An Amazing Day On The Internet

I started this morning dreading May 5th because, as I had posted earlier, today is the ninth anniversary of my family’s loss of my father.

By 10:15 AM, everything had changed. You see, last year I started an unusual search—a search for an old army airplane that my father had flown nearly fifty years ago. I had pictures of my father standing beside and flying the 3 month old de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver in December 1957, nearly two years before I was born.

I had earlier tripped over the Beaver Trails Web site, run by Mr. Neil Aird, which helped start my inquiry. Neil’s site tracks the disposition of the old US Army Beavers beginning in the late 1960’s into private use as bush aircraft in Canada and Alaska. Today the Beaver is perhaps the most sought after airplane capable of hauling people and supplies into remote areas near the artic circle, thus I was optimistic that I might find one of my father’s favorite airplanes still in operation today.

Currently registered as N67688, I tracked the old Beaver through the FAA database and found that it was registered to the Cinder River Lodge in Alaska. Luckily, the Cinder River Lodge’s sister lodge, Wild Man Lodge had a web site and guess what?

They still own the airplane. It’s shown on their web site here (the blue and white airplane.)

The owner, Butch “Wild Man” King sent me an E-mail this morning with six pictures attached showing that N67688 is still alive and well, living on the Alaskan peninsula. Butch’s father bought it in 1975, crash landed it on a mountain in 1988, and Butch took the damaged airplane apart and hauled it out of the wilderness in pieces and totally restored it in 1990 and still flies it several days each week.

I’m planning a trip to Alaska for her (the airplane’s) fiftieth birthday. In the mean time I hope to get some “tail-dragger” flying time here at the St. Simons airport because, come hell or high water, my butt will be in a seat in that airplane where my father sat before I draw my last breath.

Wish me luck…