British Army Beavers.

[Noah Zark.]

Folks, how many D.H. Beavers did the Army have, and where did they go when the Army disposed of them?
Thanks. N.Z.

[Thunderbird167]

There were 42 in total serialed XP769-XP780, XP804-XP827, XV269-XV273

11 were written off in service, 3 are preserved at Middle Wallop and the majority of the rest were sold on the civillian market.

for more details have a look at UK Serials (http://www.ukserials.com/) under XP and XV

[Noah Zark.]

Thanks for the info. T bird.
N.Z.

[Dan Winterland]

"How many Beavers did the Army have, and where did they go when the Army disposed of them?"

Mrs Winterland used to be a WRAC, if that helps answer your question!

[Noah Zark.]

"How many Beavers did the Army have, and where did they go when the Army disposed of them?"

Mrs Winterland used to be a WRAC, if that helps answer your question!

DAN,
You won't have said that when I tell her! :D

[renfrew]

Think like a bird by Alex Kimball.
If you havn't come across it this book has plenty of Beaver stories.
EG landing on an aircraft carrier for afternoon tea and forgetting to inform ATC.

[Postfade]

An excuse to post some pics of this superb aircraft:
http://www.davidtaylorsound.co.uk/share/Aircraft%20pics/62_08-Batsman%20parks%20Beaver%20XP817-SSn5003-.jpg
XP817 being parked at Changi August 1962.
http://www.davidtaylorsound.co.uk/share/Aircraft%20pics/62_02-Army%20Beaver%20XP804%20about%20to%20taxy%20out%20on%20a%20v ery%20wet%20day-S1157A.jpg
XP804 parked 'into wind' and photographed just after start up on a miserable day. Changi February 62.
http://www.davidtaylorsound.co.uk/share/Aircraft%20pics/62_10_29-Army%20Beaver%20XP821%20at%20390%20MU%20Seletar-S038A.jpg
XP821 seen in the 390 MU hangar at Seletar 29th October 1962. It moved on become the Laos Air Attache's plane and is now with the Museum in Middle wallop.
Some more pics of the 656 Sqdn AAC Beavers on my website:
Focal Planes Blog Archive From the photo archive: Army Beaver XP820 receives a VIP (http://www.focalplanes.co.uk/?p=97#more-97)

[pigboat]

DHC-2.com (http://www.dhc-2.com/current_cover_page.htm)
Type the British registration into the search function in the green box. You should be able to find where they went.

[Mechta]

There was a picture in the Museum at Middle Wallop of an ex-Army one after being sold, restored and put on floats in the USA. If I remeber correctly it was yellow and white.

It had me thinking, did the British Army ever buy floats or skis for their Beavers, and if so, were they ever used?

[chevvron]

Regretfully I know of one which was written off.
I was operating the Odiham Approach position at Farnborough when a Beaver called asking clearance to operate in the Odiham section of Low Flying Area 1 (LFA 1b) I passed QNH and details of other traffic, and about 20 min later I had a phone call from Wallop Approach asking if I was still in contact. I called him and got no reply. Wallop informed me they had a report of a Beaver crashing on the side of the embankment near Dummer ('spaghetti junction' where the A30 and A303 diverge). Apparently they had been practicing 'touch and goes' in a small field and something had gone wrong, sadly both killed.

[treadigraph]

Think I remember that one Chevvron, wasn't it early 1980s? One was also lost in a flying display accident as I recall - Culdrose?

[chevvron]

It would have been early 80s.
I was devastated of course; I talked to him and 20 min later he was gone; no counselling in those days either.

[wub]

Here's an example, taken at Greenham Common in the late 1970s, a registration search indicates that this one was written off in an accident on February 1st 1983, with no casualties.

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h269/wub_01/scan0068.jpg

I have taken off in a Beaver (civilian) 11 times but never landed in one!

[matspart3]

An AAC Beaver was on a VFR transit through the Gloucester ATZ about 10 years ago. I was the Tower Controller and a rather lovely lady ATCO was on Approach. The appropriate co-ordination took place and a few minutes later I spotted the aircraft approaching from the north. I turned to her and said quite innocently 'I can see your Beaver!' Neither of us could speak for laughing for several minutes aftwerwards!

[Fareastdriver]

FEAF about 1969/70. I had to go to Seremban for an exercise briefing. I was flown up by an AAC beaver with a NCO pilot. I was on 110 sqn as a pilot at the time and in conversation I mentioned that I had flown a Beaver a couple of times at St. Athan.

After the briefing was lunch, quite a lot of it. The army pilot took off and set course for Seletar and then asked me if I would like to fly it for a bit. I did so and in no time the aircraft captain was sawing off logs. I left him to it; I knew the way to Seletar and we cruised along at 2,000ft.

I woke up and there was Jahore Baru passing under the nose at 1,850 ft and I was the only one in the aircraft awake. I thought for some time and then nudged our trusty NCO and informed him that we were approaching Seletar. He came to life, took over control and landed it.

I have never dared to tell this story before.

[India Four Two]

Back in the late 80s/early 90s, I occasionally heard an "ARMYAIR" callsign talking to Calgary Tower. I never saw the aircraft but I assumed it was a Beaver. Were there any Beavers at Suffield or was I hearing an AAC helicopter pilot?

[EDMJ]

Did the British Beavers have different engines than the others? The cowling seems different to those you normally see on the civil register...?

[chevvron]

Dunno where Suffiled is, but there was a 'Beaver Strip' notified at Colchester Army base up until the early '80s. There was also an immaculate grass strip at Gypsy Hollow near Longmoor Camp; regretfully this was ruined during the re-routing of the A3 road when some clown decided to leave wheel tracks across it - up 'til then there had been a strict rule of 'aircraft only'.

[treadigraph]

Did the British Beavers have different engines than the others?

I think DH at Hatfield converted one to an Alvis Leonides, but otherwise the Army ones were R-985 as standard.

[brakedwell]

I photographed two brand new SOAF Beavers, XR215 and XR213, in Salalah when they were being delivered to Muscat. I think it was sometime in 1965.


http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/sedgwickjames/aviation/Beaver.jpg

[India Four Two]

Dunno where Suffiled is, but there was a 'Beaver Strip' notified at Colchester Army base up until the early '80s

chevvron,

Suffield is about 30 Beaver hours from Colchester, in Alberta. It's a British Army live-firing armoured-vehicle training base, about the size of Dorset!

[MAN777]

I remember the Beavers at RAF Aldergrove in the 80s, there were about 5-6 based there, all had different coloured spinners.

Take offs into the strong winds were entertaining I swear I saw one flying backwards once:O

[Fareastdriver]

SOAF Beavers, XR215 and XR213, in Salalah

In the background is one of their Provost T53s.

[Speedbird48]

ARMY AIR call signs in the Calgary area are helicopters from the Suffield range. A very large area of Alberta that the UK Army use for war games.

Brian.

[twochai]

A very large area of Alberta that the UK Army use for war games.



Not so very large in our terms!

[Speedbird48]

OK, now you are getting picky,

Lets make that a "Large area "in" SE Alberta" used for war games etc. Don't forget the question came from a small island to the East.

Alberta is huge, as are the other provinces, but in comparison with what the UK is used to Suffield also qualifies as large.

Brian.

[Corax]

I flew in Suffield (I'm a Canuck) back in the early 80s. If I remember correctly the Army call sign was used by Beavers and Gazelles just to avoid confusion with Canadian ATC on VHF. (instead of using unit / AAC call signs).

Within the confines of Suffield they used their own call signs on UHF and VHF/FM.

As for the size of Suffield it certainly is all perspective. I was from 427 Sqn in Petawawa Ontario Canada and to us, Suffield and Wainwright to the north were both frustratingly small. They were both only around 100 sq K. We were used to our 300 sq K ranges and our 650 sq K low flying area. I remember some lads from the US Army 101st coming up and getting royally lost. They were amazed that the area had no towns and certainly no VORs which they used all the time around Fort Rucker.

But back to the Beaver, great machine and we loved seeing the AAC birds drone around Suffield. It was always fun to hang out with those guys and visit to learn from each other.

[Cornish Jack]

Postfade -XP821 seen in the 390 MU hangar at Seletar 29th October 1962. It moved on become the Laos Air Attache's plane
Very odd!
In 1962 the Air Attache for Laos was also AA for Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam and the aircraft was a Devon. The only 'fill-in' aircraft we had during the '61-64 period was a Twin Pin for six weeks while the Devon was at Seletar on major servicing.
Anything further?

[izod tester]

For a whole lot more information on Beavers see:

CURRENT COVER PAGE (http://www.dhc-2.com/current_cover_page.htm)

[Postfade]

Cornish Jack:

I understood that XP821 worked as an Air Attache aircraft in the Far East after a period with the AAC in Malaya.
Here's a link to a reference to it's white colour scheme at the AAC Museum:
Army Air Corps Museum - Key Publishing Ltd Aviation Forums (http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=23829)
scroll down a bit to find it.

Going off on a tangent...regarding the Devon. This one was a regular at Changi but I wasn't sure which Air Attache 'owned it'. Did Singapore have it's own Air Attache at that time?
http://www.davidtaylorsound.co.uk/share/Aircraft%20pics/62_02-The%20Air%20Attache's%20Devon-%20VP978-S333A.jpg

It's VP978, photographed in Feb'62, which was fairly often parked down with the Comms Sqdn aircraft and which I also saw at Seletar.

David T
My Changi aircraft photos are slowly appearing at www.focalplanes.co.uk (http://www.focalplanes.co.uk)

[henry crun]

Interesting that PSP was still in use in 1962.

[Postfade]

Henry,

Yes psp (pierced steel plate?) was still around in the Far East in the early '60s and that part of the 'western dispersal' in that photo would be left over from the original east-west runway that the prisoners-of-war built for the Japanese at Changi.

It was cleared away from the other side, the eastern dispersal, where 205 (Shacks) and Kiwi 41 Sqdn (Freighters) were during mid '63 for the arrival of 215's Argosys. The other parts of the base followed shortly after.
It could get damned hot in that sun!

DT

[Mechta]

PSP = Perforated Steel Planking

Marsden Matting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsden_Matting)

[sled dog]

PSP was still used on 1574 TFF ( Meteors) dispersal in early 1966. White concrete was laid, and after a period when everyone suffered from "snow blindness " :cool: the concrete was sprayed green.........:ok:

[Cornish Jack]

Postfade, thank you. I think the Beaver in Laos must have been quite a bit after '64 and probably for the MILITARY Attache at Vientiane rather than the AIR Attache, there being NO established AA post there.
The Devon photographed is our 'opposite number's' machine VP978 accredited to Djakarta, Rangoon and Manilla. We had 977 and were initially accredited to Bangkok, Vientiane, Phnom Penh and Saigon. Towards the end of my time (late '63), the Saigon responsibility was reallocated to Djarkarta, Manilla and we took over Rangoon. ... thereby hangs a tale!!!:uhoh:
Apologies for thread drift

[pegasus-9]

British Airmy Training Unit Suffied, is north of Medicine Hat, I was involved in the maintenance of the Beavers and Scouts that were operating at my time in the early 80's.

Showing my age

[Jackonicko]

When did the last Army Beavers make their last flights at Aldergrove and Middle Wallop (save the historic flight aircraft)?

What was the photo recce fit in NI?