the pilots amongst you consider a land based job! In an
idle moment you might like to consider the logistics of how they actually
managed to do what they are doing. No peeking at published texts. Suggestions
on a postcard to…any reasonably insane ideas welcomed. |
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July 2005 |
Well,
June was certainly a busy month for new photo’s and Otter information and
thanks to all contributors. Thanks
to New
visitor Chris Sumner has sent in several shots
of the K2 Otters operating from Talkeetna in Alaska together with a short video of a K2 Beaver Glacier takeoff!!
Many thanks Chris He
also asks, “I’m looking to build an R/C model of the Otter and I
have found it with 6ft wing span. But I have found a Beaver with 8ft
wingspan. If you happen to know where I can find a kit with an 8ft wingspan
Otter I’d be grateful. The idea is to make a replica of the one in the
pictures I’m sending”. If you
can help then you can email Chris here. |
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June 2005 |
No sooner
said than done. Garry Lakin of the de Havilland Heritage Museum has kindly
allowed me to upload details of ‘FAK’ which you can see here. A link to the museum has also been
added to the links section. Many thanks to Garry and all at the dHHM and good
luck with putting FAK back together again. Fred
asks “Is this the longest ever recovery returning to the UK?” and points out
that it will probably will NOT get a turbo conversion!!! I have
contacted the Museum asking for permission to use their photos and other
details and hope to post more next month. Robbie’s
been busy again and sent through a nice set of Kenmore’s N234KA (here); Ketchum’s N342KA (465);
and a fine shot of former Kenmore N888KA now N707KA (106). A
further new contributor New
contributor Robbie Shaw normally guides aircraft at London (Gatwick) as part
of the Air Traffic Control team but also takes excellent photos of Otters.
His first set is of N103SY (296) (now C-FFIJ) when
being operated by Bald Mountain Air Services in 1998. Click here for his photo set. Robbie’s
next set is of N491K (434) and 929KT (461)
at Lake Hood May 2005, N455A (206) in Anchorage May
2005 and N727KT (419) of K2 Aviation at Talkeetna, Ak,
4 May 2005. Many thanks Robbie for some great shots. Information
Request: New visitor John Mainwaring is
currently building an 8' wingspan, remote controlled DHC-3 Otter. He has
chosen the colour scheme to be like the RCMP C-FMPY, s/n 324. He has
searched high and low for detailed pics for panel and rivet lines etc. to no
avail. John asks:- “Do you know of anyone who could supply
close-up pics of # 324 or any other single engine otter so as I can detail
mine. I will gladly send pics and return the favour when mine is completed
and flying. Just to let you know that my otter will
have functioning fore flaps and will be the amphib type with floats, wheels
and steerable nose gear. The accumulator stacks will also provide cooling for
the 1.2 cc engine installed. I am at the point where I am ready to paint it
and in desperate need of some reference photos. I hope you can help”. I know
there are friendly Otter folk out there who would just love to see his work
airborne. Any helpers?? John can be emailed direct on jmainwaring@uhc.ca or let me know. No
sooner had I uploaded FIUZ but Mike
at AirNikon has approved the use of his photos from airliners.net. Very many
thanks Mike. Some great Otter shots coming to this website very soon!! I have
added an accident report for C-GGON (225) of Whiteshell
Air Services Ltd that had an engine failure at 400 ft on takeoff (a pilot’s
worst nightmare) and force landed straight ahead into a swamp. All on board
escaped with some injuries, but I seem to think from the report that the
aircraft is a write-off. |
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May 2005 |
Barry Collman
has just sent through a shot of N90422 (152) taken on
Friday 13th May 2005 late in the evening. Many thanks Barry and
more to come I believe! C-FNWX
(412) as recently captured by To
recognise the growing selection of photographs within the site I have
introduced a ‘Shot of the Month’ page. This
is entirely subjective and I’m open to any suggestions, but to reflect his
contribution to the site I start with Rich’s recent air to air of WX. |
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April 2005 |
Bill
Hann has recently reported to www.dhc-2.com
that Harbour Air has recently purchased another Turbo Otter appropriately
named C-FHAS (382) (HA already has C-GHAS). The
fleet now stands at eleven Turbo Otters, one Piston Otter, fifteen Beavers,
and two C185s. One Turbo Otter, the Piston Otter, and six Beavers will
operate out of Prince Rupert under the North Pacific Seaplanes title.
The ten remaining Turbo Otters with operate on the South Coast flying what
looks to be almost 90 scheduled flights a day on weekdays this summer.
Eight Beavers and one C185 will round out the South Coast fleet with the
remaining Beaver still in overhaul and one C185 for sale. Looks
to be a busy summer say Bill and I hope he doesn’t mind me copying you
Otter fans in on the news. John O
reports that CF-APQ (201) came to Kal Air Repair on a
truck, all the way from California where she has been sitting, acting as a
birds nest for some time. She will receive the Texas Turbine conversion and
be re-registered as a US Otter and flown back to California. John thinks she
will be receiving a new paint job. (thankfully he says!) John says this is
probably the last Otter here until the fall. |
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March 2005 |
Dave Paull from New Zealand has
reported that there is one Otter in the country: ZK-VAS (35)
which flies with Vulcanic Air Safaris on Lake Rotorua. Thanks for the update
Dave and he has promised to try and photo this aircraft when next in the
area. |
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February
2005 |
My grateful thanks to
I have also just finished
reading a couple of good books that might while away the winter hours:- “No Numbered Runways”
by former Coast Dog Jack Schofield is an interesting little book on
the history and characters surrounding the development of floatplane services
with some excellent black and white photography, including contributions I
see from Work has been a tad manic
over the last few weeks so updates to the site have taken something of a
backseat. Keep the information coming though. |
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January 2005 |
A
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL YOU OTTER FANS With
the website having been alive now for 18 months I decided to invest in a more
user friendly title and have therefore launched www.dhc3otter.com Hopefully you will
have already discovered this and I hope this will help the site to grow
accordingly.
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