What's it cost to run a wheeled Beaver?
GPH?
Cruise speed?
Insurance?
Mx?
etc...

18-22gph

110kts

$$$

$$$$$

Ok, joking a little there. Mx can vary greatly depending on the individual machine and individual luck and of course one's standards.

When I worked at the Kenmore Air Harbor annuals would routinely be in the 10k plus range, but those were primarily floatplanes.

If able avoid buying parts from Viking Air - $$$$$$$

FWIW I saw a turbine Beaver at the Spruce Goose at Jefferson County airport the other day, very nice. I believe it was a factory version (squared vertical). Probably what, 3/4 of a mil to buy one of those?

Don't know what the going price is these days. I know they were ridiculously expensive just before the recession and the prices dropped a lot when when the bottom fell out.

I am betting the prices have gone back up as the economy, real estate, and stock market have recovered. Lots of Amazonians, Microsofties, etc. up here with cash in their pockets. Quick look shows DH-2's going in the range of $250k-mid high $500k area.

Maint. is never going to be cheap on that plane.

A good rule of thumb is to divide the horsepower by 20 and you will get the GPH.. For example 450 hp PW Wasp Jr. should give about 22.5 gph. Leaning, etc can reduce that.

I owned a Beaver for several years. On floats fuel was about 19 imperial gals an hour. Also factor in just less than a gallon of oil per hour. Maintainance costs what it costs. One month it will be cowling repair, next a hole in a fuel tank and then a rubbed flying wire. and bearings in elevator every 3-400 hrs. Your Beaver will be different but still have issues.
Great fun on floats and skis, not much use for wheels during my time.

dogone. Ha, sounds like a Land Cruiser.

Pretty much agree with the above. At 28/1800, 21-22 gph gave me about 50 ROP. Flight planning 25 gph worked out about perfect on a 2-3 hour flight including climb and descent.

Probably a gallon of oil every 5 hours with a low time motor.

As a 700 hour pilot, 500 or so in the beaver, quotes ran around $13,000 full coverage. Straight EDOs summer, wheels the other 8 months. Idaho. 8 seats total.

Kevin

I played around looking once upon a time

North of 20GPH
Slower than a 172
Hangsr fitment might be a issue in some places especially if you’re amphib or big tires
Anything under half a mil (years ago) was major project status

I always said the only plane I’d “upgrade” from my 185 would be a DHC2, but real world it’s just too slow, too expensive, and as I don’t really fill my 185, and I have hunted with it before hauling a good size buck back, even if I was rich the DHC2 just wouldn’t make sense shy from the cool factor, unless you are hauling 55G drums or something, YMMV

TomD wrote:Don't know what the going price is these days. I know they were ridiculously expensive just before the recession and the prices dropped a lot when when the bottom fell out.

I am betting the prices have gone back up as the economy, real estate, and stock market have recovered. Lots of Amazonians, Microsofties, etc. up here with cash in their pockets. Quick look shows DH-2's going in the range of $250k-mid high $500k area.

Maint. is never going to be cheap on that plane.

A good rule of thumb is to divide the horsepower by 20 and you will get the GPH.. For example 450 hp PW Wasp Jr. should give about 22.5 gph. Leaning, etc can reduce that.

Always did HP / 2 = fuel flow in PPH @ 100%, times .75 for 75% power and /6 for GPH

I love my DHC-2 mostly because of passenger comfort. - and because I can take 6 people very comfortably.

Most of my usesfor straight floats beaver are taking it to lunch or hauling stuff between Priest Lake Idaho and Seattle.

I have flown mine about 160 hours so far since getting it in 2021.

Some notes
- As mentioned gas costs 20-22gph
- It's less ridiculous on gas costs when you consider it carries up to 7 people
- Buy oil in bulk
- Amazing machine to take clients in to Lake union etc.

Things that have required maintenance since I've got it:
- Cylinder Head Temp Gauge needed rebuild [even though it was OH'ed in 2019]
- Oil leak on bottom of sump
- Needed new emergency fuel cutoff valve - amazingly NWSEA found a NOS one
- Needed new counter weights on 2D30 - got the right ones installed
- Flap handle bushings

Overall not too bad - I'd say the 10,000$ annual per year is accurate and probably good considering the work in the plane.

Beyond the cool factor - there's a huge Safety factor. It handles rough water really well, you can handle modest boat wakes that frustrate cessnas, has a massive and forgiving sweet spot when landing. It's a joy to fly.

Also I LOVE the 2 blade prop.

Fuel flows are operator determined. I carried a 2.5 gallon jug of oil at all times, added when needed. Never paid much attention. Then picked up a loaner while my floats were being rebuilt. Loaner was fresh from rebuild of everything. When I got to Kodiak, I noted a single one quart jug of oil in back…..a cute joke by Maintenance. But that motor WAS really tight.

BTW, our government sold that plane on freshly rebuilt amphib floats for $22,400. I shoulda bought it.

Maintenance costs are totally dependent on the condition of the plane when you buy it. Buy a really good one, and not too ugly. Buy something less, and plan on lots of $$ and down time. That said, there are a fair number of really good ones out there.

Turbo Beaver: Original engines didn’t like heat. Temp limited….okay in coastal Alaska, but…. Most have had one of several engines substituted. Kenmore has one, Viking, etc. those all increase power from 550 (temp limited) to no shit 700 +.

Bring $$$$$. Legally, a nine seat interior, though weight limited. Turbines are faster in cruises but limited due to yellow arc on A/S eliminated on turbine equipment. Figure 36 GPH plus for a turbine.

Gross Weights have been increased on both recip and turbines. Originally 5090 recip and 5370 turbine. Now some turbines are legal at 6000. Not sure about recipes, but I’ve heard 5600 with some conversions. A recip at that weight would have a leisurely climb, I’d think.

Great airplanes.

MTV

At some point I started flat rating Beaver annual inspection and standard AD compliance at 150 hours.

These were aircraft that flew about 500 hours during a summer season on floats, some wheel work for bear in the fall and spring. This was a real annual, all the AD’s that might come do during the summer season were performed during the winter annual. There is a lot of disassembly to inspect properly and there is always a lot to correct if you want any bird to make it through a season with a minimum of down time. I would then add hours to the invoice for each non-routine and new AD.

I’ve had some of the best shops and respected mechanics in Anchorage send absolute shit out West, more billable hours for our shop but WTF? Nothing like having to tell a lodge we have to do a spar inspection, fly out a level II NDI guy, or worse on their H stab right in the middle of the season: more billable hours!

The Beaver Maintenance manual inspection runs on a 600 hour/annual cycle with many 100 hour, 300 hour inspections with some odd houred AD’s just to keep everyone honest.

Do get over any idea about bypassing the hundred hour inspections because you are operating part 91.

The 985 manual is an odd duck, its not a FAA approved document,(I might be wrong about this) and for Dog’s sake don’t ever pull it out and show it to your PMI, there are some inspections and TBO numbers that will some day doom the 985 when some pedantic pencil pusher gets a hold of it. As it is the TBO is limited at 1600 hours do to a crank shaft counterweight inspection AD which has proven to be imposable to get past.

FYI: the beaver SRM is also not a FAA approved document, the maintenance and parts books are but not the SRM. So all the handy sheetmetal repairs, fuel tank patches, motor mount repairs, etc are not ‘approved data’, its basically AC43.13 data except where its not.


Some working beaver cheats:

-Aft trim drum, drill a 1/16 hole between the two bearings in the housing and chamfer edge accordingly for a pin greaser tip. You can thank me later for never having a trim freeze up or rust up again.

-fine wire in aft plugs and only use Champion. Take a champion fine wire and a unison and look at the insulator ceramic, that big fat flat nose on the Unison plug is the perfect place for a chunk of lead to sit… I threw the first set I had to pull mid hundred hour into the river. Only pull the aft plugs at 300 hours. Use real anti-seize like that common gray permatex, that black watery stuff that comes with the finger polish applicator is not the right stuff for the job, I’m guessing it was formulated by a liability lawyer? Use a torque wrench for F sake and only a six point socket or six point wrench cut off for a cheater bar cause some F-tard didn’t use the right anti-seize or torque wrench, don’t be afraid to fire up the map gas torch when its gets really stupid.

-Oh ya, we had a few years of odd cracking of cowl and other parts, smoking rivets, took me a while to figure out is was the damn Champion folks cutting some corners causing the internal resistance of the plugs to go up. Plugs would test fine in the bomb tester but at full boost power they would bark. Once the plugs were bad the spark energy would find another path, toast the points, cook the condenser, and then vibration would chaff the leads inside the elbow on top of the magnetos. Cracked spinners too. Once we started testing and tossing plugs it all went away.

My dad says he used old plugs when fishing for Kings on the Sacramento River in California in the late 30’s, said you could walk across the river on them. A lot of valuable resource still left in Alaska and around our world, we are stewards of it all… if we want to keep flying, fishing, and fucking, we had better take care of it.

I told some pilot buddies a couple of days ago that life is like that weight and balance diagram in your TCDS, there is that perfectly safe flying envelope that science, fact, and experience have proven; operate your life accordingly.

Ha ha haha, at the church of Support Systems Aircraft every free lunch comes with a sermon



Rocket

Simple answer is about Double a 185.
Figure 24-25 GPH, Double Parts cost Double Insurance cost.
In your part of the world it may be tough to find a good mechanic.


This is pretty close
https://www.aircraftcostcalculator.com/AircraftOperatingCosts/675/DeHavilland+DHC-2+Piston+Beaver?a=675

In other words, if you have to ask, you probably can’t afford it.

Of course, we all have our own definition of “afford”.

MTV