The almost daily blog started 01 April 2006.
31 October 2007
Last day of October, been dispatching Calendars from Beaver Lodge. Tomorrow, lots more to wrap and ship. November already! I walked to Post Office in shirt sleeves, quite something for us at this time of year. 18C.
28 October 2007
Patrick Lace noticed these machines at Viking. Three are there for mods during the coming months. C-FOEU (1678TB46) and C-FOEK (1650TB28) shown here.
Photo: Patrick C. Lace © 27 October 2007
27 October 2007
Had a great time in Ottawa, 74 came out to the Bush Theatre to be entertained, lecture was given but ten metres from c/n 1 C-FFHB! I also met up with a good friend Ian Macdonald (Beaver enthuisiast) who is now living in Ottawa.
A kind gift from Ian, shown here, is an invitation. I'm sure I have a photo to go with this. I'll add it to the blog this week. Thanks Ian.
I enjoyed the fall colours on the inbound and outbound trip.
24 October 2007
I will not be on station for the next few days as I'll be in Ottawa.
23 October 2007
A puzzling e-mail this morning from Ian MacIntosh...all will be revealed. Click on the picture below. WARNING: Addictive! Ralph Wood runs the site and many, many others. Well done Ralph!
Photo: Courtesy of Airplane Jigsaw Puzzles.com
My thanks to the youngest of my brood Anthony for spiffing up the DHC-2.COM logo. Thanks again Ant!
22 October 2007
On this Thursday evening I'm "performing" at the National Aviation Museum's Bush Theatre. If you are in the area and would like to come along to the CAHS meeting as a guest, you must enter the museum between 18:45 and 19:25 for the lecture.
18 October 2007 14:00EDT
THE CALENDARS HAVE LANDED! Shipping starts tomorrow. My thanks to those who have ordered one or more. First off will be the ones to the contributing selected photographers!! Delivery flights commence . . . . Beavers off around the World.
No sooner than I add a shot of N6781L (788) yesterday, than another image arrives of her taken on October of last year in the Kenmore yard by Fred Wallis. So I will add it today. Thanks Fred.
Photo: Fred Wallis © 23 October 2006
17 October 2007
After the "big scare" of yesterday, I went out and bought a 500GB external hard drive, all my other ones are full! So busy backing up as I add today's Beaver N6871L (788) in her new Kenmore house colours of yellow and black. I saw this machine in the paint shop in May. She now also has a new engine. My thanks to Joe Bush for the images.
I'm also awaiting a call from the Printer, the Calendars should arrive before day's end.
15 October 2007
I finally joined the masses and bought a copy of FSX. My old computer now has an upgraded video card (bought inexpensively, recondidtioned from the munufacturer ) to handle this program. I hope to give it a work out when I am not updating this website. I can now watch a virtual Beaver bobbing on the water, in the rain in Seattle, on my other computer . . as I type this.
N9766Z (504) waits for me to take her for a spin.
13 October 2007
A great slew of images from my friend Ruben Husberg in Norway, arrived electronically this morning. I have already added the first one after minor tweaking. Many thanks Ruben.
10 October 2007
Calendar Status Report: Just spoke with Dave at Allan Graphics - the calendar has been printed and is now in "bindery" area. He says "it looks great". So I hope to have them by weeks end. I'm excited.
07 October 2007
If you are travelling to the Ottawa/Hull region, there is a must see item at the Canadian Museum of Civilization (until March 16, 2008), an installation of 1,692 basswood Beavers by Frank Shebageget, created in 2003. I hope to visit after my lecture at the National Aviation Museum on October 25th. I will take some snaps then. (note: I did not go to the Museum...Ian Macdonald will go sometime and snap those little wooden beavers.)
Have a question for you all, what's the small cone dangling at the top of the tail of this Civil Air Patrol for?
Photo: John Kimberley © June 1979 - Aird Archives
Well, it did not take too long for the answer to arrive. Thanks Peter!
Hi Neil,
The 'small cone' that you see is for the High Frequency (HF) trailing aerial. On the early HF radios, you had a set of five of so frequencies with which to operate. Each frequency had a corresponding radio wave length. Toobtain the best transmission and reception performance, the HF aerial length had to be adjusted by the pilot for each frequency used.
The 'cone' was used to 'drag' the HF aerial out in the slipstream as the pilot unwound it with a little handle to correspond with the required frequency/wave length combination.
Just like checking the landing gear or a retractable, or the water rudders on a floatplane, one had to remember to 'retract' the trailing aerial also before landing. Many a pilot has landing with the trailing aerial snagged on the boundary fence or utility power/telephone lines on the airport boundary.
You often see the same 'cone' on many of the WWII aircraft and through into the '50s - '60's. These days, the modern HF antennae are tuned electronically, and in some cases are within the aircraft structure itself (like car radio aerials in the windows are these days). Mind you, there is less and less dependence of HF now as well due to the improved VHF coverage and Satellite data link communications etc for airlines who relied heavily on HF in earlier times.
Hope this solves the mystery and expect that many others will also recall,and probably provide better descriptions, of what the mystery "small cone"was used for.
PS. I could say it was used to 'filter' out the traffic, or airwaves, or wake turbulence - but that would be just bulldust and you would know it!:-)
Regards
Peter Reardon
Canberra, AUSTRALIA
01 October 2007
Always a busy day at "Beaver Lodge" changing over from one month to another! Adding some period John Kimberley images. As I've said before, John's historic images are a cornerstone of this site.