Juneau - Alaska, 2006

Juneau (Alaska), 2006

Photos © Ruud Leeuw

When I arrived in Juneau I was pleasantly surprised by two things: the weather was bright and sunny, while I had been warned to expect a lot of rain in these parts of Alaska.
The second thing I noticed was that my room in the Breakwater Inn had a good, though somewhat distant view over the harbour, which is also the approach path of the seaplanes into Juneau.
So my wife and I recovered from our early rise that morning for our Alaskan Airlines flight from Anchorage to Juneau, relaxing for a while on our balcony, holding a cold softdrink, enjoying the revitalizing sunrays and I enjoyed the passing of seaplanes...

Two maps will show you that the airport (PAJN) is a considerable distance from "downtown" where our accommodations were (some 20 US Dollars by cab). Overall view and Downtown where the cruiseboats and floatplanes are, at the Juneau Harbor Seaplane Base (5Z1).

N339AK is a DeHavilland DHC-3 Otter, modified with a turbine engine; one sees quite a number of these around.
N339AK has c/n 454 and has been registered to Alaska Coastal Airlines since 25Apr02.
FAA's website has its year of manufacturing for this DHC-3 Otter at 1965.
I would welcome more details on its aviation history between 1965 and 2002.

N338AK is a turbine-Otter too; this DHC-3 has c/n 262 and is registered to Alaska Coastal Airlines too (since 25Apr02).
FAA's website (N-inquiry) has N338AK's year of manufacturing listed as 1990, but assume this is its year of turbineconversion. I would welcome more details of its past career.

Sorry, I could not resist a bit of photoshopping here..

This is N336AK, DHC-3 c/n 333 and also flying for Alaska Coastal Airlines, which also seems to do business as Wings Airways.
It was registered on 26Mar03 to the present owner / operator and I would welcome more details about its history prior to this date.

It was only a twenty minute walk to the 'business center' of Juneau and the main docks, where the gigantic cruiseboats dock and these tiny seaplanes (a.k.a. floatplanes) wait for their passengers to take them swiftly on a spectacular flightseeing trip.

N91AK is a DeHavilland DHC-2 Beaver, with c/n 737.
Its history saw a delivery on 10Dec54 as 53-7926 to the US Army.
It found its way to Germany because it was offered for sale at the Coleman Barracks of Mannheim in Feb74.
By then it had a total of 4,864.0 flying hours.
It went back to North America and was registered as C-GAEU for B-M Aviation Ltd. of Lachute in Sep74.
It was bought by Lindberg's Hunt & Fish Air Service of Cochrane / Lillabelle Lake,ONT (but I have no date of this).
Its present tailnumber N91AK was listed for Alaska Coastal Airlines of Juneau, AK (a.k.a. Wings of Alaska Airways) on 01Nov02 For more photos and its career, see DHC-2.com, which also lists that by 28May04 this Classic Bushplane had amassed a total of 20,647 flying hours.

Classic take off: one float gets unstuck from the water and the other one is followed soon... airborne !

The Hangar is a nice place to have a meal or drinks; they have a view on the docks and large cruiseships.
The Hangar was home to Alaska aviation pioneer Shell Simmons' Alaska Air Transport in 1935, Marine Airways, Alaska Coastal Airlines in 1939, and Alaska Coastal-Ellis in 1962.

N337AK is another turbine-converted DHC-3 Otter (c/n 418), built in 1961. It is operated by the same company.

Another fine looking Beaver of the DeHavilland kind...
This is c/n 438, presently registered as N90AK for Wings Airways (d.b.a. Wings of Alaska too?).
It was delivered on 26Jan53 to the USAF as 52-6076.
its civilian career got started with registering it as N5158G in May71 for the Civil Air Patrol Inc. (Hq at Maxwell AFB in Alabama)
It became N90AK for Wings of Alaska / Alaska Juneau Aeronautics Inc., Juneau, AK during June 1988. All this and more at DHC-2.com

The Beaver was designed for flight in rugged and remote areas of the world. Because it often flies to remote locations (which often are in cold climates) its oil reservoir filling spout is located in the cockpit itself and the oil can be refilled while the aircraft is in flight.
Compared to this, flying around Juneau for cruise passengers can only be described as cozy!
Despite the fact that production ceased nearly 40 years ago, hundreds of Beavers are still flying—many of them with considerable modifications.

Although there have been rumours of Canadian companies manufacturing new Beavers, it remains an out-of-production aircraft. The remaining tooling was purchased by Viking Air of Victoria which manufactures replacement parts for most of the early de Havilland line. On February 24, 2006, Viking purchased the type certificates from Bombardier Aerospace for all the original De Havilland designs. The ownership of the certificates gives Viking the exclusive right to manufacture new Beavers.
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L-20_Beaver

A nice view of the seaplane base for Alaska Coastal Airlines (a.k.a. Wings Airways, a.k.a. Wings of Alaska)

Passengers are being boarded on N92AK (c/n 1031)
It was delivered on 29Jan57 as 56-0356 for the US Army
It became registered N333CD during 1973, and Gary (below) provided all the details !
It became C-GNFR in Sep83 09/83 for Rog-Air Ltd. of Port Loring,ONT.

But disaster struck when it hit trees during take off on 23Jul88. It was reported written off and its registration was cancelled in May 1989.
But it was resurrected!
N92AK was registered to Robert N. Jacobsen of Juneau, AK and Wings of Alaska / Alaska Juneau Aeronautics Inc., Juneau,AK has been registered since 11Mar05.
Source of info and more photos on www.dhc-2.com

"On a Sunday morning in Florida I looked at your website and found my old Beaver: serial 1031 and flown as N333CD!
C/n 1031 was obtained from the Florida Air Nat. Guard in September 1973 for service with the Indiana Dept. of Natural Resources. A complete retrofit for standard A/W certificate was completed by Clinton Aviation in Clinton, Indiana. Work done included the following: removal of all door jettisoning mechanisms, heavier Plexiglas in sky lights, removal of all military radios with exception of ADF, strip and and paint in Green and Yellow color scheme.
Aircraft was re weighed by the Indiana State Police for new weight and balance.
During this work it was noted that the aircraft was a composite of two airframes and that the fuselage and nose section numbers did not match. Nothing was noted in the logs that we got with the aircraft!
I was informed later that this was the result of a crash on the nose section while on duty with the Army. Never could be verified.
N 333 CD was chosen for the tail number. My lucky number was 33 and we had to only buy one stencil. CD for Conservation Dept., the forerunner of the Indiana Dept. of Natural Resources.
I flew this aircraft over 700 hours the first year of service and brought the first Coho Salmon (via eggs) to Indiana for future stocking in Lake Michigan. I was the sole pilot on this Beaver until my retirement in 78. Replacement pilot was not too fond of the ol' bird and he had limited tail wheel experience.
Solution for that was to replace it with a helicopter and some other more modern aircraft...
In the years that I flew her she was a great airplane and went a lot of places doing a lot of different chores. Lots of off-airport landing and in some tight short spots. Pasture landings put some cowpie debris in the flaps....
This Beaver had all the options: dual controls, dual brakes, aux fuel tanks, camera port, cabin heat enhancer, and some seat options. Special fairings were incorporated into the elevator that were used for radio antennas. These made nice hand holds for pushing it around on the ground.
I think it is the only fixed wing aircraft that I know of that had a landing and takeoff from the bottom of a strip mine...
I've flow several other Beavers and while 1031 was not the fastest, it was rock solid and and tough. Earlier models with the engine air scoop on the bottom of the cowl seemed a bit faster but I think the airframes were also a bit cleaner and lighter than 1031. Thanks for preserving the history of great airplanes and especially this one...."
Gary L. Hoffman, Chief Pilot, IDNR, (Ret.)
N333CD DHC-2 MK-1 Ser. 1031
[Nov.2006]

The following info was volunteerd on the Yahoo DHC-2 Beaver forum:
"I just ran across a photo of an L-20 cockpit. I did not keep track of the source, but it may be a DeHavilland Photo.
Across the bottom is the following text:
"The L-20 differed in a number of ways from the civil Beaver. It had four windows in the cabin roof, a Y-type dual control yoke instead of the "throw-over" control in the civil model, and foot brakes in left and right positions (optional on civil models). Seats were of standard fibre to facilitate the use of parachutes.
Due to a different carburetor, the L-20 primary quadrant controls were: (left to right) power, pitch and mixture. In the commercial model the controls were: pitch, power and mixture. Army-type radio equipment was used. (DH)"
Peter C

YouTube.com has some nice bushflying videos such as this one by Jared Leto

Our visit to Juneau was brief, less than 24 hours, but we had a very nice whale-watching trip (about which you can read on my travel report) and I did get to capture a nice amount of floatplanes.
We continued by boat to Sitka, of which (and the rest of the Alaska trip) can be read on...

Alaska 2006

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