DHC-2 Beaver maintenance

We have 3 hangars.  The biggest and newest is about 15,000 square feet and is located at the Campbell River Airport, CYBL. Most of the structures work is done there, as well as a lot of maintenace.

The two older hangars are at Tyee Spit, where the Campbell River meets the sea in Discovery Passage. Once the busiest float plane base on the West Coast, Tyee Spit is now mostly park.  All that remains of the glory days are two fixed wing operators, a helicopter business, a fishing lodge, and us.

Our main hangar, the “Spit Hangar”, houses the main offices, our welding shop, the area for the Twin Otter control surface assembly work we do for Viking Air, and our special projects. 

The other hangar is where we do float plane maintenance. Years ago, when it belonged to Air Rainbow, the hangar was painted with murals depicting coastal scenes.  The wall we see from our offices was painted with a gigantic bald eagle, and the hangar got the name “Eagle Hangar”.

Bob took a picture of it on a quiet Sunday:

The view from Bob’s toolbox: JWU framed by JZE.

Cabin Extension Kits and Alaska Doors always seem to survive, no matter what.  Recently we supplied some parts to repair the first Alaska Door we ever made.  The plane had been bent in an accident, but there was no damage to the doors until the crew on board kicked them open. 

JZE is no exeption.  The cabin extension is OK.

Juliet Whiskey is back, painted a flat military grey, with a yellow slash on the tail. Here is a sneak preview.  We’ll take more pictures when the doors go back on.

It’s never a good thing when a plane goes in, but, in the case of C-FJZE, it wasn’t all bad news.  Joel at Air Cab in Coal Harbour (the one near Port Hardy), pioneered a flight tracking system and has been negotiating with Transport Canada to get inflatable personal flotation devices allowed and approved on float planes.

A couple of weeks ago, one of his Beavers got caught in an unexpected downdraft at Goose Bay, Rivers Inlet.  Larry Pynn at the Vancouver Sun tells the story:

Air Cab is a charter company flying the B.C. coast from the Alaska border south to Tofino. A Transport Canada inspection in 2009 found the company’s operations to be satisfactory.

The fleet consists of two Cessna 185 and three Beaver float planes.

Correction: make that two Beavers -at least, for the time being.

As fate would have it, on the morning of May 20, one of Eilertsen’s Beavers crash-landed near Egg Island in Rivers Inlet.

The pilot was Ryan MacDonald, the same one who told The Sun only weeks earlier how he hoped that all of Eilertsen’s safety measures would never be needed.

Having them all work proved to be the next best thing.

As Eilertsen takes up the story, MacDonald ran into an extreme downward gust of wind — inconsistent with calm conditions reported in the vicinity — just as he was about to land.

The plane’s right wing hit the water and the aircraft cart-wheeled across the surface.

MacDonald wore a shoulder harness and escaped through the co-pilot’s door and got himself up onto the floats without injury.

“Once he got out, he realized he hadn’t taken time to grab one of the life jackets,” Eilertsen said. “And then he said, ‘I got this silly-ass smile across my face and remembered I was wearing a Mustang vest.’”

MacDonald hit the emergency switch on the Skytrax system before exiting the plane and alerted the Air Cab office in Coal Harbour at 8:25 a.m.

Eilertsen fielded a call on his cellphone in Campbell River, where he was having breakfast at a White Spot restaurant, at 8:27 a.m.

And by 8:30 a.m. he’d been alerted that a private sport fishing camp at the old Goose Bay Cannery had spotted the pilot on the floats — okay — and was sending a boat to fetch him.

“All the safety things I had put in place worked very well,” he concluded. “I’m quite pleased.”

Except, of course, for the fact that the Beaver sank in 50 metres of water and is being recovered. Damage is estimated at $250,000.

“I am upset to lose an airplane,” he confirmed.

lpynn@vancouversun.com

You can read the whole story at: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Broken+Wings+Aviation+unlikely+hero/3091407/story.html

Greg and Peter helped bring it home.. Now Bob and his crew are starting on the repairs.

Heliqwest Aviation brought a K-MAX in for a visit to our hangar at the Campbell River airport.  The Kaman K-1200 is an American Helicopter with intermeshing rotors designed for lifting. It weighs just over 5000 pounds but can handle a 6000 pound external lift.

It’s a case of form follows function. By the way, Kaman also makes cool guitars!

This good looking Aztec came in last week. Greg, our DOM, joined the owner in Seattle to fly it up to Campbell River.  Greg gets most of the fun flying jobs.

The Aztec is at our airport hangar for an import and the modifications needed to install a camera system.

Looking good!  She just needs a few placards, upholstery and paint….  

DHC-2 Serial Number 1613 has a new identity, C-GJWU, and is getting a few changes.  We’re adding a belly tank and have extended the cabin extension. Bob is calling it the “Double E” . 

Almost everything is finished.  Dan is preparing to paint the interior.  After that we install the door trim and do the final adjustments to the doors. Masking takes the most time….