Beaver Tails master index
c/n 162
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CF-GYR on display at an Air Show.
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Photo: Sheldon D. Benner © July 1963 - Michael J. Ody Collection
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CF-GYR at the DHC Downsview Plant.
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Photo: Sheldon D. Benner © 1963 - Ruben Husberg Collection
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Excerpt from an e-mail received from Marc Guimond (July 2014):
snip >>> About half of my time in these aircraft was with La Ronge Aviation Services in northern Saskatchewan in ’69, ’70 and ‘72. Because of this I can provide you with a bit of the information you requested as to the fate of CF-GYR (c/n 162). Along with Otter CF-GBY (c/n 5), it was acquired from Max Ward only a few months prior to my introduction to these two aircraft. They were amongst a half-dozen airplanes (plus helicopters) operating out of our base camp on Boland Lake, just a few miles South of Rabbit Lake, now gone and turned into the uranium mine. As I was not there in ’71, when I returned the following year I inquired about CF-GYR. I was told that the previous year it had gone down while diverted to forest fire fighting duties. While attempting to get back to La Ronge apparently the exhausted pilot made a couple of mistakes that escalated due to the circumstances of the moment. He tried to make it back home too late in the evening, with contrary winds that slowed him down and consumed too much of his fuel. He went dry and tried to land the floated Beaver on a narrow gravel road in mid-forest, in the dark – or with very limited light – and gusty winds in the wrong direction. The aircraft was totalled, and the pilot (his first name was Garry, but I do not recall his surname) was seriously injured. I subsequently tried to find out more about the event but without much luck; nor could I verify the accuracy of my third-hand information. |