Beavering on

“Large doors to facilitate easy loading was a must and also the ability to refuel the aircraft without climbing up on a frozen slippery wing to access the fuel tanks. Being able to add engine oil from within the cockpit would also be handy. A powerful, reliable engine was essential. And of course, they wanted it all metal, no fabric. Of course, the aircraft had to turn a profit.”

The de Havilland Canada designers delivered all of this and more with a design that exceeded expectations in every regard.

Seventy years after the first Beaver took flight, hundreds are still operating and making money for their owners who fly them commercially, while many more are in private hands used mainly for recreational flying.

It is an enduring aircraft because there simply is nothing out there to replace it. The Beaver is in such demand that even wrecked and severely damaged aircraft are routinely rebuilt by expert engineers and technicians. Old, well used Beavers are being completely rebuilt and with new updates making them better than factory new Beavers. Owners willingly pay the cost for these “new” Beavers. Some have been rebuilt numerous times.

It is an enduring aircraft because there is nothing out there to replace it.

Surprisingly though, while it was bush pilots who drove the design of the Beaver, the largest orders would come from military and agriculture operators. The US Defense Department, in a rare departure from its practice of ordering only US-built aircraft, procured 970 Beavers, while Aerial Agriculture of Australia acquired 69 aircraft. New Zealand agriculture operators such as Fieldair and East Coast Air Services also acquired Beavers in numbers, while more than 30 military operators acquired the Beaver, many operating them in Arctic and Antarctic environments.

Among those was the RAAF, which acquired five Beavers for operations in the Antarctic. One ex RAAF Beaver, the one time A95-205 is now C-FAWA, currently owned by Harbour Air of Vancouver.

Qantas, meanwhile, acquired five Beavers for operations in Papua New Guinea. One of those, the former VH-EAU, still flies today, operating out of Prince Rupert, British Columbia as C-FTCW with Ocean Pacific Air, 63 years after beginning its flying career with Qantas in 1954.

Likewise many of the former agricultural Beavers from Australia have been rebuilt and now fly in Canada and the United States.

Beaver VH-AQA flew on floats for many years out of Rose Bay, Sydney. Who could imagine it began its career with the Ghana Air Force before undertaking agricultural work in Malaysia, then Rose Bay, completely rebuilt to new in 2012 in New Zealand as ZK-BVR and now residing in Alberta, Canada as C-GTTU.

At a time when agricultural operators were flying Tiger Moths, Cessna 180s and PA-25 Pawnees, Tom Watson of Aerial Agriculture identified the Beaver as a replacement for the Tiger Moth for aerial spreading. He went on to acquire 69 Beavers, bypassing the Pawnee and Cessna era. As a young 23-year-old Peter Reardon recalls joining Aerial Ag in 1965 and recounts his initial observations of the Beaver.

“They were like a heavy bomber compared to their lesser peers of Cessna C180s and Piper PA-25 Pawnees that I had been flying,” Reardon recalls. “This Canadian designed-bushplane was ideal for Australian aerial agricultural operations. It was solid, rugged, dependable and probably the best combination of powerplant and airframe to enter the industry at that time – long before speciality turbine aircraft became available.”

Reardon would go on to fly the Beaver between 1965 and 2012, spending more than one year airborne in 18 different Beavers between 1965 and 1972.

“The Beavers carried 2,240lb, double the load of a C180 or Pawnee. For half the normal 80 ground cycles per day the Beaver could uplift the same 40 tonne. If the Beaver completed 80 cycles the output would be 80 tonne and provide greater remuneration for a given tonnage output on any given day. This was both a major safety and financial incentive for any young Ag pilot. Most noticeable of all, the Beaver reduced the physical effort required to use the aircraft all day long in the ag environment.”

Over the years numerous Beavers come in to aircraft maintenance/rebuilding companies that have been severely damaged, sometimes to the point of looking like hopeless cases. Some Beavers have been completely rebuilt around nothing but the identity plate. It helps that there are companies like Viking Air that manufacture Beaver replacement parts. As well, there are many factory new parts out there, ready to be used in a rebuild. The Pratt and Whitney R985 engine is a perfect fit for the Beaver and there seems to be no end to the supply of them. Those engines too are regularly rebuilt to factory new condition.

In 2007, after many years away from the Beaver, Reardon once again had the opportunity to step into a Beaver’s office. His long-time friend Sy Allsep had imported a wrecked Beaver and restored it to airworthiness. Following Sy’s premature passing this aircraft, VH-SYS has been acquired by Sam Brown of New Zealand and will be re-built as a commercial Beaver for operations in the eco-tourism industry, flying passengers into and out of the Kahurangi and Abel Tasman National Parks.

“The main thing that makes the Beaver an ageless aircraft is purely the fact that nothing has ever replaced it,” Mark Stagg of Argus Aviation, which is rebuilding VH-SYS, recalls. “I can’t think of anything else that will haul the loads / perform as well as they do without the use of a turbine.”

SYS (to become ZK-SBV) is a fine example of a Beaver reborn several times, having flown in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia before being rebuilt in Australia and now being rebuilt in New Zealand.

Back in Canada, the Beaver continues to thrive in its original bush aircraft role. In the wilderness of Ontario, Quebec, Alaska, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and in the northern regions of Canada, the Beaver continues to perform its role little changed over 70 years.

Particularly on floats the Beaver has also been re-invented for high-end tourism charter and scheduled passenger services. Harbour Air of Vancouver, Canada operates the largest floatplane fleet in North America with 61 de Havilland Canada aircraft on strength, including 18 Beavers and one turbine-converted Beaver.

They operate into high population density areas such as Victoria Harbour, Nanaimo and Vancouver Harbour. Like fellow Beaver operators Kenmore Air, Seair and others their operations have seen major changes over the years but the Beaver has been a constant.

Like the operations of Sydney Seaplanes out of Rose Bay, Harbour Air and Kenmore Air have recently completed construction of a new seaplane terminal, at Victoria Harbour, featuring a green roof, solar power and 10,000 honey bees to make the terminal the greenest in the world. The Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre also features a green roof and other environmentally friendly innovations. It is within this eco-friendly environment that the Beaver continues to evolve, adapt and thrive, the older and louder two bladed props giving way to quieter three-bladed props, custom leather seats, headphones, panoramic windows and GPS all combining to keep the Beaver much loved both downtown and in the bush.

In Australia and New Zealand, Beavers currently form the backbone of operations out of Sydney Harbour and Auckland Harbour and exclusive resorts such as Hayman Island and the Whitsundays.

The holder of the manufacturing and distribution rights for Beaver spare parts is Viking Air of Victoria, Canada. Viking Air currently manufactures the DHC-6 400 Twin Otter as well as producing spare parts for the Beaver.

In an example of how a Beaver can be modernised, Viking acquired an ex US Army L20 Beaver, serial number 979, that had sat in the open desert at the Pima Air Museum in Tucson, Arizona for 20 years, stripped it down, shipped it on a flatbed trailer to Victoria and rebuilt it as a Turbine Beaver with a new Pratt & Whitney PT6A-27 turbine engine and an ‘all up’ weight increase to 6,000lb, turning a 20 year museum piece into a modern commercial aircraft. Carrying the registration C-GODH it is named and registered after the famous screen actress Olivia de Havilland.

Today Olivia is operated by Vikings sister company Pacific Sky Aviation headquartered at Victoria airport. Pacific Sky provides all flight operations for Viking Air, including engineering and production flight testing, acceptance flights, global marketing demonstration flights, customer delivery flights and flight training, including advanced Twin Otter training for pilots throughout the world. Pacific Sky has recently completed installation of the world’s first Twin Otter Level ‘D’ Full Flight Simulator and Flat Panel Trainer at its centre in Calgary.

In this the 150th year of Canadian Federation, Harbour Air has applied a celebratory colour scheme to Beaver C-FFHA, this Beaver simply being referred to in the fleet as the ‘Canada Beaver’.

Other operators such as Kenmore Air, Sealand Aviation and Wipaire have become renowned for their modifications and improvements to the Beaver over the years. Kenmore, Sealand, Aerial Agriculture of Sydney, Frank Wright of New Zealand and many others have developed well-deserved reputations for their ability to completely rebuild or modify Beavers.

The ease of total/partial rebuild and ready modification is a major contributor to the longevity of the Beaver. Its lack of a direct competitor, its ease of maintenance and solid operating costs form the basis of many operations. This is one very fine aircraft still beavering along.