Tuesday, June 10, 2008

 

The Return Of........ "ODK"!

This past winter, Dave Beaushene, owner of Nestor Falls Fly-In Outposts, decided to replace the powerplant on one of his Otters, C-FODK. Dave has two Otters, the other being C-FSOR. SOR has a "Garrett" powering her, and has given such "stellar performance" that Dave decided ODK should have a Garrett also, which would entail removing her Pratt and Whitney R-1340. Anyone who has flown thousands of hours on R-1340s and "still lives" applauds this move, as the old radials are just "too tired", and should all be sent to the "retirement home". In my career I have had 5 cylinder failures on 1340s.

Anyways, the good folks at Recon Air Corporation converted ODK to the Garrett turbine, Bobby Bishop from Texas Turbines did the initial "run-ups", some technical problems were identified, which is a normal part of any engine conversion, some "tweaks" were made to the aircraft systems, and finally I flew ODK to the hangar at Minaki so "floats" could be installed. ODK now sits on floats, and has been "earning her keep" flying fishermen "to and from" the bush! Let's follow the above story in some of my photos.........

 

Conversion complete, Bobby Bishop runs ODK!

 


 


 


 


 

Bobby studies the "numbers" the new engine is producing.........

 

..... then shuts ODK down.

 


 

Bobby takes her for a test "flip"...........

 


 


 


 


 


 

More "tweaks".........

 

........ more "runs"......

 

.......back to work.........

 

.....Lount Lake, English River..........

 

...........and back on the dock in Nestor Falls with fellow "ship" C-FSOR! She has been working hard!

Special mention to Paul and James from River Air who transported us safely and professionally in River Air's "amphib" Caravan to Geraldton to pick up ODK.

LINK - Texas Turbine Conversions, Inc.

LINK - Nestor Falls Fly-In Outposts

LINK - Recon Air Corporation

LINK - River Air

"Adios"!

# posted by Steve @ 4:25 PM
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