…wins Aviation Week and Space Technology’s annual photo contest (have a look at the other pix too):
BEST OF BEST
Jason Pineau, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories
De Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter [two videos here] rests under a thin band of aurora borealis on Point Lake, Northwest Territories.
Mr Pineau’s website is here. Happy New Year!
Update: I neglected to mention that Viking Air of British Columbia is making new-build Twotters–and is having success selling them.
Nice photo gallery…makes me miss the north. Thanx for that and Happy New Year back at ya Mark.
Damn, I do miss that neck of the woods too. Great photography, congrats Jason.
Yep, the True North, Strong and Free does have it’s siren song. Once you’ve heard it, you’ll be forever called. Was there for a month this fall on a Buffalo hunt. Want to go back!!
Happy New Year all.
Pat
Nice, I caught the science report for when it was on, but was too far south to catch the show, (not living in the mountains anymore)
Miss the Aurora borealis like good sex on a bad night. (not that the warm hood of my car found some but-prints, that would be juvenile, wrong, and AWESOME!!
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Nice, I caught the science report for when it was on, but was too far south to catch the show, (not living in the mountains anymore)
Miss the Aurora borealis like good love on a bad night. (not that the warm hood of my car found some AWESOME!!
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Many thanks Mark and Happy New Year!
Love me a Twatter! The PT6-34 make a great A/C even better.
I remember when that A/C changed aviation up in the arctic. You could leave that machine outside, cold soaked to -50, tie the props to the front step pegs,throw in a warm nicad battery (if you had to)and fire it up. No preheat.Get the frost off the wings and tail,(we used nylon covers),15 min each engine and you could shut down,untie the props and go.
No more planebque with a Herman Nelson!
The video “Flight Into Darkness” documents the first winter flight of an A/C into Raytheons South Pole base. (That Twatter was a Ken Borek Machine)
You have to watch the take-off run to believe it,,,,it was so cold the skis couldn’t create enough heat energy to slide,,,it was like taking off on sand!
The crew got the Order of Canada for that rescue.
I’ve never seen a Twatter on board skis…must have been hauling heavy off airport…
Yup, best place in the world to live, and temperatures like -25°C today keep it from becoming overcrowded. The Twotter is a wonderful bird to fly across this vast and beautiful land.
Stay warm, keep safe, and have a Happy New Year
I have flown in both twin engine and single engine up north, noisy especially single engine, but great workhorses. When the Turboprops couldn’t fly into the mines twin engine Otters were used.
Also flew into northern lake for fishing, one night the northern lights were dancing all around us, absolutely awesome, the Lemon Hart probably helped.
I am familiar with the north in Saskatchewan and would not change those memories for anything, there is a lot most Saskatchewan people never experience.
North of 60
“Twotter” is the correct spelling,,,It’s just that none of the guys I knew working with them ever pronounced it that way. If any embarrassing explanation of the term was required, the “o” was always quickly inserted.
iranian companies in brazil are making aircraft too…and selling them to ‘bama.
America Deserves Answers on the Obama Administration’s Decision to Outsource the Next Generation of Light Attack Aircraft
Kansas-based Hawker Beechcraft is going to court to get some answers from the US Air Force concerning its decision to disqualify Hawker’s AT-6 from competition to produce a new light attack aircraft for the US and allied militaries. The court case comes on the heels of the Government Accounting Office’s decision not to review the Air Force’s disqualification of Hawker Beechcraft.
Until the Air Force abruptly announced the disqualification in November, the AT-6 was considered by many to be the frontrunner in the Air Force’s Light Air Support program. The USAF so far has not explained its decision, which leaves just one competitor in the field, Embraer and its Super Tucano.
That competitor carries significant and possibly disqualifying baggage in the form of connections to the Iranian government, and a new bribery investigation.
Embraer is not only controlled by the Brazilian government, it is currently under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission for possible violation of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. That Act prohibits companies from bribing foreign officials or making other illegal payments to gain or retain business.
That investigation began in November 2011, and appears to still be in the early stages. Embraer is accused of engaging in bribery in three countries, none of which have been identified publicly. If found guilty, the company could be banned from doing any business with the US government at all. The SEC’s investigation of Embraer went public about three weeks before the Air Force disqualified Hawker Beechcraft without explanation.
Additionally, while outsourcing the contract to Embraer would create just 50 jobs in the United States, Hawker Beechcraft says the AT-6 would create about 1,400 jobs at 181 companies across 39 states. It would also keep the manufacturing and parts and supply chains all within the United States. Awarding the contract to Embraer puts most of the platform’s ecosystem outside the US. The AT-6, meanwhile, is built on the proven T-6 platform, which is currently in use by the USAF and other allied air forces. More than 700 T-6 aircraft have been built to date, and Hawker Beechcraft has built more than 14,000 aircraft for the US military overall.
Kansas Congressman Tim Huelskamp, who serves on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, lambasted the Obama administration’s decision in a statement issued December 27:
“It is simply wrong for the Obama Administration to hire a Brazilian company to handle national security when we have a qualified and competent American company that can do the job,” Congressman Huelskamp said. “With millions of Americans out of work, it makes no sense to award the work to a foreign company. Along with my colleagues in the Kansas delegation, I will continue to attempt to right this wrong in order to preserve America’s national and economic security interests.”
The editorial board of the Wichita Eagle, the Taxpayer Protection Alliance, Women Impacting Public Policy, and others have come out questioning the Air Force’s decision.
Given President Obama’s rhetoric against American companies that outsource jobs overseas, the decision to outsource the next generation of US light attack aircraft to a questionable overseas company is curious, to say the least. The administration’s rough treatment of Hawker Beechcraft may well have a political dimension, as the company is well known for manufacturing high performance business jets. The president has sharply criticized “corporate jet owners” on several occasions. Additionally, Embraer boasts of its attention to “environmental sustainability,” which may have helped boost its profile with the administration that brought us the boondoggle known as Solyndra.
The LAS contract is worth between $1 billion and $1.5 billion.
The Twotter is one of the all time great machines and quite possibly the best thing ever invented in Canada. I worked on them in Frobisher Bay in the 1980s. When the temps were severe we left the trucks parked facing into a snowbank idling and the transmission in drive to keep the fluid from gelling. The Twotters had electric strap heaters under each engine to keep the oil warm and engine blankets and plugs. Two minutes to unwrap, install a warm battery and it started up every time. Compared to the Hawker Siddeley 748 or the DC-3 it was maintenance free. Kick the tires, check the oil and it’s good to go.
Note – Frobisher Bay was renamed Iqaluit (literally fishes) in the 1980s to give some self esteem to the original inhabitants and to hell with the heritage of the evil colonizing British. Same thing happened all across the North, so Fort Chimo is now Kuujjuaq
So Viking has the Type Certificate for the Buffalo. Considering that the DHC 5 is one of the best military planes ever built, why is the RCAF considering replacing the currently fleet of “buffs” with aircraft built in Spain and Italy? Just a question.
Go Viking! They’ve got all the old DHC types, up to and including the Dash 7.
Here’s the link for the South Pole rescue with the Twotter that could,,,when the USAF and USN couldn’t.
( I can’t get the Video to load, if you can find it somewhere else online watch it,,,it’s good. I think some library’s still have it.)
Given President Obama’s rhetoric against American companies that outsource jobs overseas, the decision to outsource the next generation of US light attack aircraft to a questionable overseas company is curious, to say the least.
Not surprising for the worst president for unemployment in America’s history; he’s just another socialist hypocrite.
I seem to have a comment waiting for approval. Not sure why.
Great thread. Thanks for pictures.
My brother flew the Twotter out of Yellowknife for a number of years during the late 70s and has a number of pictures on the wall in his rec room similar to the ones shown here. They loved living up there. Though, wolves in the backyard were a little scary when you have young children. He spent Christmas eve and into Christmas in the cockpit of an aircraft wrapped in two sleeping bags when the engine cooled off too much and would not start. He had been delivering oil barrels to an unmanned site. The location device was not working. They sent out a search party and found him the next day as he was along the flight path.
Later he flew out of Iqaluit (Frobisher Bay)for a number of years. Retired in Airdrie.
I will be sending this thread to him.
Happy New Year to all.
Always loved the old single otter. When landing my Cessna one day I had a bird strike(sparrow), almost overheated the engine as a result and paid the better part of the day waiting for a mechanic to properly clean the cooling fins. As I sat in front of the hanger waiting a single otter came in. After shut down the pilot grabbed a step stool climbed up and pulled a dead seagull out of the engine. Whereupon he climbed back into the cockpit and flew away.
From my limited experience the twotter is the single otter times two. When they had to do a polar rescue in the dead of the antarctic winter the twotter was the aircraft of choice.
“Twotter” is the correct spelling…”
Posted by: G at December 31, 2011 5:26 PM
Twotters are useful.
Twatters are in gubmint.
With the exception of a few years in the arctic, my entire career has been in the bush. I’ve enjoyed the majority of them in deHavillands.
If I may give an example or two of how capable the -6 really is; I once dropped a load of fuel drums on a beach ridge along the Hudson Bay coast. The ridge was straight into an estimated 35-40 knot wind and the landing roll was paced at approximately 75 yards. In preparation for the following STOL departure with nothing but empty drums on board, take-off flap was set and as the yoke was pulled aft, the stall horn sounded. There was no chance to pace out the take-off roll, but it wasn’t very far. It may have bettered the 25 yard take-off roll I once performed in a piston Otter on skis.
Also, last spring while landing at a controlled airport, the landing clearance included permission to backtrack to clear at the taxiway abeam the threshold. At the end of the landing roll, the aircraft’s nosewheel was exactly even with the edge of the taxiway where it joined the runway. Tower came back on the radio and remarked “Looks like you don’t need the backtrack, you’re cleared onto the taxiway”.
30 knot crosswinds, chasing polar bears from a gravel beaches to land, handling BIG water on floats, able tough it out in ice when required and can handle the roughest landings…what a gal. There really is no airplane that compares.
Oh, and anything other than a -100 nose is hideous on her.
Posted by: otterdriver at December 31, 2011 11:26 PM
Wow! You and Bruce lead adventurous lives!
But did I ever tell you what happened on my 3rd mission on the Challenger back in Jan. 86????
Point Lake. Walked all over it in 1980 and never noticed the kimberlite. At least my ancestors all missed Lisheen as well.
My brother Bob flew the Twotter and other aircraft in the north out of Yellowknife and Iqaluit during most of his flying career and has a number of similar pictures on his rec room wall in Airdrie.
He did spend one Christmas eve night wrapped in two sleeping bags when after unloading some oil barrels at a site along arctic coast the motors would not start after cooling too much. They found him the next morning and took him home to Yellowknife.
My one experience was while in the army in the late 1960s, an otter landed on a lake to pick a bunch of us up and took a few tries before he had liftoff. A little heavy I guess.
Quintessentially Canadian!
Happy New Year!
From Ottawa…..
Home of Conservative government… (never expected to hear that phrase)
Now, if we can only win Ottawa-Vanier ….
That glassy smooth water is picturesque but it still scares the hell outa me…..no problem for take-off but for landing, it’s as bad as landing into mist….
Best procedure is to buzz the lake first and induce some ripples…..being real careful not to auger in by flying too low.
Joe
“When they had to do a polar rescue in the dead of the antarctic winter the twotter was the aircraft of choice.”
I recall something like that….
Could be another event but the rescue involved a Canadian C130 and crew, from half way round the world….and it was so cold they hadda keep the engines on while loading. Part of it was the equipment adapted for extreme cold and polar navigation, part the experience/talent for polar navigation in the pitch dark and possibly land in a blizzard.
Dang, y’all making me homesick for the frozen north (in a strange sort of way). Now, when it gets below 20c my joints ache.
Got to dig into my archives (pile of junk) to find that picture of me refueling a twin from a barrel up on Ward Hunt Island. WHI is the farthest north piece of Canuck soil.
sasquatch: The C 130 had to wait until ‘spring’ before it could do its rescue run but since then Kenn Borek Air has flown 2 rescue missions to the south pole in the dead of winter. Both times it was in the only airplane capable of flying in temperatures that low. The Twin Otter.