“A wet Beaver is a happy Beaver,” says Mark Stevens, who owns what may be the world’s finest example of a deHavilland DHC-2 Beaver on amphibious floats.
The big radial engine bush plane won Grand Champion Classic Seaplane at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2018 and the top seaplane award at SUN ‘n FUN 2019.
The real stuffed beaver that Stevens poses on one of the floats when parked at an air show is a crowd pleaser, especially with children.
Although there are few suitable water landing spots near Erwinna, Pennsylvania, in the eastern part of the state where Stevens lives, the plane is perfect for weekend trips to his vacation home on Clear Pond/Rainbow Lake in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State.
Based at Pennridge Airport in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, the plane turns a six-hour drive into a two-hour flight, with waterfront parking at his front door.
“Although I didn’t grow up near water and I can’t really explain it, my passion has always been floatplanes, which I first experienced on hunting and fishing trips to remote places,” says Stevens, 66.
After starting an industrial bearing and drive business 41 years ago in Souderton, Pennsylvania, he now owns 15 businesses, all related to rotating shaft technologies.
Before purchasing the Beaver, Stevens honed his water flying skills in a Searey flying boat and a Cessna 185 on PK floats, which he still owns. In addition, he has a 180 horsepower 1952 Super Cub being restored at Legend Cub in Texas.
At less than 4,000 flight hours, Stevens’ 60-year-old Beaver is considered low time for the type, having spent 50 years disassembled and stored in a container.
“My Beaver is unique because it’s only had three owners,” Stevens says. “The plane was originally ordered in 1959 as a wheel plane by the U.S. Army and they didn’t put it to much use until the early ‘60s.
“Only a few years later, in 1967, it was one of four Army Beavers disassembled and shipped to Fort Rucker, Alabama, for possible display at their museum. However, it sat there in a box until being surplused and auctioned off in 1992, when it was purchased by an individual in British Columbia, Canada, who took delivery but left the plane in its storage container.”
Stevens bought the Beaver from him in 2016 and had it shipped to the restoration experts at Kenmore Air near Seattle. Kenmore has operated a fleet of Beavers for many years and has extensive expertise in restoring and maintaining the iconic bush planes. Actor Harrison Ford chose Kenmore to restore a Beaver for him several years ago.
“I had them do everything to my Beaver, including a complete rebuild, plus installation of Wipline 6,100 amphibious floats and a 5,600 pound gross weight increase,” Stevens explains. “The restoration took two years and my wife and I were very involved in every step of the process. She chose the colors.”
The beautiful new instrument panel includes the latest Garmin avionics, plus a JPI engine monitor and an autopilot.
Upon completion of the plane’s restoration last spring, Stevens insisted on being trained by four different Kenmore flight instructors, all experts in the type.
“I wanted to learn everyone’s methods and make them my own — and I learned something different from each instructor,” he says.
As an example, a Beaver has five fuel tanks to manage, including three in the belly and two tip tanks.
“One of the Kenmore instructors insisted that I run a tank dry just to experience that and the engine started right back up after switching tanks.”
Stevens enjoyed working with the Beaver experts at Kenmore so much that he had his AirVenture trophy shipped there so all the company’s employees could share in the achievement.
