Piston Otters

[Redneck_pilot86]

How many are there still out there flying?

[Rudder Bug]

Air Mont-Laurier operates two. Both are mint, close to cream puffs.

http://www.en.airmontlaurier.com/

RB

[flyinthebug]

Wilderness Air in Vermillion Bay ON still runs a couple. There are a few others still kickin around in service.

[cdnpilot77]

Kenora Air has one and I saw one floating around Pickle Lake on Thursday.

[North Shore]

Glad to see that a few of them are still blatting around the northcountry. It'll be a sad day (in a sense) when the last one is metrosexualized by the addition of a PT6!

[single_swine_herder]

Of the roughly 50 or more types I've flown, the "Single Swine" is the only one that I absolutely hated flying .... more correctly, I hated the lifestyle that went with being a piston Otter pilot. When I was flying the other floatplane types and enjoying being a guy with 1500 hours on floats, I used to wonder why the Otter guys were the most miserable, short tempered, grumpy, foul-mouthed, hard of hearing, stoop-shouldered and bent-backed group of guys I'd ever met in aviation.

Load every super-weird load imaginable ... dozer blades, diamond drill rigs with drunken drillers reeking of puke and booze, lengths of railroad track, 550 pound drums of gear oil, tubs and tubs and tubs of fish, obnoxious fishermen who thought you were their personal slave and they were Saudi Princes, drowning victims coffins or body bags .... complete with mourners spraying Lysol into the air to keep the smell somewhat under control, and who knows what else.

Then fly the vibrating, under-powered, hearing damaging beast to some minimum hop spot about 23 miles away and unload into some lousy dock made of Poplar branches that sink if anyone weighing more than 140 pounds stepped on it, or worse yet ... my first Single Otter trip was to move 50 barrels of jet fuel a whole 17 miles for some helicopter weenies to use at a geology camp, unload the fuel into the water down the barrel slide, and roll the barrel onto shore through Loon shit muck 18" deep. When you made your radio position report back to base, the dispatcher wondered ..... "what took you so long? The next load of drums is waiting on the dock"

After flying 6 hours which started with a takeoff at 0500, if you took 3 minutes to grab a drink of water and make a peanut butter sandwich in the mouse infested "crew lounge," the boss thought your only possible motivation for taking a break was that you had a personal dedication to put the operation into bankruptcy and have the equipment seized by the Sheriff.

Yeah ... that was a really great job flying the Single Swine.

Mercifully, I only did it for one float season before moving to IFR twins. Still, I'm sure I suffered permanent damage from having my brain vibrated off its mounts, and auditory nerve damage by the sound of that engine with grossly inadequate hearing protection.

So ... Single Otter? You can have 'em.

I don't see "piston engine majesty" when I see one, I think of "some poor bastard."

[angry inch]

single_swine_herder,

That was Awesome...

[cdnpilot77]

Of the roughly 50 or more types I've flown, the "Single Swine" is the only one that I absolutely hated flying .... more correctly, I hated the lifestyle that went with being a piston Otter pilot. When I was flying the other floatplane types and enjoying being a guy with 1500 hours on floats, I used to wonder why the Otter guys were the most miserable, short tempered, grumpy, foul-mouthed, hard of hearing, stoop-shouldered and bent-backed group of guys I'd ever met in aviation.

Load every super-weird load imaginable ... dozer blades, diamond drill rigs with drunken drillers reeking of puke and booze, lengths of railroad track, 550 pound drums of gear oil, tubs and tubs and tubs of fish, obnoxious fishermen who thought you were their personal slave and they were Saudi Princes, drowning victims coffins or body bags .... complete with mourners spraying Lysol into the air to keep the smell somewhat under control, and who knows what else.

Then fly the vibrating, under-powered, hearing damaging beast to some minimum hop spot about 23 miles away and unload into some lousy dock made of Poplar branches that sink if anyone weighing more than 140 pounds stepped on it, or worse yet ... my first Single Otter trip was to move 50 barrels of jet fuel a whole 17 miles for some helicopter weenies to use at a geology camp, unload the fuel into the water down the barrel slide, and roll the barrel onto shore through Loon shit muck 18" deep. When you made your radio position report back to base, the dispatcher wondered ..... "what took you so long? The next load of drums is waiting on the dock"

After flying 6 hours which started with a takeoff at 0500, if you took 3 minutes to grab a drink of water and make a peanut butter sandwich in the mouse infested "crew lounge," the boss thought your only possible motivation for taking a break was that you had a personal dedication to put the operation into bankruptcy and have the equipment seized by the Sheriff.

Yeah ... that was a really great job flying the Single Swine.

Mercifully, I only did it for one float season before moving to IFR twins. Still, I'm sure I suffered permanent damage from having my brain vibrated off its mounts, and auditory nerve damage by the sound of that engine with grossly inadequate hearing protection.

So ... Single Otter? You can have 'em.

I don't see "piston engine majesty" when I see one, I think of "some poor bastard."

And just for good measure...Single Swine Herder after a day of drums and 18"muck

[1000 HP]

Of the roughly 50 or more types I've flown, the "Single Swine" is the only one that I absolutely hated flying .... more correctly, I hated the lifestyle that went with being a piston Otter pilot. When I was flying the other floatplane types and enjoying being a guy with 1500 hours on floats, I used to wonder why the Otter guys were the most miserable, short tempered, grumpy, foul-mouthed, hard of hearing, stoop-shouldered and bent-backed group of guys I'd ever met in aviation.

Load every super-weird load imaginable ... dozer blades, diamond drill rigs with drunken drillers reeking of puke and booze, lengths of railroad track, 550 pound drums of gear oil, tubs and tubs and tubs of fish, obnoxious fishermen who thought you were their personal slave and they were Saudi Princes, drowning victims coffins or body bags .... complete with mourners spraying Lysol into the air to keep the smell somewhat under control, and who knows what else.

Then fly the vibrating, under-powered, hearing damaging beast to some minimum hop spot about 23 miles away and unload into some lousy dock made of Poplar branches that sink if anyone weighing more than 140 pounds stepped on it, or worse yet ... my first Single Otter trip was to move 50 barrels of jet fuel a whole 17 miles for some helicopter weenies to use at a geology camp, unload the fuel into the water down the barrel slide, and roll the barrel onto shore through Loon shit muck 18" deep. When you made your radio position report back to base, the dispatcher wondered ..... "what took you so long? The next load of drums is waiting on the dock"

After flying 6 hours which started with a takeoff at 0500, if you took 3 minutes to grab a drink of water and make a peanut butter sandwich in the mouse infested "crew lounge," the boss thought your only possible motivation for taking a break was that you had a personal dedication to put the operation into bankruptcy and have the equipment seized by the Sheriff.

Yeah ... that was a really great job flying the Single Swine.

Mercifully, I only did it for one float season before moving to IFR twins. Still, I'm sure I suffered permanent damage from having my brain vibrated off its mounts, and auditory nerve damage by the sound of that engine with grossly inadequate hearing protection.

So ... Single Otter? You can have 'em.

I don't see "piston engine majesty" when I see one, I think of "some poor bastard."

Frickin' Hilarious!! (LMAO )True too....

[Rudder Bug]

Single Swine,

That's the best description I've ever read, and soooo true!

I have a lot of that shit in my background, so many stories...well no, I don't miss the stoneboat at all. The young guys can have it; I am so happy with a nice Beaver.

RB

[cdnpilot77]

I am so happy with a nice Beaver.

RB

Yes please!

[up_and_locked]

There are lots in Red Lake. Green's, Chimo, and Lac Seul Airways to name a few. Excellent Adventures in Ear Falls has an otter. I'd be interested to know how many standard otters are left, as far as I can tell most of the ones I've seen around here have the polish conversion

[Redneck_pilot86]

I thought Chimo had a turbine? Been awhile since I've been around the docks in Ontario though.

[single_swine_herder]

Rudder Bug .... I agree completely. Plugging myself into a nice comfy Beaver always caused me to have an ear to ear grin whenever that happened.... almost always caused me to be ecstatic in fact.

SSH

[roscoe]

This wasn't bush ops, but close to it, and it was in an Otter. I drew the short straw to go as crewman on a "long range crew training exercise" Four bus drivers, four nursing sisters and me, Rivers to Calgary, first week in July (can you say Calgary Stampede party). It was +90, and the headwind was so bad they decided to stop in Regina for fuel and more puke bags. The cars were passing us on the bloody highway.
The trip home wasn't quite so bad, at least we had a tail wind, and everybody slept except the guy who lost the toss, and me in the right seat doing most of the driving, which was the only bright spot in the whole weekend. Per Ardua whatever!

[snoopy]

Well, I dunno... I have flown several piston Otters throughout my fixed-wing career and have always thought it was a real pilot's airplane. The aircraft even looks "piloty" with it's big lumbering presence on the dock. As long as you planned everything in advance, kept the cylinders cool and flew airspeed and not altitude, the aircraft always had lift and responded pleasurably to all control inputs. The Beaver is fun, but properly flown the Otter will put a Beaver to shame and put a big grin on your face.

Unlike the Beaver you almost never have to worry about running out of fuel, you can haul all manner of external loads and still fly, you could put a fat guy up front and have him move to the aisle at the destination when you needed to dock on the passenger side, and with a little patience and creativity you could sail that sucker anywhere. Flown in accordance with the Type Certificate, it would take a load out of nearly anywhere (well except one Otter but it was the operator's fault, not the aircraft). I remember often flying 300 miles with a pit in the bottom of my stomach knowing I was going into a hazardous shoreline and that the wind at the destination would be from the wrong direction. Strategizing how to tackle the problem enroute relieved the boredom of a long trip and the satisfaction of cheating the wind (or salvaging a docking gone awry) was it's own reward. The Otter taught me patience, something I would otherwise be short of.

Some of my worst dockings were in a 5 knot wind... complacency is a bitch! Just because the water is glassy, doesn't mean there isn't any wind - the Otter tail is high enough to find what you can't see - usually when you least expect it! You never untie an Otter, particularly in a big wind, unless you have a plan, a back-up plan, and a super save-the-day salvage plan. You also get really good at getting a cantankerous engine started, and knowing what troubleshooting method is most likely to work for the conditions at hand. With a large wingspan and an enormous tail, an Otter in the vicinity of a rough shoreline is a dangerous place to be with a dead engine.

I once turned down a job on a turbine Otter because it had a turbine on it - limited flap to play with and reverse thrust just took all the fun out of the Otter IMHO. All my Otter hours are piston and looking back, even the bad days were fun.

You can pull up a list of Otters on the Transport Canada civil aircraft register, and by clicking on each registration you can weed out the turbines from the pistons. To further identify the engine types ie Polish vs. P&W, Garrett vs. PT-6 you can look up the registrations on the Transport Canada CAWIS site. A cautionary note though: you can't rely on the Civil Register as accurate without clicking on each registration to verify the registration is still current and not "cancelled".

Cheers,
Kirsten B.

[Rudder Bug]

Gees Kirsten, you're almost making me like them again...and I am likely to fly them where I am...cause they ARE there...***Sight***

Gilles

[1000 HP]

I've flown turbine and Polish. I prefer the Polish. The piston is nice at the dock because the dock-hand can hear you screaming to run! One of the best things about the Otter is that drunken tourist have a very hard time puking over your shoulder thanks to the bulkhead...

[tcraft]

The best thing about the Otter, f**k I miss the Beech!

[Idriveplane]

Theres another piston Otter in Ear Falls with excellent adventures. Nice looking machine... As for the beav its nice, till you get a contract to haul a couple hundred barrels on skis in butt f**k nowhere n earn beaver back.

[letsfly]

One of the nicest piston otter I have seen was posted on a blog recently owned up at Lake Athabasca.
http://northsaskatchewan.blogspot.ca/20 ... times.html

[snoopy]

That looks like a perfect Otter wind too...
Cheers,
Kirsten B.

[bornagain1340]

I agree 100% with what Kirsten said. One of the best pieces of advice I got when I started flying the swine was "there will be times when you realize that you just can't move any faster." Meaning the wind's blowing (obviously from the wrong direction), the shoreline you're using sucks (but it's your only option), you haven't eaten since 0400 and you're two trips behind sched...time to step back and focus on what you're trying to get done at that moment. I guess that could pretty much apply to any flying job, but even more so when flying the otter.
It's one of those airplanes that could reach up and bite you just when you think you've got it all figured out, so treat her right, plan everthing WAY ahead and don't stop flying it until all the ropes are tied to the dock.
And a good chiropractor is handy to have on the sidelines as well
Couple of years later I took a job on a piston Beaver with no baggage extension...giggled like a little girl!

[Lost Lake]

The Athabasca Lodge otter is still flying. Very pretty inside and out. Piston Otters in and around Armstrong area. I used to have the website for a total catalogue of all otters. Just google. I like flying the one with 2 turbines. Much easier, but the same loads, only I have a dedicated swamper with me at all times.

[Meatservo]

I love watching them fly by. Sitting in one in flight is like holding your head inside a steel trash can while two people beat it with a rubber bat.