Beaver down

[whistlerboy02]

Blakey, his son told me, so it's second hand but I can say not by much. Russ is still alive and well, but probably not on here.

[crazyaviator]

5 take aways for flying the airplane....

1) She will carry anything, but barely. The ROC at gross on floats is about 300 fpm. (about 400 on wheels) This means that a 301 fpm downdraft will bring the airplane down. You need to be veeery aware of the terrain on departure and the expected winds/downdrafts. Remember that almost every take off into wind on a lake has a downdraft at the far end.
2) The airplane has almost no stall warning. The controls remain effective right up to the stall and when she does stall she usually doesn't drop the nose much nor the wing. She just mushes down flat at 2000+ per minute. Pitch attitude / power/ and airspeed need to be monitored. Coupled with the poor rate of climb, you can see how most of them get wrecked!
3) The engine is simple and reliable but does need some specific gentle handling and care. Warmups are critical - less than 900 rpm until 40 deg. of oil temp. Hydraulic locks are not a big concern like on the Yaks and T-28's , but still must be guarded against. They talk to you if they are getting sick and you need to learn to listen.
4) She is a flap airplane and there is a specific flap setting for every phase of flight. The wing loading is over 20 lbs./sq. foot and the flaps are the only reason she flies. In fact, the flaps can change the stall speed by 20 mph! Knowing the effect of adding and removing flap at each phase of flight is critical - you won't have time to figure it out when you need to know.
5) 3 fuel tanks in the belly. Can feed from only one at a time. Fuel gauges are awful and the tanks cannot be dipped. You need to make very sure that there is sufficient fuel in whatever tank you are feeding off when flying below 1500 agl - in most operations this is probably all the time. You do not want to be running a tank dry on climb out or approach. It is easy to do if distracted.
6) The airplane has very poor crosswind capabilities on floats or wheels. A result of a large slab sided fuselage and a pathetically under engineered rudder. 10 mph on floats, not much more on wheels.

Other than the above, she is a delight to fly and a giant pussycat.

Cheers Sportingrifle.

Now WHY was I not told of these things when I was checked out? A case of the blind leading the blind ! I took the C-185 and many other A/C to their limits and beyond in a safe manner as I learned their mannerisms in a safe way, but I never went there with the beaver!

[fish4life]

How would a 185 / Beaver and Otter compare to handling both on the water and in the air?

[switchflicker]

Compared to a Beaver, the 185 really doesn't want to go flying. It's not much interested on getting up on the step. If you persevere though it will try to get to the destination much faster than the Beaver and it's not particularly caring if it lands gracefully or not.

Now the Beaver likes flying so much it'll get up on the step with just a few kind words from the pilot and it's so happy to be in the air it just doddles along hoping that the flight will never end. When the pilot insists that it land, it ever so slowly lets down to the water and gently sets down trying not to upset the surface.

[pilotidentity]

Well said Switchflicker

[pelmet]

Found some pics of it over the years. Too bad.....

http://www.dhc-2.com/id859.htm

[musicalpilotchairs]

Compared to a Beaver, the 185 really doesn't want to go flying. It's not much interested on getting up on the step. If you persevere though it will try to get to the destination much faster than the Beaver and it's not particularly caring if it lands gracefully or not.

Now the Beaver likes flying so much it'll get up on the step with just a few kind words from the pilot and it's so happy to be in the air it just doddles along hoping that the flight will never end. When the pilot insists that it land, it ever so slowly lets down to the water and gently sets down trying not to upset the surface.

That’s poetic!

I hope to get to fly one soon, that and a Curtiss Jenny...one can dream

[C.W.E.]

switchflicker wrote: ↑Mon Oct 16, 2017 6:50 am
Compared to a Beaver, the 185 really doesn't want to go flying. It's not much interested on getting up on the step. If you persevere though it will try to get to the destination much faster than the Beaver and it's not particularly caring if it lands gracefully or not.

Now the Beaver likes flying so much it'll get up on the step with just a few kind words from the pilot and it's so happy to be in the air it just doddles along hoping that the flight will never end. When the pilot insists that it land, it ever so slowly lets down to the water and gently sets down trying not to upset the surfac

e.

Poetic.

[Schooner69A]

"... it'll get up on the step...?


I remember back in the "old days" when pilots would talk about that.

[Castorero]

Some good advice on this thread from people with more hours on a Beaver than I will ever see.

Regardless, these accidents will continue like clockwork year after year, stall in a turn, for whatever reason, close to the ground.

The only thing I want to add to this thread is that the aerodynamic performance of this venerable airplane can be greatly improved with the installation of a leading edge cuff.

A Baron Stol kit, with or without correction of the wing angle, allows it to take off and climb without flap, and fly level without a hair of flap either. Heresy, I know.

It is nearly impossible to stall it in as steep a turn as you can stomach, even with full flaps, at ridiculously low air speed. On wheels or floats.

In a full stall, it just wallows down, titter-tottering left and right, along the longitudinal axis without ever dropping a wing and rolling over.

It does all this nicely at altitude.

I don't know how it performs close to the ground and I am unlikely to ever purposely try to find out either.

I think this wing upgrade could very well decrease a good number of these inadvertent stall/spin accidents.

I would be interested to hear about the experience of the commercial fliers who have logged significant time in both versions.

My hat goes off to all the old guys who have flown the Beaver as built, for thousands of hours without incident.

It just proves that it can be flown as is if one pays attention to its needs.

I don't, however,think for minute that any of our comrades that perished in one of those typical Beaver mishaps, were idiots, lesser fliers, or just woke up on that fateful day heaven bent on crashing the airplane.

No, they were competent pilots, some with many hours under their belt, who at that particular time and place were overtaken by something unexpected.
Any and all things that we deal with every day, fatigue, poor weather and visibility, a heavy load, a remote distraction weighing heavily on the mind, a relationship issue, a mortgage refused.

All, in short, everyday distractions that we never know, but may be part of the equation.

Banal, everyday distractions.

We live with them daily. We are all vulnerable to the same end, in any airplane.

After nearly forty years of flying, I can say with certainty that, "There but for the grace of God, go I."