right seat in de Havilland Otter float

Sounds like an experience of a lifetime, even if you were/are its pilot.

Good times.

 

Flying floats over the water has advantages. Kenmore Air, out of Seattle, will fly in similar situations. Thankfully they use the flashing landing lights to help others spot them.

 

Nice. A long time ago I got the right seat from Vegas to the Grand Canyon. I booked the flight just to get to GC but it was primarily a sightseeing trip. They paired up couples in the back and I got the front seat. Headset too. Fantastic views! No ceiling like in your pics.

 

I have no pictures because it was a few years ago but I flew a Beaver on floats from the Queen Charlottes to Lake Washington, not Kenmore Air. It was interesting because we were registering a groundspeed of 55mph at the north end of it and the PIC suggested that I climb to 7000 feet to get above the wind tunnel effect of that area. It worked and somewhere south of Speiden Island in the San Juans we were able to drop down to 3000 and maintain a normal airspeed. The good ol' local knowledge of the route always pays off. The Beaver is a lovely flying airplane and our house is under the path of many of Kenmore's airplanes flying to the San Juans every day..

 

Me too Bob, just at the other end! It's a slow day if I don't register at least 5-8 planes north & south....then 10+ each way on Fridays & Mondays......usually 500' altitude, right down the center of the San Juan Channel.
I can hear the Beavers thumping along about a minute or 2 before they come over the point. And of course the Caravans and the turbine Beaver and Otters sounds are distinctively different. We have a great mix of all going over. My neighbor is getting a bit of a reputation; he shakes his fist and yells at them as they go over, as he thinks they are "dangerous" to the environment.....

 

Love the Otter, sound of it makes me smile, sadly there is non in operation here.
Skydive club where I used to jump had one, fast to climb, nice amount of space to sit on benches and it sold for more what they paid. Remember on some student skydive our jump master told me to jump up more when exiting so I gave all I had only to find out later that I had missed the horizontal stabilizer by few inches. It looked great while on freefall to see it coming straight down.

 

If it was coming straight down, I'd say must have been a turbine conversion - either that or a twin otter. Radial version had no great reputation as a homesick angel, when you speak to anyone who used them in PNG in hot and high conditions.

On dehavilland product and DZs, a beaver meat bomber down here with a TPE331 in the nose, did spectacularly manage to shed prop parts when it ran into a solid object, assorted personnel dodging the shrapnel must almost have been like a scene from the battle for britain.