Well Ken the old Otter was lovingly called the "Stoneboat" and if you are a farming lad you will know what that is.
LOL
There is only one aircraft that can match her STOL performance and that is the British Harrier, but again a different type of aircraft altogether. The helicopter would be the closest thing to the performance of an Otter.
When you dropped those large Fowler Flaps it was like hanging out two barn doors in the wind. Once slowed down just above the stall and in a good head wind I have seen ducks and sea gulls pass us.
The aircraft was pretty manoeuvrable as well, I saw a Royal Canadian Air Force Squadron Leader and a Flying Officer both roll and loop one. We would drop a wing to 90 degrees and rotate holding altitude above an object. The aircraft would just rotate around that spot.
I think I would sell the grandchildren (all of them) to fly a Turbine Otter.
When DeHavilland of Canada built the DHC-1 "Chipmunk" which was an excellent trainer, the DHC-2 "Beaver" excellent STOL Bush Aeroplane and the first aeroplane to win Battle Honours with the United States Army in the Korean War and the DHC-3 "Otter" the big brother to the Beaver. No other nation had the STOL technology that Canada possessed.
Well Ken I can remember an old saying when I first started to fly in the bush. A lot of people would refer to the DHC-3 Otter as the Douglas DC3 of the North.
BUT:
We would say there were Stoneboat drivers (Otter Bush Pilots) and then there were wannabees
LOL.
Thanks again for the pictures and memories.
Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug
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