The almost daily blog started 01 April 2006.
30 November 2006
Last day of the moth. I have been busy housekeeping on the website, like regular domestic chores, these thankless tasks have to be done...
27 November 2006
Wonderful news from the land of my birth. Loch Lomond Seaplanes will be acquiring a Beaver to help with their new seaplane service from the River Clyde. I was born on the shores of this fine river, at Dumbarton! Check out the PDF on their website. Good luck to David West and his team. Details here.
Continuing with scanning older civil slides. One arrived from Alberto Storti today, taken by Eric Bannwarth of France. Nice shot taken at Vancouver South. Late afternoon image, ties in with Rudi's latest page nicely!
Photo: Eric Bannwarth © August 1986
26 November 2006
Just got some (brrr) shots in from Peter Killin of C-FIGF (834) at Campbell River, BC., this morning. Not a very nice day out there. Glad you did not slip! Lotus Land eh?
Ken Leigh waving at Peter Killin © 26 November 2006
25 November 2006
Interesting package in the mail, a Beaver cap (used)...here's the item. Thanks to Jaime for that one.
Then I did a search on Google. Is this a silver U-6A at Air Base "Captan Ernesto Esguerra Cubides",Tres Esquinas, Caqueta? This is located on the south shore of the Rio Orteguaza. Escuadrón de Enlace with DHC-2, C-47 and Commander.
Not a Beaver, maybe a Caravan . . . good call Mr. Hulina ! Of course Beavers do not have tapered wings...doh, silly me !
GASUR is an acronym for Grupo Aereo del Sur (Southern Air Group).
I have another treasure that I got from Sippo in Finland.
24 November 2006
As my neighbours in the USA celebrate their thanksgiving, I feast on new images from the Henk Scharringa Collection. My thanks to Henk for sharing his superb collection. Filling in a quite a few gaps in our coverage of US Military U-6/L-20 Beavers.
22 November 2006
A word or two about today's banner shot by Chip Porter. He related this yarn when I asked him about "The Specter of the Brocken" title. Chip is an accomplished climber, guide and photographer.
Sometime way back in 1840? (or around that time) two buddies attempted to summit Mont Blanc for the first time. As they approached the final ridge to the peak one of the climbers slipped and slid backwards over the edge. His friend was powerless to stop him and he fell to his death, sliding out of sight through the clouds that were building below them. The climber who was left standing there in shock looked down over the edge at the place where his friend had disappeared. There on the cloud cover below him was the image of a man in a circular rainbow. It became known as "the Specter of the Brocken". He didn't understand it but of course the sun was behind him leaving his own image on the clouds below. I've seen the specter below me when I was climbing but never were the clouds so close that I could make out my own figure.
More details:
The Specter of the Brocken was a rather mysterious phenomena. Somebody would laboriously climb a mountain and break through the clouds into the bright sunlight. Then he would turn around and be confronted by a giant with multi-colored rings around his head. The spectacle was named the specter of the Brocken after the peak in the Harz Mountains of Germany, where it was often seen. The giant figure was the shadow of the climber cast over the fog, who often would exaggerate its size by miscalculating its distance. But the colored rings around the head, the Glory, proved much more difficult to explain. Nowadays the glory is very often seen from airplanes, surrounding its shadow on the clouds below (however, if the airplane is high above the clouds, only the glory remains).
The physical origin of the glory was an optical riddle until the seventies, when it was calculated correctly by scattering theory. The small water drops of clouds and fog produce it; however, no intuitive physical explanation is available. In part the glory comes from light guided by the interface of water and air (surface waves) and in part from light that undergoes ten (!) internal reflections (a tenth rainbow?). If you look at a single drop, you will see a ring of light shining on its periphery.
21 November 2006
Added a very dramitic shot by of VH-IDQ (1555) at Cairns Harbour. Thanks Jens! I hear that VH-IDQ sank on take-off Sunday 19th November. I'm very sorry to hear about this indeed. Hope no injuries occurred.
Photo: Jens Brueggehofe © 18 September 2006
17 November 2006
Well, the identities are possibly c/n 592 and c/n 1027. thanks to ken Swartz for reminding me to check Aviation Letter! Just plowed through 36 copies and came up with some info. 
16 November 2006
Trying to deduce the identity of two Beavers photographed at Tucson in 1979. Have made a page with the information so far. Any offers from you?
15 November 2006
Just added another image of CF-UBN (1622TB13) taken from a model magazine. Thanks to Gary Racicot for that one.
Scanning a few more slides toady while keeping an eye on my beloved Danie, who is en route CYUL - MMMX MXA881 5:36 minute flight in an A319. She was approaching overhead KSYR just recently (08:53EST). Off for a well earned break to Mexico.
Flight plan: V282 BUGSY SYR J59 PSB J78 LOONS J53 SPA J37 HRV J31 LEV A649 COKER UA649 PAZ UJ102 V25 OTU OTU3
Courtesy Flightaware.com
Looks like Danie went through some lumpy weather. ;-(
Here she is at 12:50 EST
Courtesy Flightaware.com
14 November 2006
Just viewed the DVD "60N at 500ft" by Mike Lunenschloss. A super production and my head is in over drive mode. So many wonderful images, and perhaps I should mention, superb Beaver sequences too! Check it out and if Santa won't bring it, get it for yourself!
Also today recieved some more images by Simon Lawrence of CF-FHC (12) at work. Another proud father and young pilot. Suzanne (12) is at the controls here.
Photo: Simon Lawrence © 09 September 2006
Here's her Dad "Walking the wire" at at Haworth Lake, Northern Rockies. Simon has two images in the 2007 DHC-2.COM Calendar!!
13 November 2006
Turbo Beaver CF-UBN (1622TB13) Race Number 51 that was discussed on the DHC-2 Group recently. Thanks to Trevor Davies/ABPIC for the use of this image.
Thanks also to Terry Fletcher who happend upon "The Black Beaver" yesterday at Headcorn, Kent.
12 November 2006
Adding some of Robin's AAC Beavers today. Nice to go back in time to places I once cycled to ! Listening to some up-beat techno music as I type this "Get a move on" by Mr. Scruff. Seems somewhat appropriate ;-)
07 November 2006
So what do you think about this ? . . answer later today with latest new addition. Yes, it is military!
Photo: Jaime Escobar-Corradine (c) July 1997
Did you guess? It is the machine gun mounting on Beaver 5106 (289) based at Tres Esquinas AFB in Colombia. The base was surrounded by guerrillas.
05 November 2006
Wonderful scans from Marcel Fluet-Lecerf collection, continuing on our Military bent. Merci Marcel! Some scans in from the Lenn Bayliss Collection and some recent Warwick Bigsworth images from OZ.
Just when I think I have exhausted the sources of "New !" Beavers, they magically turn up. Great stuff! Keep them coming folks.
04 November 2006
Continuing the run of military Beavers supplied from the extensive research collection of author Wayne Mutza. About to start an Army Air Corps (British) blitz. Super images from Robin Walker, with promises of US Army machines stationed in Germany to follow soon ;-)
03 November 2006
Monthly stats arrived in this morning from Ian Macintosh, my thanks again Ian. 5,371 Beaver images on the site now. Ian, Dirk and yours truly continue to work away on the main database. The hunt continues . . .
01 November 2006
I start the month of November off with a memory of my great time in Juneau, Alaska, in 2004. Super place to watch Beaver action. N47AK (726) over the pond, Juneau Pond that is!
This month will see some house-keeping on the site. I will continue to work through my backlog of images from our many correspondents. priority will go to older shots as usual. Banner shots will be selected from topical images and of course any "knock-out" that crosses my desk.