Sunday, January 25, 2009

 

Steve's "Otter Of The Week"! .....by Karl E. Hayes

When I first started my aviation career flying "trappers" and "rice-pickers" in the Little Grand Rapids - Pauingassi - Deer Lake - Poplar Hill - Pikangikum area 25 years ago, there was an Otter I would hear regularly in the summer "flogging" north to Dogskin Lake Lodge and associated outcamps. She used to operate from Bird River near Lac du Bonnet, and I always wondered what happened to her. Well, I just found out.............

All information is from Karl Hayes' "masterful" CD entitled:

De Havilland Canada
DHC-3 OTTER
A HISTORY

CONTACT KARL, CD PRICING and ORDERING INFO - De Havilland DHC-3 OTTER - A HISTORY by Karl E. Hayes
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Otter 438

Otter 438 was delivered to Hudson Bay Air Transport Ltd of Flin Flon, Manitoba on 24th May 1963, registered CF-PEM. Also delivered to the company the same day was number 439 CF-PEN. These two Otters were ordered as replacements for Otters CF-JOR (212) and CF-KTI (269) which had both been destroyed in a fire at the company's hangar at Flin Flon on 4th April 1963. They had replaced the destroyed Otters less than two months after the tragic fire, an indication of the importance of the DHC-3 to the Hudson Bay Air Transport operation.

These two Otters flew alongside the company's surviving Otter CF-MIQ (336) until the need for bush aircraft diminished during the early 1980s. CF-PEM was sold in April 1983 to Tall Timber Fly-In Service of Lac du Bonnet, Manitoba with a change of name to Tall Timber Aviation Ltd in March 1992. It was sold on to Thunderbird Aviation (590730 Alberta Ltd) of Stony Rapids, Saskatchewan in May 1994 and carried Athabasca Fishing Lodges titles. The company also operates a Cessna 206 and is a division of Blackmur's Athabasca Fishing Lodges. Both the Otter and the Cessna are used to service the company's lodges, which are located in the vicinity of Lake Athabasca in northern Saskatchewan.

*** LATEST UPDATE!***

Otter 438

January 1st, 2008. C-FPEM. Thunderbird Aviation, Stony Rapids, Saskatchewan. R-1340. The Otter flies for Athabaska Fishing Lodges.

- by Karl E. Hayes
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Wow! Glad she is still in Canada, and still "sporting" her 1340. There is something about the "lines" of the "Standard Otter"........


- CF-PEM of Athabasca Fishing Lodges (Anthony J. Hickey)

CONTACT KARL, CD PRICING and ORDERING INFO - De Havilland DHC-3 OTTER - A HISTORY by Karl E. Hayes

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