Photo by Willis Thayer

We’ve been keeping a secret! Last month we recruited a new member to our team, a third De Havilland Otter joined our fleet at Rust’s. Welcome to N4899R!

Only 466 De Havilland Otters were manufactured with this Otter being one of the later ones with serial number 353. Only around 165 are still in service today with a vast majority servicing the back country of Canada and Alaska. Between Rust’s and our sister company K2 Aviation, we have 8 of those Otters still operating.

Originally delivered to the U.S. Army in February 1960, as serial 59-2215 (tail number 92215), Otter 353 served with various Army National Guard units including 1063rd based in Iowa. In December 1971, it joined the Florida National Guard where it served until 1973 when it was moved to the Mississippi National Guard. After 1976, it was assigned to the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) at Maxwell AFB, Alabama, and formally registered as N5335G. After receiving a Certificate of Airworthiness with 3,888 flight hours, it flew with the CAP for two years.

Alan Macey Collection

In 1978, the Otter was returned to Canada, where St. Louis Aviation in Québec prepared it for civilian use. It was registered as C-GVNX and entered service with Labrador Air Safari based in Baie Comeau, flying sportsmen into remote areas. Otter C-GVNX continued operations for more than four decades with Labrador Air Safari even after the company became part of Air Saguenay in 2010. In 2012, the Otter was flown to Vancouver for its turbine conversion and emerged as a Vazar DHC-3T fitted with a PT6A-34 engine.

Sometime in 2018, C-GVNX was sold to Air Tindi in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories where it faithfully served remote Canada until March of 2025.

Last month, C-GVNX arrived in Alaska and went straight into maintenance. We’re giving Otter 353 the full Rust’s treatment — the same care we’ve given our longtime friend N2899J (Otter 425) since 1989.

We’re excited to have N4899R ready for flights this summer!

Source: DHC-3 Archive

Photo by Nicole Alton

Photo by Nicole Alton