DeHavilland DHC-2

The DHC-2 Beaver, a single engine, high wing five seat bush plane, made its first flight on August 16, 1947. Named as one of the ten outstanding Canadian engineering achievements in the last century, the DHC-2 isn't beautiful to look at, but the pilots and passengers who depend on it have great affection for this dumpy little utility aircraft because of its unique flying abilities in harsh bush environments. Powered by a single Pratt and Whitney R-985 9 cylinder radial engine rated at 450 shaft-horsepower, the DHC-2 is extraordinarily reliable and cheap to run, with cargo doors big enough to manhandle 45 gallon oil drums through, and outstanding STOL capabilities, on top of which it is easily converted from wheel undercarriage to floats or skis. Several air forces have used it, including the USAF who bought more than half the total production run, since they were unable to find anything else to match it. Despite their advancing years, many aircraft are still in use nowadays in a variety of mostly civil roles. Its payload of 1774 pounds, including five passengers, and maximum range of 440 miles make the Beaver a particular favorite among fishermen, hunters and prospectors because of the safe, economic travel it offers - and perhaps there isn't another plane like it, apart from the DC-3. Production of the DHC-2 ended in 1967 after 1631 airframes had been built.

For such an ugly duckling of a plane, Fred's DHC-2 is just the most beautiful thing to look at, chiefly because of Yannick Lavigne's graphical skills, which are reflected in every area of the aircraft and panel. This Beaver begs to be flown in its home territory, so pausing only to pick up a couple of cans of bear spray, and to load up Eddie Denney's outstanding Alaska mesh scenery, I set off for Chena Marina (CHENAM.ZIP).

The first thing you will notice about this aircraft is the quality of the panel. Since the DHC-2 is a tail dragger, you can't avoid looking at the panel, because it blots out the sun until the aircraft has developed enough speed to get the tail up. The bitmap is almost perfect and I have racked my brains to think of another panel that depicts bare metal quite so well, but I don't think there is any competition. The throttle, prop and mixture levers all move independently, and in one of the nicest touches I have ever seen in a flightsim panel, they are set over a curved dark polished steel surface in which you can see the reflections of the three levers and the manifold pressure and RPM gauges. Sadly, the reflections don't move with their counterparts on the panel, but I suspect this kind of animation is beyond the capabilities of mere mortals, not to mention FS2K. The remainder of the panel is populated with a mix of custom instruments, lights and switches, one of the nicest touches being a scrap of paper pushed behind the GPS and radio stack. The obligatory virtual cockpit graphics load just as slowly as they do on every other FS2K plane and there is a suitably burbly custom sound set.

Visually, the three aircraft supplied are just as appealing as the panel. The plane with which users are most likely to become familiar is the wheeled version, which is in a smart green and white livery, and (in common with the other two aircraft) features transparent windows and full moving parts. There is also a floatplane, in white and yellow and a wheel/ski model in yellow and red. The detailing on the aircraft is extremely well done, with no bleed-through on the graphics worth mentioning.

In flight the Beaver lives up to expectations in every way, as long as you don't expect to get anywhere quickly. After a short take-off run which requires a small amount of rudder, the aircraft leaps eagerly into the sky, and as long as you don't expect to get anywhere quickly (top speed is only 110 mph), the flight model is as well behaved, as you would expect from such a venerable old lady. The DHC-2 should be perfect for novice pilots, as dumping it on the runway simply results in a long bounce and like the original it seems to have very few vices. I put it down on a variety of different surfaces and runway lengths, using every combination of throttle and flaps and made it down every time, even if it wasn't always pretty to watch. The forward view is reasonable, rather than great, but this duplicates the original and adds to the realism of flying the aircraft. Frame rates are commendable (see table), with the Beaver outperforming the Microsoft default Mooney Bravo in many situations.

Frame Rates -- DHC-2 versus Microsoft Mooney Bravo
These frame rates were calculated in six standard situations
	733 System		300 System
	Beaver	Mooney	Beaver	Mooney
LHR ground	23	23	14	14
LHR ground spot plane	30	25	14	12.5
LHR approach	27	28	15	15
LHR 15000	40	25	32	32
LHR 15000 spot plane	32	27	19	16
Both machines running Windows 95 second edition, FS2000 Professional Edition, update 2b applied. Specs: 733: Intel Pentium 733 Mhz, 256 Mb RAM, Creative GeForce 2 GTS with 32 Mb RAM 300: Intel Pentium 300 Mhz, 128 Mb RAM, Voodoo 3000 16 Mb RAM.

Likes:

• Fantastic panel
• Good frame rates
• Fun aircraft to fly

Andrew Herd
andrew.herd@btinternet.com

Download the DeHavilland DHC-2 Beaver pack