The Safest and Most Reliable Plane | The Immortal Beaver | Spark

they built aircraft that could go into spots that no other aircraft could go in it made places accessible that we're never accessible before there's nothing else that can do that job that successfully it's so tough we don't build planes like that you can always rely on beaver there this isn't any airplane that can do what a beaver can do it's a fun airplane to fly and it gets in almost any place makes me happy to get it that's all I can say [Music] Rose of old military planes rusting in the Hot Desert Sun the things are about to change for this de Havilland beaver affectionately known as Olivia she's going to be restored upgraded and fit with the latest in aviation technology tetsuro director of aircraft maintenance and his team from Viking air arrived to disassemble Olivia and prepare her for her shipment to Canada this is exciting machism you know it's not too often use an original military beaver that's been sitting around for decades in the desert just waiting to be regenerated if an airframe could talk I'm sure this would have a lot to talk about ted plans to bring her back from the desert and update her to become the quintessential modern day beaver you know the the notion that an airplane will wear out or there's some kind of age limit on an aircraft doesn't really make much sense anymore with the capabilities that we have come up with fur for restoration techniques well they're tough old birds and given half a chance that can usually be brought back from whatever happens to them a lot of the flow plates have been at the bottom at least once or twice somebody I'll find one pull it out put it back in the air actor Harrison Ford is an avid pilot he was so impressed with the plane that he chose to rescue his own military beaver and have it expertly restored the first time I flew a beaver was after I agreed to do a film called six days seven nights this is my plane uh-huh this is the de Havilland beaver one of the most reliable aircraft ever built I think that's the one it was after that film completed that I decided I wanted one-eyed beaver of my own and set out to try and find one and do the work on it to restore it to pristine condition I wanted an aircraft that was as good as new and maybe a little better the Beavers original design was conceived in the early 1940s by the team at the de Havilland Aircraft Company of Canada located just north of Toronto in that building small teams of engineers and designers basically gathered around work tables and benches and built the aircraft that we know as the beaver de Havilland Canada's goal was to open up Canada's North in much the same way the railway open the West the beaver was conceived as a half-ton flying pickup truck capable of taking off and landing in very short distances on land water or snow one of the leading figures in the development of the beaver is PC Garrett Phillip Garrett Garrett as head of the company recognized during the war that the company had to enter the commercial market in order to survive there was no promise of government contracts Phil wanted to produce the first Canadian all-metal bush plane and he wanted it to have Stowell characteristics unless of power that's what pilots asked for the beaver was a risk it was a huge risk there basically were betting the company on this airplane the bush plane but they knew there was a market requirement Olivia it's a pretty nice name for this beaver it's a classy name for a classy airplane the plan is to get Olivia ready in time to attend the Beavers 60th anniversary celebration to be held on the grounds of the original factory Olivia will be stripped down to her frame she'll get a modern engine extra seats doors windows fuel tanks new avionics and amphibious floats making her capable of landing on virtually all terrain it's going to be a monumental task it's pretty rough sitting in the desert too long somebody pulled the emergency fuel oil there's no oil in it and this doesn't leave it on the I've never actually really seen one of these before this is a little lever that you would use to hand crank your engine from the starter it's kind of another interesting item it's got right hand left hand arming this is the release for the bomb mechanisms Oh needs a bit of work and you know what we're just the people to do it by the 1940s bush planes represented a vital link to the isolated communities across Canada it's an essential service for most to the north and there's always this temptation to load the airplane up but at the same time you have to get off the lake and you have to clear the trees at the end of the lake so you have this conundrum maximum payload but you still want to get off and clear the trees because if you find yourself a little low and the trees around the lake coming up fast you want to be able to pull up and and and you can do that in a beaver [Music] de havilland embarked on an ambitious and extensive market research process virtually unheard of at that time they were way ahead of their time when it came to marketing airplanes and and making an airplane fit a market the beaver was a lot of bush pilots ideas put together of just what they would liked to see what would help them with their work in flying these airplanes and remember they had to make a living room and that was difficult this typewritten survey had to reach pilots working under extreme conditions in remote locations the enthusiastic response from the bush pilots and especially the Dean of bush pilots punched Dickens turned out to be a key ingredient for the Beavers success punch probably knew the North better than anyone else during the time that he spent there he was one of those pilots who had to fly by the seat of his pants when it was pointed out that this airplane was not going to be very fast he said all you have to do is be able to fly faster than a dogsled ideas from some of Canada's greatest aviation heroes were incorporated into the design customizing it for optimum Bush performance we all had answers that he got back from the pilots and all the encouragement to build this airplane they went a hit they really had their heart and soul there is a phenomenon known as beaver hunting Annie Laird is known to many as king beaver his early interest in the plane has become a lifelong passion and now a full-time job I decided to do planes that were about the same age as I was the beaver was born I say it was conceived probably around 1946 and they've gone off all over the world and they've come back to Canada well this is Canadian I'm a new Canadian well I'd like to gradually try to find out what happened to most of the Bieber aircraft and trying to have each one represented it's detective work in it it's like the mother Lord you know you're panning for gold and suddenly there's a nugget it's like a hunter mm-hmm you don't know if the quarry is going to be there or not aired aims to create a virtual museum for all 1692 beavers ever made his website has fostered over half million hits and his headquarters for over 300 members from more than 100 countries I always say that even people who are not interested in airplanes can get a lot of pleasure from it because each beaver aircraft will be in a remarkable setting the Canadian bush the Sahara Desert the High Arctic and people expect there to be a new beaver everyday people in Romania United Arab Emirates something about 110 countries that people have been located kneel tracks the life span and history of every beaver he can find including Olivia she's very popular there she is after serving in the Korean War Olivia worked for the Texas Department of Agriculture before ending up at the Pima Air & Space Museum I presume she's going to get a Canadian registration oh yes they're trying to get C G OD H as Olivia despite all of the advancements in technology destined for Olivia much of our work will be done by hand just as de Havilland built them so many years before okay well this is plenty to do it for that screwdriver I'm not going to tell you what Plan C is and those are the easy ones you should see these ones in here Olivia's wings and other components are removed so that she can fit onto a flatbed truck that will take her to Victoria British Columbia and that seems so easy we're going to lift raise the airplane but because of the way the winds blowing we'll need Dave in the back to sort of hold it because it's one of the details gonna want to scream right it's right back here this could get exciting exciting is good too exciting is not so good and having a camera is even worse okay yell if he needs help okay Dave removing Oh guys good shot Santa right there in 1946 Ontario's department of lands and Forests recognized the need to replace their fleet of cloth bush planes and it pitted two of Canada's leading plane builders against each other de Havilland's beaver versus Fairchild's husky the race was on both the design of the Husky and the beaver were quite innovative for their day they had to keep it highly aerodynamic and they had to keep it small the company was at stake try to secure it outlook to its ends up back home in one piece not over for the route he'll be fine Olivia begins the long trip from Tucson Arizona to Victoria British Columbia is the first step in an extraordinary transformation to me it was really godly I hear airplanes you got in your goggle yeah it was so nice the beaver is unique in my experience for an aircraft of that size it's incredibly well balanced and light level controls you really can't fly it with two fingers and pilots will tell you that the reason they'd love the beaver is that it has an excess of power I know it's just it's a magical experience what this is an airplane that grew organically out of a need for an aircraft that could go into unimproved strips land on roads beaches carry a hell of a load and take a fair amount of abuse the long journey from the Arizona desert to the Pacific coast is over the restoration of the former military beaver Olivia is just beginning after 30 years of service and 20 more line forgotten in the desert her next flight will be as a brand new airplane [Music] back in 1946 the Beavers designers at the Havilland had to answer a number of critical questions before a prototype plane could be built because to have one was an English company they originally conceived of this aircraft is being powered by an English engine the plane as it looked was going to be underpowered and that was a complaint all push-push aircraft they're all underpowered their solution was to devise a huge wing to compensate for the underpowered engine I was in Montreal with Phil Garrett imagine director and we were having drinks and some dinner with the chairman of Pratt & Whitney Canada and he said why don't you put the wasp junior into the beaver there are lots of the surplus engines around and it'll give you more power Pratt & Whitney wasp junior r-985 engine was first designed in 1928 it was strong enough and provided even more power than the design now required the unmistakable sound of the classic rotary engine has recognized the world over oh there's nothing in the world that sounds quite like that engine and it's got a distinctive voice one that's easily recognized [Music] a lot of people use the analogy that it sounds like a harley-davidson and it does it's it's music to most people that here even the pilots that have become deaf listening to it they love that sound there are noisy airplane but round engines are music as far as I'm concerned to me and to many people is like hearing a loon on a lake if I hear a beaver taking off no matter where is my ears will perk up I mean this engines 1928 technology and here we are you know in the 21st century still driving along merrily x' times here time capsules hartmann of army technical manual the army 1965 all the weathered and worn parts of the old olivia are shed to make way for an modern makeover the team at Viking is determined they want her airborne in time for the 60th anniversary of the test flight in 1947 the first beaver to ever be flown was air tested by two pilots George Neil and Russ panic this is a big thrill of me to have them on the website is George hi George nice to see you and familiar ground rush came from the Air Force he was flying mosquitos overseas during the war he came over out of the Air Force and right into the civvie job that's where they had been beaver when they rolled over for you to fly yeah that's right the competition was already well into prototype test form a manufacturing team at de Havilland had to work fast and the clock was ticking so I waited until they called me to come down and fly the airplane there were a number of the engineering people and staff here watching so I simply piled into the airplane and got the engine started and a taxied out onto the runway and after I was satisfied that the controls were all working fine I actually took off we had a problem on the first flight I was checking all the instruments and noticed that the oil pressure was going down fairly rapidly when it was getting close to zero I realized I better land there was something wrong so I simply throttled right back and did a glide approach and landing when they drained the oil out after doing engine runs in the morning there was a non-return valve in the drain that was put in backwards said so 20 odd minutes it's siphoned the oil out and unfortunately I had shut the engine down so it didn't do any damage taking off in a little plane with a oil scavenge pump installed upside down you know he he wondered these these guys hadn't done a lot of this sort of stuff and two hours later I came down and jumped on the airplane and took off again on during this time I stayed in the air pretty close to an hour I was really quite pleased with the way it handled on that particular flight but it jumped right off the runway and landing make an approach at 75 miles an hour and it's touched down and I could have stopped in less than 100 yards so that confirmed that it was going to be a real Stowell airplane short takeoff and landing the beaver would prove itself to be the first aircraft with short takeoff and landing capabilities and some would say the best even to this day we didn't have any backlog of orders it was only a prototype Russ checked me out in the beaver the landplane of course and then he turned it over to me when we wanted to do the globe work you could just feel that aeroplanes leap into the air and it did it just leaped into the air well then when I got it down on floats we got airborne in about 1011 seconds so that let's just go to this world it'll always be known as the first fantastic airplane the stole operation happen it was so advanced it's just fantastic there wasn't anything to touch it despite the apparent advantage of the beaver people tested dusky the Huskies larger capacity made more demands on the wasp junior engine than the smaller design of the beaver favored soon turned to the plane with superior performance you could tell as soon as you compared the two of them that the Husky was going to use all the power that that engine could produce and the beaver was not and it really was as simple as that and it wasn't too long after we got into a prototype flying that we got an order for six beavers from the Interior Department lands and for the Husky was defeated and in the end only 12 were ever produced news of the Beavers performance spread rapidly across the country but in order for the beaver to become a commercial success de Haviland had to achieve sales beyond the needs of the Ontario government would you like fire there's an a remarkably useful airplane obviously it's it's meant to be heavily loaded and taking an amount of short unimproved strips it's still a lot of use for it over the years it has developed into the finest plane moves ever built former surplus army beaver olivia is almost halfway through being rebuilt into a state-of-the-art bush plane the bulkhead looks like a toilet seat we always call it the toilet seat here basically you see is re skinned at all made it look real nice and pretty and it's come along one of the most crucial structural elements is the support frame of the engine known as the bird cage so this bird cage actually came from this beaver when it came in we sent it for NDT non-destructive testing he did ultrasonic testing on it checked out all the two thicknesses make sure there's no corrosion inside it actually turned up one of the best we've ever found that this thing was like brand-new inside so living in the Arizona desert is a good thing for these players sales of Beaver aircraft were not significant in the early days de Havilland couldn't sustain more than one or two aircraft per month the 11th search and rescue squadron in Alaska advertised that they were looking for a bush plane that they could operate on floats in and out of rivers and small lakes so I planned a trip to Alaska after showing it to Colonel Balkan and some of his staff he asked if we could take them fishing to some particular spot where they had difficulty getting into they'd have to drive in with a Jeep for about 20 or 30 miles the performance of the Havilland STOL aircraft was so much superior to other aircraft of the state that it was essential to show the customer what the aircraft could do test pilots really played the role of salespeople they were really very much showman in their era I think I took about five people into this layer IDIA was a river when I landed on this river it wasn't very deep it was kind of winding he didn't know when he'd landed them on this Creek basically he didn't know that he's gonna be able to take off from there while the brass were fishing he was pounding stakes at the minimum distance and before he had to you know change direction and take him off he had to change direction several tools to do that and that impressed him that really impressed him because the load was heavier they caught a lot of fish everybody had a good time but they were astounded by what they what the airplane could do Cessna had sent up a Cessna 195 to try to get this business for the two of us lined up and we took off site by side and I think I was airborne and 300 feet in the air when the Cessna was Oh still on the water for the US military to order a foreign built aircraft the beaver would have to prove itself against the best America had to offer the beaver beat the competing aircraft hands down and the political obstacles that may have existed soon disappeared not only did the beaver win the day against stiff us competition but de Havilland secured the purchase of an impressive 973 beavers it was unprecedented first of all no Canadian company has ever done that before or since that's a thousand airplanes beaver orders and productions soared to 20 30 aircraft a month when you look at Canadian built aircraft the beaver today still holds the rank as the most produced aircraft no other aircraft comes close the beaver happened to cut his teeth in in Korea was known as the generals Jeep they did a lot of things like string wire communication wire across valleys transport wounded soldiers to and from the field act as indeed you know the Jeep for General Eisenhower when he went touring well the beaver was a tremendous aircraft for us out in the field and once the pilot got checked out in it it was like putting on your own coat you hit that comfortable with it we were all attached to it and still are a man who flew this aircraft in Vietnam and other places during the Vietnam War flew this aircraft for Air America which of course is the unofficial airline of the CIA for whatever reason they put a patch in there maybe there was a dent there or a hole there or something but that doesn't look very pretty so we'll get rid of it there aren't too many are the original skins left in the airplane gives up sometimes it's quicker to replace a whole skin panel than to repair a damaged part on this way you get a brand new panel the Viking crew hurries to have Olivia completed in time to attend the anniversary of the beaver six decades of service hey Jeanne looks like they liked the scheme she's like a desert Queen that's being resurrected I mean she spent 20 years in a museum and I don't think they ever thought she'd fly again and she's gonna fly again my job is the mechanical cosmetician is to turn her into this today maintaining and restoring an existing Beaver Plains is the only way to meet market demand but in the 50s and 60s the Havilland Canada saw an ever-increasing stream of customers for beavers spurred by the large sale to the US Army we sold almost a thousand beavers the fact that you sell beavers in that number to the US military makes it attractive to commercial people around the world if the American army think it's so good maybe we should have a look at it it allowed the sale of a lot of other commercial airplanes wherever we went we seem to sell her place we sold beavers to other air forces like the Austrian air force the the Dutch air force the British Army had 46 beaver aircraft delivered they flew in just about every part of the world and we had them in service for 27 years until 1989 this is an illustration of our last beaver it's still flying in military regulation colors it's still flying on the British military register and we've had it as part of our historic aircraft flight now since 1990 and it's very much a I display draw people come to look at this airplane because of its history in the British Army but we've operated the aircraft across the globe sometimes some of the operations the Vives went into and in in wars in in the Middle East or in the Far East right down in the dirt next to the soldiers who are actually doing the fighting resupplying them casualty of information you could always rely on the beaver and I think actually most of us are disappointed it's no longer in service Kelly did excellent bodywork serves all our cellulites gone so she's nice and smooth and why that's so important to me Olivia is going to get it to have one symbol they'll have an airplane in the middle and it'll be the same colors contrasting colors as their stripes so it'll be red and gold and that'll look really cool mister tail will be very flashy and that's very important on a nice lady [Music] nothing's ever been built it does what the beaver does today absolutely molten in British army service will go on for many years to come that's what it's current current history living history beaver plains have not been produced since 1967 if they are still highly sought after as the definitive bush plane the million dollar restoration of Olivia is easily justified [Applause] in the mid-60s aviation technology was advancing fast you turbine engines opened up the industry for faster quieter travel de Havilland Canada modified the original piston engine beaver design to incorporate the new technology give him the beaver an even higher rate of climb greater altitude and the ability to carry heavier payloads what was the reasoning behind stopping the turbo beaver production at 60 this was a character named Ted Emmert who was the became chairman of Hawker Siddeley Canada which had taken over to Havilland and he had the idea that we should get out of these small airplanes and get into bigger airplanes and he just directed that production being stopped which was kind of stupid to look somebody could actually put the turbo beaver back in their production there'd be a market for it after only sixty turbos were made de havilland began to shift its focus towards larger airliners despite the increasing popularity of the beaver the entire line was shut down and production ended in 1967 when you see I've got the crew Brian and Jane's building up the brand new 56:34 engines all the sheetmetal aspects of the conversion has been completed so this is a milestone for the turbo beaver project it's just so easy to damage it up you know you got three or four people putting the engine in and have new ding the side of the engine case the engine has to be shipped back to overhaul the sylheti to be repaired but the problem here is that we don't have any extra time to put the airplane together we just can't afford to have anything like that happen they're hoping we're gonna have the airplane completed before they go to the show it's gonna be pretty close you never know if the airplane is gonna teach you a little lesson right at the very end and as long as we concentrate on what we're doing I think we'll be ok after more than 50 years the demand for the beaver remains because they're not manufactured anymore the fleet is technically getting smaller the value of the aircraft is such that you can do it economically by rebuilding an airplane can you ask him to stop hammering for like 20 minutes [Music] our airplane and bodies conversions and upgrades from other companies to that we've certified for for use on the turbo beaver and on the piston beaver and you know so I think it's an industry effort it's unbelievable the industry that is developed around a product that hasn't been in production for you know 40 years well a great airplane doesn't mean that there are a lot of things that can be done to it to make it even greater for instance this one has an A og stole kit which is a leading-edge cuff drooped wingtips and a reset of the wing angle which makes the plane fly flatter it goes a little faster and lands a little slower open you can put an atv and say this airplane you can put practically anything if you could fit an elephant through the door you could you can fly with it it's quite incredible the aircraft has evolved and adapted with the generations to perform many more modern roles when I first came the Kenmore air harbor we had one de Havilland beaver very file was jealous of the whoever doesn't fly it you know and so pretty soon we got another airplane and then another airplane since we were operating the airplanes ourselves we would find that the airplane itself had a few shortcomings Kenmore Air was the next company to modify the design with new ideas and modern technology we were able to develop different modifications for the airplane we were the very first ones to do these modifications we put a steering system so now we have steering improvement and that made the pilots very happy where the original steps were round steel tubes with three people sitting across the largest part of your body is the shoulders and so the shoulder sticks out right into this area where the flat window was now it's a bubble just about every beaver sea plane flying in the world now I think how one or two or several the kenmore modification so it's kind of fun to see how it's been accepted around the world and the beaver market a lot of the little things that the Kenmore pioneered are part of the package on this airplane near the end of the Vietnam War the helicopter was quickly becoming the aircraft of choice for army operations the surviving beavers were made serpents that was the beginning of our beaver rebuild program forty years later now I think over 130 leaders have come through our shop been rebuilt and so forth it's quite exciting to have seen the condition a lot of these military surplus planes came in mouthal haven't flown for years to a final rebuild it was quite amazing to see that one of our big markets was refurbishing the Beavers and selling them to Alaska operators [Music] Kenmore air is one of the largest and busiest beaver operators in America it's here that Harrison Ford's beaver was rebuilt I visited quite a few times while Kenmore we're putting a airplane together and it was everything I hoped it would be I think it was one of the military kids lives is still here that we were able to rebuild for him and fix him up with a nice airplane that seems to be real happy flying it all around the country hi hello level across this country you get to see not just the great natural beauty of the country and the scope of the that's of the history of the country the way it grew up I love taking out new challenges like short strips and crosswind ale real airplanes and beautiful 8,500 feet over Briley Idaho not a bad way to spend the afternoon [Music] after much anticipation Olivia's airframe is seeing engine power for the first time in decades it's nice to hear that sound of that engine running and especially when everything's working like that you know we breathe some new life into it today I think it's gonna be a battle right to the end to see if we can finish on time tonight this aircraft harkens back to the time when airplanes were much simpler machines than they are now I guess part of the simplicity results in a feel in a contact with the airplane that you don't have perhaps with some other more complex airplanes although no new beavers have been made since to Havilland stop production in 1967 they are still much in demand prospective buyers have to hunt down rescue and restore old surplus planes like Olivia floats are on the engines on the tails on and once we get the wings on we can finish reading the flight controls so yeah I mean there's only what a week till they wanted to part so there's not much time left a few remaining days left until takeoff Olivia isn't final assembly the second maiden voyage will see her return to that very hangar she was built in over half a century ago you can see we've got the wings on Olivia and she doesn't even look close to the airplane that I went down and took apart in Arizona like a basically Lake up like a mile turn into butterflies first feet first time it's been flying in 30 years and we're all looking forward to it and Dave Curtis over here is actually really looking forward to it because it's uh it's his baby and actually what you see here is the total of about fifty nine hundred man-hours and it's quite a bit cuz we had to do a lot of work sitting in the desert for 30 years and and in a few more minutes we're gonna go flying make sure we don't do any hanger rash on it Olivia is transformed into a high-tech marvel ready to cross the country in honor of the Beavers 60th year in service the the plane was found in the Arizona desert we fell in love with it it had a name Olivia Olivia de Havilland movie star perhaps yes very excited to you know to be able to to take this airplane to Toronto to the to the show perform beautifully on the test white it's like a new airplane after only one point eight hours of test flying Viking airs chief pilot Don Behrens begins the 4,500 kilometer trip across the country [Music] [Music] restored military beaver Olivia crosses Canada's vast expanse with just days remaining before the 60th anniversary celebrations are set to begin in Ontario terrain ahead pull up direction either just Allah Nelson two minutes ago eastbound and document if it's not already she's flying higher faster and farther between stops than she ever has before so here we are in Sioux sainte-marie were in a couple hours of Downsview her birthplace well there was a couple of instances along the way where the weather was a little on the sketchy side but what we managed to make it through [Music] Moscow Delta hotel Fernet Patil an accountant [Music] we had wonderful well sure it's going to be proceed straight to the end of runway three three exit to your left okay see Olivia now finds herself back on the very tarmac from which he first took flight while we certainly purchased all the rights to the airplanes I look at it more like we're the stewards I hope to be here in 40 years on a panel you know the beavers original test pilot Russ Banach flew to the event in his son Michael zone turbo beaver and now meet the newest restored beaver for the first time you know my daughter's name is Olivia yes I know that yeah Olivia de Havilland and he saw the registration yes they did Mike was here I maybe had too happened I met her yeah my mother still talks about this do you have a number in mind beavers you thought you'd sell yeah you know we're sure we thought we'd sell a couple of hundred debugs you know with a bit of luck we might sell four or five hundred we never ever thought we'd sell almost 2,000 why is the piston Beaver floats selling for half a million dollars when it originally sold for $30,000 which floats and that's because there's nothing to replace it you know that's right modern beavers are still being used every day for agricultural and surveying work by commercial operators commuters and tourists across the globe one of the things I like best about phlanagus is that when I'm up here up another pilot another airplane not a movie actor first tailwheel airplane I'm clueless the de Havilland beaver I've never really seen one up close very impressive airplane it spreads over so many years and it's not finished yet the beaver well they call it the immortal beaver and it is I've never really thought that yet but I did the first flight sixty years ago they would still be flying off of this same runway same airfield in a turbo beaver sixty years later [Music] original test pilot less panic takes off from the very same runway to the vivo first flew from some 16 years old [Music] I did the first place August 16 it's just something that burns its way into your psyche it's a beautiful thing [Music] [Music] makes me happy to get it that's all I can say

Channel: Spark

Views: 1,156,590

Rating: 4.88026 out of 5

Keywords: Spark, Science, Technology, Engineering, Learning, How To, education, documentary, factual, mind blown, construction, building, full documentary, 2017, 2016, 2015, full, space documentary, bbc documentary, Science documentary, the immortal beaver documentary, beaver airplane, beaver airplane on floats, electric beaver airplane, beaver model airplane, harrison ford, harrison ford plane, harrison ford plane collection, harrison ford beaver de havilland

Id: b2hZe9ToaEI

Length: 46min 49sec (2809 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 13 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/BecauseISayItsSo]

Now if Harrison Ford could only learn to use runways correctly, we might be in good shape.

NOTE: In the past couple of years, Ford has had two major "oopsie!" infractions while flying his plane. One, he landed on a taxiway. The second, I believe, he crossed an active runway while taxiing.

[u/DurtStar]

“The dean of bush pilots, Punch Dickins, turned out to be a key ingredient in the Beaver’s success.”

[u/Desalvo23]

I rented one for a cruise around Labrador, Canada back in 2011. What a blast that experience was. Wild ride.

[u/Darktyde]

The safest and most reliable plane... except when Harrison Ford is flying one.

[u/LonghairdontcareLA]

I assume that’s the place he crashed in, right?

[u/icky_boo]

Turbo Beaver looks cool!

[u/cipeone]

Nobody else could “take up to eight in the beaver”

[u/5kyl3r]

i’ve ridden in one! i believe it was a 65. also flew in a twin engine turbo prop otter

[u/damarius]

Thank you for posting this, I had not seen it before. I have flown in Beavers probably a dozen times. My dad worked for the Department of Lands and Forests in the 60s and he took me with him on some flights to remote areas, which I'm sure would not be allowed these days. I probably flew in some of those original DLF Beavers.

I remember one flight in particular in a storm where the change-in-altitude warning (not a pilot so don't know what the real name is) was chirping like crazy, and the pilot said we have to land. We did, on a small lake which the pilot wasn't happy about having to take off from but we were OK after the storm passed. As the documentary said, the Beaver was amazing for taking off quickly.

My last flight on a Beaver was to a remote community where my employer had become responsible for a school. No roads, and semi-weekly rail service. This was our plane: http://imgur.com/gallery/aUk3QIg

I am one month younger than the commission date for this plane.

The Norseman bush plane was not as popular as the Beaver but there is an annual festival here in Northwestern Ontario for it, as well. We don't have roads to a lot of places, still.

Cheers to an aviation legend.

Edit: I should have added that I live right near a "seaplane base" so hear Beavers going overhead everyday, the sound is distinctive. Also, I regret that the restoration of Olivia lost the distinctive curve on the front edge of the rudder. That profile is classic.