Hanging in the pax terminal at PANC; why would such a valuable aircraft be a ceiling ornament?

Ummmmmmmmm, because it's ugly. And if left outside the other Beavers would make fun of it.



Gump

Garrett powered, OAS owned or some other agency. Im sure MTV has the skinny on it. I remember seeing it for years around Lake Hood.

Kurt

That is the aircraft we lightly referred to as "Pinocchio". It began life as a DHC-2 MK I Beaver, owned and operated by the US Fish & Wildlife Service in Alaska.

The aircraft maintenance division of FWS acquired several "free" Garrett TPE 331 turbine engines, brand new surplus from the military, supposedly spares for OV-10 Broncos. They installed two of those engines on a Grumman G-21 Goose, along with a LOT of other mods, and one of the engines on N754. For commonality of spares, the cowlings and engine installations for the Goose and Beaver were made identical, hence the long tight cowling on this airplane. If an engine swap was needed, easy to install a spare on either airplane, since they were configured the same.

N754 also had a number of other modifications, like: Wet wings, which held bunches of fuel, the front doors were removed, and lower windows were installed to facilitate visibility of the ground/water, the Bristol Aero model 4580 amphibious floats were taken to Kenmore, who installed a section in them to effectively make them much higher buoyancy, as well as a number of other more minor mods.

The airplane was never certificated after the mods were done....."Public Use Category" airplane, so no need for certification.

The original intent of the conversion was to use the airplane in the Arctic for long range wildlife survey work. Garrett engines aren't real happy starters in cold weather, however. In any case, the airplane wound up based in Juneau, AK for the remainder of it's operational life, and was used to conduct statewide waterfowl surveys by the Migratory Bird Management Division. The fellows who operated the airplane loved it, but it was an expensive airplane to operate and maintain.

When those gents retired, N754 was also retired, and loaned or given to the Lake Hood Aviation Museum. It's been parked outside their facility for several years. It migrated to the airport terminal in the last year.

The airplane was a remarkable performer, even at high weights. The engine was capable of a thousand hp or so, but limited to ~ 750 for normal ops. And, it carried a lot of gas, so range was good. Gross weight was increased with the typical Beaver GW mods.

Interesting airplane. Some argued the only reason it could fly was because the earth repelled it, it was so ugly.

The Aleutian Goose, which was the nickname for the turbine converted Goose, was actually certificated many years ago, and was eventually sold to a private owner. A couple of owners down the line managed to lose control of it on takeoff in North Africa and was killed in the subsequent accident. That airplane was destroyed in that accident.

I've flown in both airplanes, and both were remarkable in many ways. Performance was pretty spectacular, at least in climb....

MTV

Somehow I thought you might know. Thanks!

Mike, I heard from another gentleman that flew Pinocchio that if you added power too quickly in the right configuration, the engine could torque roll the entire aircraft...

...was he exaggerating?...

IIRC early OV-10's had -6's (750 +/- shp), so not significantly different hp than the typical PT6 variants you see running around, I think the Viking's are running -34's at 680-750 SHP. but later OV-10's had -10's (940-100 shp), That would be quite a step up for the guy used to the average R-985's 450 SHP

Incidentally, someone boo-boo'd the shut down on the ramp shot.... It appears to have missed the locks.

Take care, Rob

Troy Hamon wrote:Mike, I heard from another gentleman that flew Pinocchio that if you added power too quickly in the right configuration, the engine could torque roll the entire aircraft...

...was he exaggerating?...

Jim King and I departed ANC for Kodiak, with light fuel, and were cleared for departure on 32. Tower asked for expedited climb. Jim just smiled, pulled with the left hand, pushed with the right.

We cleared 8K before passing the shoreline. Pretty impressive, and not max power. I have little doubt it could torque roll, on wheels anyway. Lotsa mass in those floats.

And, yes, Rob, this was the later engine. Buckets of power. And the Goose had two of them.

MTV

Firstly, I’ve not had an opportunity to meet MTV, and ply him with beverages to hear more stories. Yet?
Man, you oughta write a book Sir.
Maybe Zzz could convince a fistful of the Giants of the site to do sometype of collaboration type deal?
Seriously, I’d pay for copy.
Rereading Sheldon et al is great, but,
We’ve got these guys HERE!!
Seems like it’s worthy to get on paper.

Chazdevil wrote:Firstly, I’ve not had an opportunity to meet MTV, and ply him with beverages to hear more stories. Yet?
Man, you oughta write a book Sir.
Maybe Zzz could convince a fistful of the Giants of the site to do sometype of collaboration type deal?
Seriously, I’d pay for copy.
Rereading Sheldon et al is great, but,
We’ve got these guys HERE!!
Seems like it’s worthy to get on paper.

I like that idea. Do the kids still buy real books?

The "kids" that play here sure do, I'm always looking for fresh library additions.

Cheers,

Mapleflt

Zzz wrote:

Chazdevil wrote:Firstly, I’ve not had an opportunity to meet MTV, and ply him with beverages to hear more stories. Yet?
Man, you oughta write a book Sir.
Maybe Zzz could convince a fistful of the Giants of the site to do sometype of collaboration type deal?
Seriously, I’d pay for copy.
Rereading Sheldon et al is great, but,
We’ve got these guys HERE!!
Seems like it’s worthy to get on paper.

I like that idea. Do the kids still buy real books?

Funny, the only people I know that read off of the iPad or Kindle are my wife and my parents! My kids read tons of REAL books. They're 12yo and 14yo. Maybe there's hope yet! LOL

CW

A bit late coming to this thread but there was a Garret conversion in Australia in the 70's, a lot better looking conversion than the one quoted here.
https://www.dhc-2.com/id440.htm

Oldfart wrote:A bit late coming to this thread but there was a Garret conversion in Australia in the 70's, a lot better looking conversion than the one quoted here.
https://www.dhc-2.com/id440.htm

That’s actually a MK III Turbo Beaver that’s been converted to a Garrett. Looks like a homemade vertical fin as well, which has a lot more area. A good thing with that much torque.

MTV

Because the electric one would be more suited to perform as an ornament but had not yet been invented.

mtv wrote:

Oldfart wrote:….
https://www.dhc-2.com/id440.htm

…. Looks like a homemade vertical fin as well, which has a lot more area. A good thing with that much torque.

Looks like the tail on a Found Bushhawk.

It would seem the aircraft was imported into Australia in 1960, probably by Aerial Agriculture PTY Ltd who at one stage had around 50 Beavers on agricultural, topdressing operations. It was at that stage a standard 985 powered Beaver.
About 1968 or 69 it was converted to a "one off" turbine Beaver by SWP Engineering in Sydney. The dates of topdressing photos are a bit confusing if they are correct because some photos show it as radial powered in 1975?

If we are going for looks!

It was made as a radial then converted by Tom Watson at Aerial Agriculture. Because of problems with the regulating body it was the only one converted. They changed it back to a normal radial and it went back to work on topdressing operations. AAX was changed back to it's turbine configuration in the mid 80's. It was entirely designed and built in Bankstown.

Terry wrote:If we are going for looks!

That mk3 has been kicking around Seattle for years, affectionately known in certain circles as the “Hairy Legs” beaver. Most of us in that circle would never refer to that paint scheme as attractive.

It was re-engined years ago by Gene Zirkel and using a PT-6-27 and branded the “Magnum Beaver”. With that engine it was most likely temp limited on the day it’s photo was taken there in Roche Harbor. Always fun bouncing around in there with all the boat wakes in summertime.


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