AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2011 - 54

The Munro children grew up on the Kenmore Air property—Leslie Munro Banks, office manager, and her brother Gregg, chairman and past president (above), circa 1960. Bob Munro (on left) and Reg Collins, co-founders of Kenmore Air, circa 1945 (right).

Today, turbine Otters—with their ability to carry 10 passengers—haul many of the 58,000 passengers who fly on Kenmore’s floatplanes every year. But the Beaver has long been the workhorse of the fleet and continues to form the backbone of the company. To the San Juans One of the pilots who has plenty of time in both of the de Havilland floatplanes is Bill Whitney. After recently celebrating his fortieth anniversary as a Kenmore Air pilot, Whitney says he has flown more than 25,000 hours in floatplanes with the company. “It was supposed to be a summer job,” he says, “but it was fun.”

Whitney is 64 years old and still flies 500 to 600 hours a year—about half of what he says he flew in his early years. Like many people at Kenmore Air he wears more than one hat. A chief pilot in the past, he now is a quality control inspector for the company’s EDO float manufacturing. On a flight to the San Juan Islands, north of Seattle near the Canadian border, Whitney briefs his passengers sitting inside a turbine Otter before pushing the airplane off the dock. He hops into the left seat, buckles himself in, and pumps the flap handle a few times as he taxis away from the dock. Soon the big STOL plane is off the water

and climbing at 100 mph as it makes the left climbing turn to clear the bridge carrying rush-hour traffic on Seattle’s Highway 99. As we head north to Friday Harbor, Whitney checks the weather again. “Wind on the dock is good,” he says as we wait to hear the report, “off the dock, even just a little, can be tricky.” The winds are gusting to 17, off the dock. Both the Beaver and the Otter are a delight to fly (see “At the Controls,” below). They are stable, light on the controls, and designed to get off the water quickly. But like most floatplanes, they are giant weathervanes; docking in

At the controls

First flight as a Beaver pilot

itting on floats, a de Havilland Canada Beaver is an imposing airplane. But despite its size, here on the water the iconic seaplane—with a useful load of more than a ton—can be handled easily by one person. Serial number 788, Kenmore Air’s N6781L, is sitting at the dock at the company’s base on Lake Washington. With the preflight complete, the airplane needs to be turned around and pushed out of a corner near shore before we can fly. After pinning the back of the left float against the dock, it’s simply a matter of
AOPA PILOT •

grabbing the tail and slowly spinning the airplane around. Before it reaches the point of being perpendicular to the dock, it just takes a gentle push followed by a quick hop onto the float and an expeditious walk up to the front door to climb into the left seat. Kenmore’s chief pilot, John Gowey, is sitting in right seat and offers a quick reminder of the start-up procedure as we continue drifting away from the dock. “You need to get everything all set up because you don’t have the luxury of time once you climb in,” he said ear-

lier as we went through the checklist. “When you climb in, you have to start it and go.” Thankfully the wind is barely blowing and the experience is forgiving for a first-time Beaver pilot. With the center fuel tank selected and after a few quick push-pulls on the wobble pump and the throttle, I turn on the master switch, crank the starter through a few blades, and flip on the mags. With a gentle rumble the Pratt & Whitney R-985 Wasp Junior comes to life.
Continued on page 56

KENMORE AIR

54 • NOVEMBER

2011

AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2011