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DHC-2 Ownership Cost

sj

Staff member
Northwest Arkansas
I'm curious from folks here what the cost of ownership of a wheel equipped radial DHC-2 might be. I've checked on insurance, hangar, and of course fuel flow, but am wondering about annuals, AD's, etc and what one might expect. I note that Kenmore gets $750 per hour for dual instruction, but they also get $375 for dual in a cub.

No, I have not lost my mind YET.

sj

P.S. the Beaver is Laura's favorite airplane, and her birthday is coming up... :)
 
Seems hard to find a decent one. I have a friend looking. They are workhorses and it shows.


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I'm curious from folks here what the cost of ownership of a wheel equipped radial DHC-2 might be. I've checked on insurance, hangar, and of course fuel flow, but am wondering about annuals, AD's, etc and what one might expect. I note that Kenmore gets $750 per hour for dual instruction, but they also get $375 for dual in a cub.

No, I have not lost my mind YET.

sj

P.S. the Beaver is Laura's favorite airplane, and her birthday is coming up... :)

I have a buddy that had one til last year, I can put you in touch. It was on amphibs. Great flying machine.

Jake


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I'm curious from folks here what the cost of ownership of a wheel equipped radial DHC-2 might be. I've checked on insurance, hangar, and of course fuel flow, but am wondering about annuals, AD's, etc and what one might expect. I note that Kenmore gets $750 per hour for dual instruction, but they also get $375 for dual in a cub.

No, I have not lost my mind YET.

sj

P.S. the Beaver is Laura's favorite airplane, and her birthday is coming up... :)

Just do it. You'll be as old as Timmy before you know it

Glenn
 
I worked a Beaver for several years in Kodiak. It was on amphibious floats. Actually, the floats were the vast majority of maintenance on that plane. The P and W 985 is a great engine, with proper pilot technique. Consistent and thorough warm up and respect of limits is key to keeping that engine happy. Kenmore long ago significantly increased their average time between overhaul by mandating warm ups.
otherwise very reliable engines. Some use a bit of oil, but I’ve flown really tight ones.

The airframe is arguably one of the toughest, most durable ever built. There’s a reason that lots of Alaska coastal air taxi operators went to Cessna 206s, but many have now gone back to Beavers. Load haulers, but they tolerate the work much better.

Consider the average total time of virtually all Beavers.....the one I flew was “low time” when I flew it, at 7000 hours or so. That was in the 80s. It was sold then and went to an air taxi. It’s still flying air taxi in Kodiak....a year round gig, btw.

Theyre tough in other words. I was devastated when management replaced that Beaver with a new 206.

MTV
 
Seems hard to find a decent one. I have a friend looking. They are workhorses and it shows.


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I know where there is a really good one, Birdcage and all front off and replaced less than 100 hours ago, all new paint also I believe, but a great shop.

Cost: 1,500 hour engine costs 50k. AD on the crank requires tear down.

30 gallons an hour is what I flight planned for.

5 year AD on the tail.

Plan on cost to maintain around 10% of the value, or in the 30-40k per year. That includes bird cage inspections and all the stuff that keeps them up.

Prices seem down on Barnstormers. I will be glad to check you guys out on them.
 
Like all airplanes, the expense of annuals depend on how well the plane has been maintained. Spares are readily available through Viking Air in B.C. and Kenmore in Seattle, WA. P&W 985s likewise are well supported.

Kenmore builds new EDO 4930s and all its component parts.

Both Viking and Kenmore rebuild Beavers from the ground up.

I can’t imagine that annuals would cost more than for a 206 or 185.
 
Never maintained a Beaver, but had a Howard DGA-15 for quite a while. There are only a couple ADs on the R985, one on cylinder cracks, one for loose cylinder nuts/studs, and one for crankshaft counterweight bushings. Figure engine overhaul at 1200 hours (the crank bushings require 1600 hrs). P&W parts for the most part are less expensive that Lycoming parts. Engine accessories are more expensive.

On the Howard, I figured 60 hours for the annual. Repairs were extra. Seemed like every other year I need at least one part that cost over a grand, in between years nothing but normal servicing. Spark plugs I would run 200 hours between servicing, change the fronts every other 100 hrs, and the backs on the opposite 100 hour. Kept 9 spares so I’d have them cleaned and ready to go. My engine burned about 3/4 quart of oil an hour. If it sat more than about 10 days, the snot box would overflow and run all over (snot box=sump drain 1 gallon can). I changed oil every 50 hours, had an Airwolf external filter. Oil tank was 8 gallons. Mine had automatic mixture control and I would run about 17.5 gph at 1850 rpm and 25 or 26” MAP. Most guys find 20-24 gph is normal.

Hope that helps.


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Like a guy told me once “the bigger the dog, the more it eats”. However, life is short SJ, so I’d say go for it. When I was about 19, I bought a Cub I couldn’t afford. Flew it for a year and sold it. It was a great year!
 
For me at least the 2-3 128 gallon fill-ups needed to get up to and back from my Canadian fishing hole started to be painful once AvGas started climbing above $2.50/gal.

The 6 walleye filets per trip ultimately no longer justified having a half million dollar asset sitting around in the hangar.

It’s kind of funny: I used to go hunting in Alaska twice a year. I bought the Beaver so I could explore and hunt without the expense of hiring an air taxi service to haul me around. But after I bought the airplane I never returned; I was too busy paying for the airplane, then the hangar, then the 12, then the wife, the 2 kids, etc., etc., etc.
 
I'm curious from folks here what the cost of ownership of a wheel equipped radial DHC-2 might be. I've checked on insurance, hangar, and of course fuel flow, but am wondering about annuals, AD's, etc and what one might expect. I note that Kenmore gets $750 per hour for dual instruction, but they also get $375 for dual in a cub.

No, I have not lost my mind YET.

sj

P.S. the Beaver is Laura's favorite airplane, and her birthday is coming up... :)

I’m sure she won’t see this :)
 
I’m sure she won’t see this :)

Oh whatever! :)

It has been a dream since I first saw one! I am definitely a bad influence. Had a chance to buy a $59K project a long time ago and didn't have the money then. Would have sold my sole to own a small interest. Now it is a possibility. Scary and super exciting. I figure we wont have a long love affair (me and the plane....as you can tell....sj is a keeper just for thinking of this) but what fun it could be!!!

cafi
 
I do all the maintenance on a Beaver and love working on it. Also flying it is truly a treat. What is hurting the price is the AD’s the feds have come up with. Many beavers have 15,000 to 30,000 hours and range from wheels only to salt water float ops. The AD’s don’t take any of that into consideration.
The tail is every other year, the bird cage is 15 yrs then every five etc. also the elevator control rod needs to be changed and reinspected.
now here is the real kicker.... the turbine MK III is the beaver to own. PM me if I can help you with this stuff, I’ll do my best.
 
If you gave that airplane to your wife, you’re setting yourself up for years of adolescent (in other words pilot) jokes.

definitely the coolest airplane to fly though
 
Ummm, just as a point, I’ve never run a 985 in cruise at more than 22 gph, leaned out. And that’s loaded and on floats.

FWIW.

MTV
 
Just to clarify, is Laura’s dream a wet Beaver or a dry Beaver? From my limited understanding, acquisition, maintenance, etc is substantially more on a wet Beaver. Personally, I’d be looking for a wet Beaver. Guessing there aren’t many in Arkansas to look at? SJ may have his work cut out on this Beaver hunt.
 
Working 135 world, I flight plan 30 gallons an hour.

Book says 5 gallons for taxi, take off and climb... believe it! Training will be 30 I bet, as you are on power for take off lots.

Warm the engine, be smooth and observe redline. That is the best advice for keeping costs down.
 
And give Tulsa aircraft engines a call to understand just how much an overhaul would cost if it came to that. Either due to timing out from the crank AD, or something goes wrong inside.

They're popular among pacific northwest operators when kenmore is too booked up. Had ours done there a few years back. Great work, but not cheap.

Kevin
510PW


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