-
Happy There's Nothing Like a Dame Day! 👩🏼🦳👗👙🎦
History of the De Havilland Beaver
- Thread starter Mihun09
- Start date
Great planes. Many of our tips started aboard one of these. Will watch video tonight. Thanks for sharing.
G.
G.
I've logged a few "passenger" hours - some more interesting than others.
How fun. I am usually not into airplanes, but I can see the appeal of the Beaver and why she has maintained such a following. Who knows, perhaps I'll be traveling in one getting to my next canoe adventure 
. Thank you for posting the link!
Nice photos too!
. Thank you for posting the link!Nice photos too!
Very cool .. I flew in one some dozen times in Wabakimi. One takeoff into a high headwind was nearly vertical. And it is a bit of an experience to scout the lake you are landing on while it is on its side and you looking down at the water and wondering how the canoe is staying on
A great aircraft. I flew in them many times during my career along with Otters and Twin Otters. Many have been retrofitted with jet engines. You can tell at a distance because they have an extended and pointy nose instead of the standard flat cowling. Qayaq shows a photo of one below.
The Kenmore Airport in Seattle in Lake Washington a mile from my Dad's house. We used to run his boat up to the San Juan Islands in the summer. Then we would take a Beaver back home. We used to fly up there and step out of the plane with a duffle bag, and be right there in boat cruising Paradise.
The Kenmore Airport in Seattle in Lake Washington a mile from my Dad's house. We used to run his boat up to the San Juan Islands in the summer. Then we would take a Beaver back home. We used to fly up there and step out of the plane with a duffle bag, and be right there in boat cruising Paradise.
Last edited:
My son is an engineer maintaining STOL aircraft. They are an incredible advance in aviation, permitting considerable payloads delivered to hard to reach locations around the world on every continent in every hemisphere. What started as a bushplane prototype for the northwoods has grown into a worldwide workhorse.
I think the Beaver is my second favourite aircraft. Here's our Turbo Beaver refuelling at the shutdown Lupin gold mine north of Yellowknife. We were demobing from our claim staking camp on the Coppermine River to Yellowknife.
My favourite is the Basler, which is a DC-3 stretched and refitted with turbine engines, new hydraulics, avionics, etc. The conversion takes 45,000 man-hours.
This Basler on skis dropped 3 of us and our gear to set up our tent camp on Bathurst Inlet on the arctic coast. This particular aircraft flew in Operation Market Garden in WW2. It now operates alternately between the Canadian arctic and Antarctica.
My favourite is the Basler, which is a DC-3 stretched and refitted with turbine engines, new hydraulics, avionics, etc. The conversion takes 45,000 man-hours.
This Basler on skis dropped 3 of us and our gear to set up our tent camp on Bathurst Inlet on the arctic coast. This particular aircraft flew in Operation Market Garden in WW2. It now operates alternately between the Canadian arctic and Antarctica.
DC3s are great airplanes and still show up all around the world.
My uncle used to fly a DC-4 (North Star) serving the DEW line in northern Quebec. In fact that's how he - a recent British immigrant - met my aunt, a waitress at a diner close to the air base.
Love the sound of the old radial engines!! https://youtu.be/idys1VWtPcI
..especially at idle - sounds like a car with super hot cam.
G
Guest
Guest
Thanks, that was best 45 minutes I have spent watching a video. Lot of interesting history there.
I may sit down and watch it again.
I may sit down and watch it again.
DC-3s and Beavers are my all time favorite aircraft. Beavers in Alaska (although there was also a DC-3 flying fish out of Yakutat), and got to fly in a DC-3 in Costa Rica 36 years ago. I had a model DC-3 as a kid.
- Joined
- Sep 17, 2019
- Messages
- 151
- Reaction score
- 93
There are hundreds of stories about these and other great bush planes and the men that flew them . I think my favorite is about
these two bush pilots from the far North that fly South over the border for some R & R. After a rough landing at a small local
air strip, the pilot was over heard saying to his companion " Wow, that has to be the shortest runway I have ever seen".
His buddy replied " Yes, but just look how W--I--D--E it is ".
"
Well, I'm not sure about that, but that's what I heard.
these two bush pilots from the far North that fly South over the border for some R & R. After a rough landing at a small local
air strip, the pilot was over heard saying to his companion " Wow, that has to be the shortest runway I have ever seen".
His buddy replied " Yes, but just look how W--I--D--E it is ".
"
Well, I'm not sure about that, but that's what I heard.
- Joined
- Jun 30, 2014
- Messages
- 1,550
- Reaction score
- 282
I used to go to Downsview in the early 80's. It was a maintenance depot for the army at the time.
You tend to see more Otters than you do Beavers any more. I believe a company called Cascade has the rights to the twin otter and was thinking of starting production again on those.
I worked the last 12 years of my career in aircraft maintenance support and it was a fun and challenging job that I wish I could still do, but at age 60 my body told me it had had enough of that tomfoolery.
You tend to see more Otters than you do Beavers any more. I believe a company called Cascade has the rights to the twin otter and was thinking of starting production again on those.
I worked the last 12 years of my career in aircraft maintenance support and it was a fun and challenging job that I wish I could still do, but at age 60 my body told me it had had enough of that tomfoolery.
Harrison Ford maybe isn't the best celebrity to be endorsing how safe and reliable a plane is given his multiple plane crashes/accidents/mishaps in real life.
