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c/n 162
CF-GYR on display at an Air Show.
Photo: Sheldon D. Benner © July 1963 - Michael J. Ody Collection
CF-GYR at the DHC Downsview Plant.
Photo: Sheldon D. Benner © 1963 - Ruben Husberg Collection

c/n 162

CF-GYR

x

Certificate of Airworthiness #3486 issued 21-Jan-1952.

CF-GYR de Havilland Canada Aircraft, Downsview, ON. Operated as demonstrator. Delivered 31-Dec-1951. Certificate of Registration #10713 issued 21-Jan-1952.

CF-GYR White River Air Services Ltd., White River, ON. Regd. 15-Apr-1952.

CF-GYR Russell Aronec / La Ronge Aviation Services La Ronge, SK. Regd 10-May-1965..

Note: Russell Aronec was a prospector who together with Pat and Shirley Campling formed La Ronge Aviation Services in 1960.

Accident. 5ml North of La Ronge, SK. 55°10’N 105°18’W 11-Jul-1970. The pilot entered an isolated moderate rain shower in VFR flight. In an effort to circumnavigate the rain shower and maintain visual flight, he attempted a turn at low level. The wing of the aircraft struck a tree and the aircraft crashed in a heavily wooded area. The pilot suffered serious injury and the aircraft substantial damage.

CF-GYR Canx 13-Apr-1998.

Status Unknown

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.