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As promised, I have endeavoured to reward you all for your
patience following my very apparent silence over the last few months, whilst
my nose was welded firmly to the grindstone – normal service will be resumed
in 2009.
The backlog of emails provides a wealth of new and
interesting photographs and information for ‘Otterhounds’ so enjoy the
various links below. I do hope I haven’t overlooked anyone.
With the website now more than five years old the number
and range of pictures and information sent in never ceases to amaze me and my
grateful thanks to all contributors and visitors, both old and new.
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL
Ian
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 Marcel FLUET-LECERF from Bordeaux,
France has
sent in the following shots: Air Saguenay C-GLFL (329) with PZL 1000HP; Air
Saguenay C-FMPX (280) and White River Air C-FWRA (213). These shots were all
taken in 2008 and its so nice to see some radials still alive.
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Ken Hurford enjoyed a trip to Alaska
in July and cruised from Vancouver to Whittier. In Ketchikan
on July 16th they took the following; N6868b (274); N959PA (159); and N409PA
(409), together with three shots of C-FITF (Serial No. 89) in Vancouver Harbour. Ken and his wife flew on
959. N6868B was tucked away and Ken says he was fortunate to even notice
it. It is a recent conversion to turbo power and has been
"really" done up. That is one sharp paint job. Interestingly
at my visit in 2007 8B was still radial but backfiring ‘interestingly’ on
departure.
Ken also notes that General Electric have purchased
Walter Engines. It seems that TGE felt they didn’t have a product to
compete with the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 line-up of turbo-prop
engines. Ken wonders if this will open the door to a few more Walter (GE)
turbo-prop conversions of Otters.
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Charles Mali is working on a project about Otters and Beavers
inspected by SABCA in Belgium
for the US Army in Germany
in 1958 and he has sent through some shots from his collection.
Charles
also notes that there are two Otters in Belgium for Antarctic
expeditions. They are OO-HAD and OO-SUD (C/N 297 photo in http://www.airliners.net/photo/Expeditions-Antarctiques-Belgique/De-Havilland-Canada/0788444&tbl=photo_info&photo_nr=1&sok=WHERE__(reg_=_'OO-SUD')_&sort=_order_by_photo_id_DESC_&prev_id=&next_id=NEXTID)
If
any of you have information or articles about Otter in US Army service in Germany
then do let Charles (and me!) know. Charles Mali Charles.Mali@sabca.be
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Simon Codd visited Anchorage
in the summer and sent in photos of the only three Otters he photographed on
the trip.
N205RC (201) of Rapids
Camp Lodge Inc, at Lake Hood, Anchorage,
19 September 08. N2899J (425) of Rust's Flying Service, at Lake Hood,
Anchorage,
the static photo taken 17 September 08, the flying shots taken 18 September
08. N17689 (431) of Katmai Lodge, stored at Anchorage International, 15
September 08.
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John Olafson noted two Viking Turbo Otters whilst visiting Viking. He
was allowed to photograph C-GITL, which he had seen several times before but
had not been permitted to capture on film. John comments that “Unusual is
hardly the word for the livery on that one. C-FDNK looks more conventional,
but they would both look really nice if they had all their tail feathers in
place”.
John also reports from
Vernon:
“Hi Guys,
Otter N491K (434) arrived recently from Alaska (it slipped under my radar) and as
you can see, it is in the process of giving up its PZL engine (that makes me
very happy) and it will be receiving the Garrett engine next. Interesting to
note that this is its third engine type since new. This Otter looks like it
has been repainted recently and does look nice and it will look very smart
once the turbine engine is in place. There seems to have been a change of
plans re this one as it will not be losing its wings to Otter N3125N (394)
which is still being worked on. Wings for N3125N will be shipped here from Alaska and apparently the engineers from Katmai will be
fitting the wings to it here in Vernon and
then flying it out to Alaska.
Sometime in December they say.”
Cheers, John
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Fred Barnes also went north this year and reports on his trip:
“Hi Guys,
Had a trip to Alaska so I thought
that I would give you an update. Sadly not a good trip for Otters.
At Anchorage
saw N2899J of Rust's in operational use, whilst N929KT of K2 Aviation was
undergoing maintenance in the Rust's hangar at Lake Hood. The aircraft was still on skis.
Parked near the
Evert's ramp was N17689 of Katmai Lodge, but it was so close to the fence
that I photographed it from the other side of the ramp near the Penair
hangar.
As we were on the
hotel airport shuttle bus going home N205RC was parked in the light aircraft
ramp.
We did not get to
Talkeetna due to weather and time constraints. Did get to see the Northern
Air Cargo and Evert's DC-6s, flew up to Fairbanks
and back with Alaska Airlines and back with ERA and had a flight in a Beaver
at Rust's.
Best of all was a
flight in Albatross N116AG from Merrill Field to Anchorage Ted Stevens via
two water landings.
Best regards, Fred
Barnes”
Great trip Fred and I
note from ‘Propliner’ that the NAC DC-6’s have now been withdrawn in favour
of Boeing 737-200’s. You were lucky to see them.
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Patrick Martin is in the final stages of a finish and markings book
covering types used by the RCAF - including the Otter.
For this work he has
22 Otter photos of 15 different airframes.
He is trying to end each of the captions with some sort of very brief
summary of history since RCAF service and final fate. Patrick notes that the
catch is wherever he looks for information after the RCAF inventory cards -
it seems to vary and conflict.
Would anyone be
willing to have a look at the captions for the contact sheet and see if you
agree, disagree, correct, comment, or just tell him what is bull in what he
has found?
If anyone can help
please contact Patrick Martin direct at
104655@telus.net and I will also have a look too. Sorry for the delay
Patrick.
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Bruce Bowles sends in some great shots and
notes that both FMAX and FODY received the PT-6-34 engine conversions and
have been repainted. FKOA has the Garrett conversion with the 48v starter
system. MAX and ODY are painted and equipped identically. He thinks MAX had
the PT6 conversion done in '04 and ODY in '05. KOA is owned by Sioux Narrows
Airways (Plummer’s Arctic Lodges) and TOK is owned by North of Sixty.
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Ruben Husberg has been a regular contributor over the years from his
extensive collection and, after a bit of a breather, Ruben has been in touch
again and I’m delighted to add another round of Otter photos to this years supply,
with photographer credits accordingly. To avoid excessive download times I
have split theSE 15 shots into three sets.
Very many thanks Ruben
and I’m sure all you Otterhounds out there will appreciate the value of this
collection to the history of the Otter.
[Set 1] [Set
2] [Set 3]
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Brent MacDonald has been flying in the bush for the past 14 years and
having discovered the website has been enjoying revisiting the Otters he
drove along the way. In addition he has sent in some photos of his own. The
First 2 are of C-FLLL (292) from July of this Year in Fort Smith NWT; the 3rd
is of C-FLLL in Lutselke NWT from August of this year and the last 2 are of C-FVQD
(466) the first taken at Otter Lake, Northern Sask’ and the second in Fort
Smith NWT both From April of this year. Both were operated by Northwestern
Air Lease in Fort Smith.
Many thanks Brent and
look forward to seeing more shots in 2009. Safe flying.
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Chip Porter provided some excellent shots earlier in the year from an
air to air shoot for Misty Fjords Air in Ketchikan, Alaska.
These are the final set from that commission.
Chip reports that,
“Dave Doyon Jr. is the pilot, Dave Sr. was my pilot and doing a photo shoot
with them was as comfortable as could be”.
Chip includes his
favourite shots of N6868 Bravo seen here flying in her namesake, the Misty Fjords
National Monument near Ketchikan Alaska.
He notes that, “…being black and white she's a bit hard to photograph. This
is one amazing, sugar coated, perfectly painted, leather seated aircraft”.
Very Many thanks Chip
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Fred Barnes took N339AK in the Taku
River at the Taku
Glacier Lodge on 7th July 02 and also supplies an image taken on 19 Aug 1969
in Bergen of Otter LN-TSC (397). “The Otter was still in basic R.NoAF livery
operated by Ocean Products. Must mention my friend Fred Froude who digitally
scanned this old slide”.
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Rich Hulina,
pilot, photographer and regular contributor, has sent in a shot of BEO
arriving in Sioux Lookout. It will be staying for the winter! Very evocative.
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Xavier Cotton has seen the DHC-3 Turbine in Malta Harbour working for Harbour Air Malta
ICAO Code 9H-AFA with previous ICAO code C-FHAH. Xavier provides some photo’s
and he has a weblog at:
http://passiondesavions.blogspot.com/2008/11/harbour-air-malta.html#links
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Normand Dennis has also sent in some shots of C-FMPX. Hi Norm.
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John Olafson reported back in November that Otter 394 had its test
flight in perfect fall weather at Vernon.
“This Otter came here
in a box, less engine and wings but they decided to ship the wings to Vernon and have it assembled here and flown back to Alaska. They only
painted the nose section. This is the first one to use the Garrett -12 series
engine and a brand new one at that. Test flight went without a hitch. One
Otter still in the hangar here at Kal Air Repair and its N491K #434. It will
be done in December.
Cheers, John O”
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And last, but not least,
Kent provided
our last site of the month photo and recently sent in what he is submitting
to the ‘Guiness Book of Records’ as the shortest commute for an Otter Pilot.
Any challengers?
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I do hope that this bumper update provides you with hours of interest and
enjoyment over the festive period and I wish you all the very best for 2009.
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© DHC3Otter
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