Monday, February 09, 2009
Steve's "Otter Of The Week"! .....by Karl E. Hayes
Here is a fine specimen that "resided" in Canada her whole life, serving the north year-round, until that "hot" summer day in 2002........
All information is from Karl Hayes' "masterful" CD entitled:
De Havilland Canada
DHC-3 OTTER
A HISTORY
CONTACT KARL, CD PRICING and ORDERING INFO - De Havilland DHC-3 OTTER - A HISTORY by Karl E. Hayes
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Otter 402
Otter 402 was delivered to the RCAF on 5th December 1960 with serial 9421. It was assigned to 424 Squadron at Hamilton, Ontario. It served with this unit until February 1964, when it was transferred to 400 Squadron at Downsview, where it was to serve for the remainder of its military career. It also flew for 411 Squadron, the other Downsview-based unit.
On 22nd June 1973, 411 Squadron set off for summer camp deployment to Fort Churchill, Manitoba, as it had done the previous year. Part of its task was to construct a community centre at the northern community of Baker Lake, a futuristic geodesic-domed building which could be built out of material that could easily be flown up to the remote community. During the summer camp, a Hercules and 411 Squadron's Otters carried all of the pieces of the dome, ready to be assembled, into Baker Lake. The 1973 Churchill summer camp was known as Exercise Aurora II and during the two week period, various detachments of the squadron visited other northern settlements as well, such as Pelly Bay, Igloolik, Gjoa Haven, Gladman Point and Whale Cove. They carried out census, survey and environmental work for Northern Region Headquarters. 9421 was part of this deployment and its flights included: 25 June '73 Churchill-Eskimo Point-Whale Cove-Baker Lake, returning Baker Lake to Churchill the next day. On 16th July '73 it routed Churchill-Baker Lake-Cambridge Bay in ten hours fifty minutes, returning to Churchill on the 18th.
9421 continued in service at Downsview until 26th August 1981, when it went into storage at the Mountain View depot. It was put up for disposal through the Crown Assets Disposal Corporation and was one of a number of Otters sold at auction in February 1982, advertised as having total airframe time of 8,182 hours. The purchaser was Nahanni Air Services Ltd of Norman Wells, Northwest Territories to whom the Otter was registered C-GUTQ in February 1983. Nahanni Air Services had also purchased two other ex Canadian military Otters, 9406 (365) which became C-GUTL and 9423 (405) which became C-GUTW. A company in Colombia agreed to purchase all three Otters from Nahanni Air Services. The proposed purchaser had the exotic name of Aerolineas de la Orinoquia & Amazonia Limitada and early in 1984 paid a deposit and obtained Colombian registrations for the three Otters. C-GUTQ (402) was to become HK-3049X. The three Otters were made ready for delivery but the final payment was never made and nothing further was heard from the would-be purchaser.
After the sale to Colombia fell through, UTQ was registered to St.Louis Aviation Inc, Hangar 4, St.Jean Airport, Quebec who overhauled the Otter and it was then sold to Air Saguenay (1980) Inc of Chicoutimi-Lac St.Sebastien, Quebec in June 1986, joining the Air Saguenay Otter fleet. It suffered a minor incident at St.Honore, Quebec on 16th March 1987. En route, the aircraft lost a ski and landed at St.Honore. Inspection revealed that the axle on the ski had broken. UTQ was to continue in service with Air Saguenay for many years, but went on lease to Northern Lights Air Service Ltd, Goose Bay, Labrador during the summer of 1996, before returning to the Air Saguenay fleet.
C-GUTQ continued flying for Air Saguenay until destroyed in an accident on 30th June 2002. It had just taken off from Lac Cojibo, Quebec with three souls on board and a full load of freight, destined for a fishing camp. It was a hot summer's day and the pilot found he could not maintain a rate of climb due to the temperature and the weight he was carrying. Unable to climb, he flew into a valley but could not clear rising terrain and crashed into the top of a mountain. Those on board escaped injury, but the Otter crashed and burned and was consumed by the fire.
- by Karl E. Hayes
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Talk about a "fiery end". Yup, like I stated before, the old Otter should have had "1,000 Belgians" from "Day 1"!
- C-GUTQ of Air Saguenay at Chicoutimi, Quebec April 1993 (Anthony J. Hickey)
CONTACT KARL, CD PRICING and ORDERING INFO - De Havilland DHC-3 OTTER - A HISTORY by Karl E. Hayes
All information is from Karl Hayes' "masterful" CD entitled:
De Havilland Canada
DHC-3 OTTER
A HISTORY
CONTACT KARL, CD PRICING and ORDERING INFO - De Havilland DHC-3 OTTER - A HISTORY by Karl E. Hayes
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Otter 402
Otter 402 was delivered to the RCAF on 5th December 1960 with serial 9421. It was assigned to 424 Squadron at Hamilton, Ontario. It served with this unit until February 1964, when it was transferred to 400 Squadron at Downsview, where it was to serve for the remainder of its military career. It also flew for 411 Squadron, the other Downsview-based unit.
On 22nd June 1973, 411 Squadron set off for summer camp deployment to Fort Churchill, Manitoba, as it had done the previous year. Part of its task was to construct a community centre at the northern community of Baker Lake, a futuristic geodesic-domed building which could be built out of material that could easily be flown up to the remote community. During the summer camp, a Hercules and 411 Squadron's Otters carried all of the pieces of the dome, ready to be assembled, into Baker Lake. The 1973 Churchill summer camp was known as Exercise Aurora II and during the two week period, various detachments of the squadron visited other northern settlements as well, such as Pelly Bay, Igloolik, Gjoa Haven, Gladman Point and Whale Cove. They carried out census, survey and environmental work for Northern Region Headquarters. 9421 was part of this deployment and its flights included: 25 June '73 Churchill-Eskimo Point-Whale Cove-Baker Lake, returning Baker Lake to Churchill the next day. On 16th July '73 it routed Churchill-Baker Lake-Cambridge Bay in ten hours fifty minutes, returning to Churchill on the 18th.
9421 continued in service at Downsview until 26th August 1981, when it went into storage at the Mountain View depot. It was put up for disposal through the Crown Assets Disposal Corporation and was one of a number of Otters sold at auction in February 1982, advertised as having total airframe time of 8,182 hours. The purchaser was Nahanni Air Services Ltd of Norman Wells, Northwest Territories to whom the Otter was registered C-GUTQ in February 1983. Nahanni Air Services had also purchased two other ex Canadian military Otters, 9406 (365) which became C-GUTL and 9423 (405) which became C-GUTW. A company in Colombia agreed to purchase all three Otters from Nahanni Air Services. The proposed purchaser had the exotic name of Aerolineas de la Orinoquia & Amazonia Limitada and early in 1984 paid a deposit and obtained Colombian registrations for the three Otters. C-GUTQ (402) was to become HK-3049X. The three Otters were made ready for delivery but the final payment was never made and nothing further was heard from the would-be purchaser.
After the sale to Colombia fell through, UTQ was registered to St.Louis Aviation Inc, Hangar 4, St.Jean Airport, Quebec who overhauled the Otter and it was then sold to Air Saguenay (1980) Inc of Chicoutimi-Lac St.Sebastien, Quebec in June 1986, joining the Air Saguenay Otter fleet. It suffered a minor incident at St.Honore, Quebec on 16th March 1987. En route, the aircraft lost a ski and landed at St.Honore. Inspection revealed that the axle on the ski had broken. UTQ was to continue in service with Air Saguenay for many years, but went on lease to Northern Lights Air Service Ltd, Goose Bay, Labrador during the summer of 1996, before returning to the Air Saguenay fleet.
C-GUTQ continued flying for Air Saguenay until destroyed in an accident on 30th June 2002. It had just taken off from Lac Cojibo, Quebec with three souls on board and a full load of freight, destined for a fishing camp. It was a hot summer's day and the pilot found he could not maintain a rate of climb due to the temperature and the weight he was carrying. Unable to climb, he flew into a valley but could not clear rising terrain and crashed into the top of a mountain. Those on board escaped injury, but the Otter crashed and burned and was consumed by the fire.
- by Karl E. Hayes
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Talk about a "fiery end". Yup, like I stated before, the old Otter should have had "1,000 Belgians" from "Day 1"!
- C-GUTQ of Air Saguenay at Chicoutimi, Quebec April 1993 (Anthony J. Hickey)
CONTACT KARL, CD PRICING and ORDERING INFO - De Havilland DHC-3 OTTER - A HISTORY by Karl E. Hayes
