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Dear Freddy K,
I am an "aviation enthusiast", as they call them here in Europe, living in
Ireland, and I have a great interest in the DHC-3, the "Single Otter" as
they call it nowdays. I just came upon your website, which is excellent.
Way back in 1982 we published a book on the Otter, describing all 466 of
them built, and although the book is now out of print, we are working on a
second edition, so any stories about the Canadian military Otters would be
most welcome. I would also like to obtain some stickers (zappers, you may
call them) of the 400 and 411 Squadron patches, and wonder if these are
obtainable from any source, to illustrate the book?
I visited Downsview in September 1980 and was given a great tour by
Lt.Col. Landreville, and it was very exciting for an Irishman to see all
those Otters. At that stage the Canadian military had 22 Otters, 11 at
Downsview and 11 at St.Hubert, and in case it may be of any interest to you,
I can set out what became of the 11 Downsview Otters:
3669 Went to Points North Air as C-FASV and crashed at Waterfound, Sask
on 1 May 1999. Unfortunately destroyed by fire in
the crash.
3671 Went to All West Freight of Sterling, Alaska as N26DE.
3673 This is the Otter shown in the photographs of Andy Gyorffy on your
website, which made the crash landing in a field on a
maintenance test flight out of Downsview. The date was 12
January 1981. It was trucked in that condition to the Mountain
View depot and then donated to the Pacific vocational Institute
in Vancouver and trucked all the way to the west coast.
They fixed it up, but it sat outside for years in use as an
instructional airframe. Somebody then bought it, and did it up as
a beautiful turbine Otter with a PT-6 engine, and it still
flies today, as C-FSVP. just shows you cant keep a good Otter
down!
9404 Became C-GVDM with Adlair Aviation in far north Cambridge Bay.
Then flew for Johnny May's Air Charter at Fort Chimo in
remote Quebec, or Kuujjuaq as it is now called.
9405 Became C-GSMG with Sioux Narrows Airways, Yellowknife. Flies
fishermen to Plummers Lodge.
9415 Became N61LC flying for Diamond Aviation, Wrangell, Alaska.
Crashed and now under rebuild at Victoria, BC
9416 Now flying as N3125N with 40 Mile Air, Tok, Alaska. Now
engined with a 1000 horse Polish PZL engine
9420 Now flying as C-GBQC with Fort Frances Sportsmen, Fort Frances,
Ontario
9421 Now flying as C-GUTQ with Air Saguenay in Quebec
9422 Now flying as C-GFUT with Nordpaq in Schefferville, Quebec
9423 Now flying as C-GUTW with Harbour Air, Vancouver, having been
converted to a DHC-3T turbo Otter with a PT-6 engine.
I was very interested to read on your website about the long
trip by 3671 and 9404 to Myrtle Beach. I wonder was that for an air show, or
what brought the Otters so far south? Were there any other stops there and
back apart from Chase City, WV. the full routing of this epic voyage would
be of interest to me, and were there any other long range trips undertaken
by the Downsview Otters?
I read about the North Bay summer camps on your site. Sure sounds like it
was great fun. I think that the Downsview Otters also went to other places
in other years, Goose Bay etc, and hopefully someday stories will be written
about these deployments.
Anyway, just to make contact with fellow Otter enthusiasts, and to say how
much I enjoyed the site. Keep up the good work in adding to it.
Best wishes,
Karl
Hayes,
Karl.Hayes@goregrimes.ie
Dublin, Ireland
Webmaster's note: Anyone having info on trips to Goose Bay, the cross-Canada
farewell trip of the Otter, etc
please contact Karl.