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DHC-2 BEAVER

If you are ever lucky enough to fly in a Beaver, you will develop a new opinion about

How an airplane should really perform. A 48-foot wingspan, 450-hp radial engine

And full span flaps can have it airborne in less than 100 feet in the right conditions.

With a wide range of flap extensions, it lives up to it’s STOL billing.

Takeoffs over a densely treed shoreline can feel positively helicopter-like, descents

amazingly steep, yet fully controllable. Only when large objects like snowmobiles,

refrigerators or boats are strapped on the out-side does the performance wane.

Nonetheless, the mere fact that such external cargo can be carried is a tribute to the

Beaver’s capabilities. The Beaver can carry a lot of weight and bulk for a plane its size,

But not so much to destroy your back. Perhaps that is why the Otter was built.

In a typical configuration, a Beaver load consists of five occupants, 4 or 5 hundred lbs.

of luggage and 35 gallons of fuel- enough for an hour and 45 minutes of  flying.

For longer flights there are three fuel tanks under the floor and an optional two in the wing tips.

Possibly the only shortcoming that the Beaver has is speed- or rather the

lack of it. On floats it cruises at around 100 knots, give or take some.

This can be nice in a way. You can slide the window down on hot days without

making it to windy inside. And opening the widow doesn’t make much difference on

 the noise level inside either- it’s already loud.

The slow but agile aircraft almost feels out of place when high above the land.

It is more in its element when flown low enough for the pilot to be able to see the wind on

the water and in the trees. It’s there that a Beaver is most comfortable.