DeHavilland Beaver Project
Backstory of finding the beaver:
Gary started the search for a float plane in 2016. He found the original ad for the beaver and thought a project would be fun. He called the current owner, Mike, but never got an answer so eventually he went on to look for a different one. A year went by and he had not found one he wanted yet. He happened to take a picture of the original ad on his flip phone from the previous year. He went back through his photos and found the picture of the original ad. He decided to give him one last call and he picked up.
Mike told Gary that he's in Alaska all he time for work, but will be in Seattle area for one day and he has an hour to come look at it and make a decision. Gary, Bill and our friend Jay hopped on a flight and headed over. Gary agreed that it would be a good project and a fun family airplane so he made the deal.
52-6138 History
On July 24, 1953, 52-6138 #1300 was delivered to the USAF and built as a L-20A and later was redesigned as the U-6A. It was placed with the 3040th Air Storage Squadron on July 24, 1953. Later on it had been delivered to the 7485th Air Depot Wing in Erding, Germany on September 28, 1954. It was taken to Bentwaters, England in 1955 where it joined the 31st Fighter Bomber Wings. March 1, 1958 it was assigned to the 81st Fighter Bomber Wing in Woodbridge but later on returned to Bentwaters.
N9822F
In April of 1961, the beaver was assigned to the 7th Air Division with US Civil Registration as N9822F with the USAF Flying Club in High Wycombe, UK. On August 5, 1966 it was struck off charge from the USAF and later purchased by Merrill Christopher of Salt Lake City, UT in 1976.
C-GWPL
On August 24, 1979 the aircraft was assigned registration to North Cariboo Flying Service Ltd. in St. John BC. On October 13, 1983 it was obtained and registered to Shareway Holdings Ltd of Fort St. John then later on leased to Latham Island Airways Ltd. in Yellowknife, NT in July 1984. On November 14, 1984 it was cancelled on CCAR on export to the USA.
N111YA
In November 1984 the aircraft was registered to St. Cloud Aviation Inc. of MN as N530SC. In June 1985 the registration changed to unknown owner and tail number was changed to N111YA.
N530BJ
On August 25, 1990 Mike Haggren of Kodiak, AK obtained registration and changed the tail number to N530BJ.
Backstory: The aircraft had been in the back of a hangar at the beautiful Jansen airport in Lyndyn, WA for 18 years which was longer than most homes that were built on the field. People had heard about the aircraft but had not seen it, therefor it almost had urban legend status.
Thank you to Craig and Bill for their hard work and help with getting the beaver out and ready.
N530BJ Ferry Flight
Gary Peters and Bill Strange went over to see the aircraft in August of 2017. In October of 2017, the aircraft was obtained and Bill Strange and Richard Whitt began repairing the aircraft and getting it prepared to fly to Clarkston, WA where it would be tore down for restoration. In 2 weeks, Bill and Richard had the beaver ready to ferry from Lyndyn to Clarkston. Ferry flight took place on November 6, 2017.
The Blueprint
Pictured below is Bill's blueprint that Gary and his two younger daughters, Charley and Piper, painted up for him.
