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DHC-2 Ownership Cost

Sometimes someone will grind down the L<>R rudder stops to get more......action. Once the front portion of the rudder gets water pressure from excess taxi speed it can swing on its own to the new stop. Spins a circle when not wanted. Was told by a friend.

Gary
 
View attachment 55326Here’s a day with the beaver. Work for 30 minutes to get the monster out of the hangar, then pull 20 blades through to get rid of hydraulic lock, add a gallon of oil, sump 5 tanks, assess the oil leaking from everywhere, add 10lbs to a tail wheel that looks like it came off a train, climb 2 flights of stairs, say a few choice words to cover the oil on your jeans, pump the wobble pump, reach down and pump the primer, say a few more choice words to cover the fuel all over your jeans, push the mixture forward, crack the throttle, hit the master, hold the starter for 3 blades and flip the mags. Now wait what seems like an eternity for the oil pressure to start coming up only to notice the oil temp gauge is busted, say a few more choice words, pull the mixture, shut off the mags, flip the master, climb down 2 flights of stairs, more oil on jeans and now on shirt, throw the empty oil gallon jug at hangar to release some pressure, spend 30 minutes getting monster back in hangar, get in car, go home and listen to how this one broke this one’s lego toy.

If only there was a substance that could be put on a plane and oil would come off... we could call it 'soap'. And if only people would use the mythical 'soap' on occasion... In fact, isn't there something about cleaning the plane and inspecting the skin on occasion?

Yes, I have cleaned the beaver's belly. It is embarrassing to have a plane dripping oil from everywhere. Sounds cool, but in reality it is ugly. Only takes 40 or so minutes if you keep up on it.

That said, you think it is easy pulling into a dock all the time? Not every place is open with headwind and against the current, sometimes you get a current coming out from under the dock pushing you out and a wind on the tail twisting you away and into the boat ahead.

On the ground, one person can not move it. A big tug, 4 wheeler needs lots of weight to keep from slipping. Stupid to think they are easy.

That said, with just a little planning, they are a kick! Some of the best flying Lyn and I have done was in the Gullwing coming across the country.

If Kirby can set you up with and Ike plane, just buy it! Ike will tell you the skinny, and be honest. He will be better than a pre-buy, I bet he knows every rivet and gusset by name on every bird!!

As an investment, a solid beaver is probably as good as any. If you have a place that you can rent it for students, there will be lots of interest. Many people want to fly one. If you offer it, they will come.
 
If only there was a substance that could be put on a plane and oil would come off... we could call it 'soap'. And if only people would use the mythical 'soap' on occasion... In fact, isn't there something about cleaning the plane and inspecting the skin on occasion?

Yes, I have cleaned the beaver's belly. It is embarrassing to have a plane dripping oil from everywhere. Sounds cool, but in reality it is ugly. Only takes 40 or so minutes if you keep up on it.

That said, you think it is easy pulling into a dock all the time? Not every place is open with headwind and against the current, sometimes you get a current coming out from under the dock pushing you out and a wind on the tail twisting you away and into the boat ahead.

On the ground, one person can not move it. A big tug, 4 wheeler needs lots of weight to keep from slipping. Stupid to think they are easy.

That said, with just a little planning, they are a kick! Some of the best flying Lyn and I have done was in the Gullwing coming across the country.

If Kirby can set you up with and Ike plane, just buy it! Ike will tell you the skinny, and be honest. He will be better than a pre-buy, I bet he knows every rivet and gusset by name on every bird!!

As an investment, a solid beaver is probably as good as any. If you have a place that you can rent it for students, there will be lots of interest. Many people want to fly one. If you offer it, they will come.

Just wait till you’re cleaning the belly after running a b17 for the first time in a few years. Talk about acreage


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Just wait till you’re cleaning the belly after running a b17 for the first time in a few years. Talk about acreage


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I was at an airshow sporting the new white shirt from the show when a BT13 needed a jump start. Battery is right behind the exhaust on the right side. She fired up and I prematurely went to remove the jumper cables while it was still burping oil out the exhaust pipe. Instant work shirt. ;)
 
Just wait till you’re cleaning the belly after running a b17 for the first time in a few years. Talk about acreage


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I was at an airshow sporting the new white shirt from the show when a BT13 needed a jump start. Battery is right behind the exhaust on the right side. She fired up and I prematurely went to remove the jumper cables while it was still burping oil out the exhaust pipe. Instant work shirt. ;)
 
My best oil story. Back in 99 I flew my Pa11 out to Grassroots flyin in Brodhead Wi. I got there early and why wondering around a red TravelAir biplane flew in and parked. It was dripping oil from stem to stern. Pilot took his gear out of the front seat and threw it on the ground. One big garbage bag got dumped and it was full of old rags.Pilot started cleaning off oil so I grabbed a handful of rags and started from the back wiping off oil, it was everywhere. Took us over an hour and when we got done he said jump in the front and let's go make it dirty again. Awesome low level field and river run for almost an hour. Later that night the pilot and I were sipping beers by the fire and I asked his name. Hi I'm Robbie Bach, Richard Bach's son

Glenn
 
I swap wings on Stew Mcpherson's Luscombe. Richards wingman in the Bi-Plane book.

Worst oil story was break loose an oil line on a Corsair upstream of the oil tank. From memory I think it was 30 gallons or so.
 
I always laugh when the subject of oil comes up with regard to radial engines. The old argument that if a radial isn't using oil, there's something wrong with it....etc.

The R-985 in the Beaver has an oil tank that sits between the pilot and copilot's feet/knees. That tank holds, if memory serves, about 6 gallons of oil. Let's compare that to an O-320: The 985 has three times the displacement, and about three times the rated power. The max oil quantity of the O-320 is eight quarts, or two gallons....the 985 carries three times that. So far, so good.

Now, if a 320 uses say, a quart every ten to fifteen hours, why wouldn't a 985 use about a gallon over the same period?

And, as we all know, a LITTLE bit of oil thrown makes a HUGE mess. It's all proportional, basically.

In the Beaver I flew in Kodiak, I always carried a 1.5 gallon jug of engine oil. Sort of like carrying a quart or two in a Super Cub. One winter, our maintenance folks needed to do some work on my airplane, so I flew it up to Anchorage for the work. They handed me the keys to a newly refurbished Beaver that'd just been completely re-worked in the Seattle area, including an overhauled engine.

When I arrived in Kodiak with that plane, I noticed it had a single quart can of oil in the baggage compartment. I had to laugh. But, over the next few weeks, I found myself adding just a quart of oil every once in a while. That engine was really tight.

The locals familiar with radials told me they wouldn't trust that engine....sorta jokingly. But, it ran fine, and very clean.

A couple months later, I flew that plane back to ANC and picked up my regular ride. Back to a 1.5 gallon jug.

And, a well lubed belly.

MTV
 
My 985 was running so well at TBO that I sent it to Tulsa for rebuild instead of risking the unknown origin of an exchange engine. Rex did such an amazing job that it was almost 50 hours of running before a drop of oil appeared on the belly. I have a couple hundred hours on the engine now and it uses a quart in about 10 hours...about the same as my Cub!
 
I always laugh when the subject of oil comes up with regard to radial engines. The old argument that if a radial isn't using oil, there's something wrong with it....etc.

The R-985 in the Beaver has an oil tank that sits between the pilot and copilot's feet/knees. That tank holds, if memory serves, about 6 gallons of oil. Let's compare that to an O-320: The 985 has three times the displacement, and about three times the rated power. The max oil quantity of the O-320 is eight quarts, or two gallons....the 985 carries three times that. So far, so good.

Now, if a 320 uses say, a quart every ten to fifteen hours, why wouldn't a 985 use about a gallon over the same period?

And, as we all know, a LITTLE bit of oil thrown makes a HUGE mess. It's all proportional, basically.

In the Beaver I flew in Kodiak, I always carried a 1.5 gallon jug of engine oil. Sort of like carrying a quart or two in a Super Cub. One winter, our maintenance folks needed to do some work on my airplane, so I flew it up to Anchorage for the work. They handed me the keys to a newly refurbished Beaver that'd just been completely re-worked in the Seattle area, including an overhauled engine.

When I arrived in Kodiak with that plane, I noticed it had a single quart can of oil in the baggage compartment. I had to laugh. But, over the next few weeks, I found myself adding just a quart of oil every once in a while. That engine was really tight.

The locals familiar with radials told me they wouldn't trust that engine....sorta jokingly. But, it ran fine, and very clean.

A couple months later, I flew that plane back to ANC and picked up my regular ride. Back to a 1.5 gallon jug.

And, a well lubed belly.

MTV

Oil quantity was determined underCAR 4 to be one gallon for each 25 gallons of fuel, or one gallon for each 75 hp (except take off) which ever was greater. My Howard had an 8 gallon tank. I seemed to go through about 3/4 of a quart an hour, but it would leak (into the snot box) about a half gallon a week when not in use. I carried a 2 gallon jug of 25W60 in the baggage all the time. More for ballast to get more of an aft loading than anything else.


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My first Beaver flight was instructive. Having started the engine I remembered I hadn’t first checked the oil level, so I leaned over and opened the oil dipstick cap. It took about 2 seconds for the co-pilot footwell to fill with about a gallon of clean 100 weight straight mineral oil. The cleanup took much longer and I never made that mistake again.
 
I had a passenger say his left foot was hot and wet. Either he somehow hit the oil cap and it opened or it wasn't fully closed. Quite the mess. He still wears the stained shoes when he flies with me. To remind one of us to check the oil cap I guess.
 
Back to the flap lever discussion- getting flaps down...

Every training I have EVER taken drums into your head to fly with the selector in the DOWN position. When you reach over and put a pump in, the flaps will go down.

If not, you will find yourself wishing for flaps. I know of an Otter that went to the ground on base to final, got in a sinker and pilot put in flaps, only to find the lever was in up, and it killed his lift.

Lift flaps- put the lever back to DOWN position, every time
 
I had a passenger say his left foot was hot and wet. Either he somehow hit the oil cap and it opened or it wasn't fully closed. Quite the mess. He still wears the stained shoes when he flies with me. To remind one of us to check the oil cap I guess.

I was assigned a "VIP Flight" in Kodiak. Two big wigs from the Department of Interior and our Regional Director, who was a good guy, but not an aviation type.

Took off in the Beaver, Regional Director in the copilot seat, and about twenty minutes out, out of the corner of my eye, I saw him reach over by his left knee and twist and lift the oil filler cap and dipstick. A big glop of very black and nasty looking W_100 Aeroshell went kerplop on his left pant leg, right at his knee.

I was just sort of stunned that someone would open that, but he very calmly put the cap back on, and secured it.....then calmly looked out the window as if nothing had happened. One of the guys in the back seat was literally in hysterics, laughing his butt off.....he came on the intercom and said "So, Keith, do we need to go back to Kodiak and find a laundromat?" Keith took the ribbing well, I thought.

After we landed, he asked me what that cap was for......I explained and he said "Okay, thanks". That was the last time I brought it up with him, but I'm guessing his Washington based compatriots in the back seat reminded him of it a few times.

After that, my pre flight passenger briefing included telling the person in the right seat NOT to touch that oil filler cap.

MTV
 


Engine oil was just part of it. Our Maintenance guys HATED seeing my Beaver arrive for a 100 hour. I basically coated that airplane with LPS, mostly LPS 3. Floats, gear, everything. The plane lived in salt water a lot. So, to actually inspect the thing, the mechanics had to clean all that stuff off.....lots of solvent and a huge mess to clean up.

Soon as I got it back to Kodiak, the LPS can came out and back at it....It didn't pay to get too close to that plane wearing good clothes.

MTV
 
Engine oil was just part of it. Our Maintenance guys HATED seeing my Beaver arrive for a 100 hour. I basically coated that airplane with LPS, mostly LPS 3. Floats, gear, everything. The plane lived in salt water a lot. So, to actually inspect the thing, the mechanics had to clean all that stuff off.....lots of solvent and a huge mess to clean up.

Soon as I got it back to Kodiak, the LPS can came out and back at it....It didn't pay to get too close to that plane wearing good clothes.

MTV

So no white shirt with epaulets for you?
 
Thought of you, SJ. This was parked in front of Interstate Aviation in Pullman WA, yesterday.

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I owe an explanation of my "pending" post, and planned to do it before now but things got busy.

I am very proud of all of the effort that Laura put in learning about Beaver ownership, and we are both incredibly appreciative of all the advice we recieved about them from all of you on this thread, and the many private messages, emails, texts, and phone calls. Thanks to you all!

While we fully expected this to be an expensive proposition, we decided that we are just not big enough players to comfortably swing it - hangar space, AD's, Canadian conversions, resale, gallons of oil, and tons of fuel, it all added up and we said "uncle".

So what is pending, is a piece of property we have a contract on instead - no, not with a runway unfortunately, but some elbow room which is something Laura has always wanted.

Thanks again to all of you, this is a great thread for anyone considering a DHC-2! You are all the best!

sj & lj
 
I think we need a new catagory in the forum index.
" I want to date Jennifer Aniston but not sure she will like me. Can you help?"

Glenn
 
I think we need a new catagory in the forum index.
" I want to date Jennifer Aniston but not sure she will like me. Can you help?"

Glenn

Glad to help, I'll keep the J4 flying while you heal from Bev's beating!:bang
 
I owe an explanation of my "pending" post, and planned to do it before now but things got busy.

I am very proud of all of the effort that Laura put in learning about Beaver ownership, and we are both incredibly appreciative of all the advice we recieved about them from all of you on this thread, and the many private messages, emails, texts, and phone calls. Thanks to you all!

While we fully expected this to be an expensive proposition, we decided that we are just not big enough players to comfortably swing it - hangar space, AD's, Canadian conversions, resale, gallons of oil, and tons of fuel, it all added up and we said "uncle".

So what is pending, is a piece of property we have a contract on instead - no, not with a runway unfortunately, but some elbow room which is something Laura has always wanted.

Thanks again to all of you, this is a great thread for anyone considering a DHC-2! You are all the best!

sj & lj

WOW! I would’ve lied, like, forever.
 
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