Landing an Otter/Beaver

[Johnny_L.A]

I saw an Otter or a Beaver making an approach to Lake Union today. (I don’t know which aircraft operate there. I know the Otter is bigger, but I’ve not taken the time to recognise them from a distance.) It was diving at a pretty steel angle, yet was flying slowly. It’s a draggy airplane, especially with floats on. But at its approach angle it seemed it should be going faster.

I’ve never flown a STOL airplane (of course helicopters are pretty good at STOL ) so I’m not sure how they operate. Given a steep approach, what is the usual approach angle and airspeed? Any other trivia would be nice, as well.

[thelurkinghorror]

I thought this thread would be about what happens when you’re fishing and something big and furry gets hooked.

[Pork_Rind]

Those are usually Beavers. You can buy one better than new from Kenmore Air.

http://www.kenmoreair.com/parts/beaverRebuildProgram/rebuild.html

[Johnny_L.A]

@Pork_Rind

You can buy one better than new from Kenmore Air.

Ha! Somebody can. Not me though!

[Pork_Rind]

Go halfsies, maybe? I got a couple of bucks.

de Havilland Beaver

. On approach, the Beaver exhibits a characteristic typical of DHC aircraft: A very nose low pitch attitude is required to maintain airspeed. These airplanes illustrate the concept of flight “behind the power curve” graphically. These are draggy airplanes, and raising the nose increases drag. As a Beaver slows, you must keep the nose down. Get low on final, raise the nose and the airplane will sink like a stone. The airplane won’t climb, even with a lot of power until you push the nose down. Push and the airplane will climb nicely, assuming it’s not too far into the pit before the pilot awakens. My mentor flew an Otter into the ground with a big load in this configuration, so my initial checkout in the Beaver included extensive exposure to this behavior. Everyone’s should.

[Johnny_L.A]

That’s the sort of thing I was looking for. Nice find.

I might have to go on a sightseeing flight one day, so I can experience such an approach. My nose-down approaches have been limited to Skyhawks with 40º flaps. (‘Flaps down, nose down!’)

‘Halfsies’? I might be able to come up with 1/100 the cost of a radial-powered Beaver. Might even be able to finance 1/10.

[Robot_Arm]

I did a college internship at a company that builds floats and does modifications on Beavers. (Not the same company supplying Kenmore Air, though.) Along with the float installation, I remember there was a supplement to the pilot’s operating handbook for the aircraft. I don’t know the exact approach speed or angle, but there was something I thought was interesting. Over still water, it can be impossible to judge exactly how high you are. You only see the reflection, not the water. So you can’t flare before the landing. There was a certain airspeed and sink rate, and you’d have to set up the airplane to those numbers and fly until you hit the water. I’m sure that’s not an issue at Lake Union, though.

(There are a lot of unusual aspects to flying on floats. You do your runup check on the move, for one thing. I remember flying with the president of the company once (not in a Beaver), and there was enough drag from the floats to not quite get up to rotation speed. He cranked in a little right aileron and lifted the left float out of the water. That cut the drag down, so we skimmed along on the right float and were able to gain enough speed to get airborne.)

For what it’s worth, the checklists for a Kenmore Air Beaver in Microsoft Flight Simulator X say:

Before landing:
80-90 mph (downwind)

Landing:
70 mph (flaps down)

If you need anything more specific than that, I just might be able to find out.

[Isamu]

I’m not an aviator, but the couple of times I was a passenger while landing on the open ocean in an Otter, I too was very surprised by the steep approach angle. (I don’t know if we were heading into the wind or not, but I imagine that mighty be the norm?). It seemed we flared just at the last minute but the landing felt very smooth.

[Gray_Ghost]

Link to what purports to be the 1958 POH for the Beaver is here That gets you to a “preview” of a very rough scanned copy of the 1958 POH. I couldn’t get the whole thing to load for me, but the preview link worked. Go to 38 for landing instructions. They advise 80 MPH indicated (surprising it’s not kts) with a 1000 FPM descent rate.

Next page mentions “Minimum Run Landing” with

"Pilots familiar with the aircraft and experienced in short landing technique may perform minimum run landings by using full flap and reducing the airspeed on final approach to 65 - 65 mph [sic] and maintaining that speed to the point of flare-out.

Max 10 MPH crosswind at 90 degrees for safe take off and landing. Operating limits start on page 52 of the preview.

[Rand_Rover]

@Pork_Rind

Those are usually Beavers. You can buy one better than new from Kenmore Air.

http://www.kenmoreair.com/parts/beaverRebuildProgram/rebuild.html

We start with an old, worn-out Beaver . . .

My wife should be back from the factory in a couple of weeks . . .

[Don_t_Panic]

@thelurkinghorror

I thought this thread would be about what happens when you’re fishing and something big and furry gets hooked.

I thought it would have something to do with how much beaver a land beaver would land if a land beaver could land beaver.