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A few days ago we were tasked with bringing one of our ‘tail numbers’ down to the ‘Cascade Aerospace’ facilities in Abbotsford for a due maintenance check. After finishing a quick procedure of transferring the plane to a Cascade technician team, two of us, the flight crew - and the only occupants on board of this flight - started to walk our way out of the premises. A hotel transport was already waiting for us outside..

In order to leave the compound we would have to go across the entire hangar space to an exit on the opposite side, - and it would take a couple of minutes of brisk walk, at most. But once we got into the hangar, an unexpected ‘delay’ happened. If there was anyone who still cared to keep a track of our ‘on-time performance’… - ‘genuine pilot curiosity’ would have to be put into a log to give a plausible reason for a ‘bit of dawdling’ that had slowed our pace

It was the look a relatively rare flying machine that momentarily diverted us from a straight line to the exit.

In fact, there were a few of them, - later I counted three identical units - sitting on the hangar’s floor. “The CL-415s!”, - was my first bet after a quick glance. However, as I turned to our escort in an effort to find a sort of positive confirmation, he corrected me, “no, these guys are CL-215s undergoing the turbine conversion“.

“Uh.. Is that so?”, I excused myself, and asked permission to take “a few pics”. It was granted kindly, the generous “take-your-time!” has been casually dropped as well, and here you can see a result of that hectic, two-minute ’sneak-and-peak’ session around the interesting aircraft.

I took an opportunity to climb up the step ladder (which belonged rather to the hangar, not to the plane), and had a look at the inside of the amphibian. Surely, the flight deck wasn’t omitted from other things observed.

Apparently, the renewed CL-215 is to get some ‘glass instrumentation’ - which is a part of the whole retrofit package, and the engineer escorting us confirmed that these new avionics, displays have been installed here by the Cascade.

But it was obvious that neither the hasty walk-around, nor a couple of casual comments by the engineer would satisfy my newly born interest toward the CL-215 and its turbine conversion. However, as I learned from a great deal of similar experiences - whenever you bump unexpectedly into something interesting, it always stimulate you to explore further.

This occasion was not an exclusion from such proven a ‘rule of thumb’. Later at home I did a small research on the topic (‘Bombardier CL-215 conversion kit’), and found more detail. One thing was that the ‘Cascade Aerospace‘ is the only company who currently perform the ‘CL-215 to CL-215T retrofits’. Among the material dug out during this research there’s a detailed CL-415 ‘test-ride’ account that I would recommend you have a look at.

I found out also it is not only the engines and avionics to be replaced accordingly the retrofit kit’s specs, - the aircraft systems are to incorporate some improvements: a notable one is the powering of flight controls. Some additional structural elements are to be put on the airframe to enhance the CL-215’s aerodynamics and bring its flying characteristics actually up to the ones of the CL-415’s. Note the new winglets (revealing themselves by a look of ‘fresh aluminum’) shown on the picture above - they’ve been installed on the craft as a part of ‘conversion kit’ too. The old CL-215 powered with piston engines (Pratt & Whitney R-2800 radials) didn’t have this feature, as you can see it on the picture below.

Another addition is a set of the ‘finlets‘ - two vertical stabilizers built in on each side of the horizontal tail surface.

Or, there’s a bit better look of them on the next picture.

As for this C-GOGZ, it was caught on my camera in another place, another time. It happened in Red Lake, Ontario, in July of 2007. That summer we set off on a long tour across the country, and planned to visit the ‘Norseman Capital of the World’ for its bush aviation festival. On the opening day eve we went out for a pleasant promenade along the water front to mingle with other visitors, to marvel at ’some vintage stuff’ moored to the dock, and, as if ‘out of the blue’, the C-GOGZ appeared over the water base, obviously to ‘buzz’ the crowd in a low pass, - to which an enthusiastic gang of plane watchers responded by a loud, ecstatic cheer.

Interestingly enough, on the Transport Canada’s ‘Civil Aircraft Register’ this particular plane is listed as  ‘CL-215-6B11‘ by its ‘Model Name’ . The Register also tells us the plane was built in 1999. I’m assuming though, is not a conversion, and it was manufactured as the ‘CL-415′ from the scratch, as production of the piston-powered CL-215s was ceased in 1990. Correct me, if I was wrong. Mind you though, these two - the CL-215T, and CL-415, - are barely distinguishable from each other for a non-expert look. My Flicker friend djipibi pointed out that “One difference between the 415 and the 215T being the number of drop doors… 2 on the 215, four on the 415“. Oh, well, it’s worth to know, and it would probably work for you.. if you are quick enough to manage a good look at such a specific spot on an aircraft.. while it’s zipping by - and pretty fast

Over a period of time a small collection of both, the Cl-215s’ and the 415s’ images accrued in my archive, and here’s a few of them

Once I saw two CL-415 (or, were they CL-217T..?) in Springbank, a general aviation airport near Calgary.

What they were doing in Springbank, - I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure Springbank is not a home base for them.

As I worked on this article, I was giving more and more pondering to the whole matter of the engine conversion and at one point I realized that somewhat a broader research on the subject wouldn’t do any harm to my ‘pet project’ on this blog - the ‘Bush Operation on both sides of Arctic’. So, I kept ‘plowing through the stuff’, and grew convinced that it is on the field of ‘bush aviation’ where one could probably see the most illustrious examples of engine conversions.

Usually they cite a number of factors prompting an operator to go for a justifiable conversion project, and those factors are usually to do with either performance and operational gains, or economies of the converted aircraft. The multifaceted conversion’s objective may be therefore outlined as ‘achieving more reliability and efficiency from an aircraft with the new power plant, which supposed to be:

• the one with higher  ‘power-per-pound’ yield ratio;
• suitable for the aircraft (fitting well into an existing airframe structure, - with minimal ‘aerodynamic disturbance’, so to speak);
• more available and easy to support;
• resulting in lower operational cost’.

Needles to mention, the respective aircraft and engine manufacturers (or, at times it could be the third parties qualified to do the conversion job) have to be available, and ready to support the operators’ initiative. It has to be a mutually beneficial business solution, first of all.

There’s one particular bush plane, in my opinion, that is notable for all the engine conversions performed on it, and it is the DHC-3 ‘Otter’.

A number of them still fly with original ‘PRATT & WHITNEY R1340′ engines..

or, with the engine that has been a power source for so many other bush planes, - the Canadian manufactured turbine PT-6A.

Accordingly the Pratt & Whitney Canada, the “PT6A engines are available in more than 65 models..”, - isn’t that something?! (One of the latest PT6A ‘bush application’ - the Quest Aircraft Company’s ‘Kodiak’)

There’s one more interesting engine conversion done on a limited number of the DHC-3s: an adaptation of the 1000 hp ASz-621R-M18 radial engine.

When I first learned of the ‘Otter with Polish radial‘, I amused myself with a thought of the ‘relation‘ that bonded together two legendary planes: the Canadian Otter and the Russian Antonov-2

In the 60s, the ‘PZL Mielec’ factory in Poland took over the An-2 production from the Soviets. And a production of the engine, the ‘Shvetsov Ash-62IR‘, was also transferred to Poland, where the 9-cylinder motor had eventually become the ‘Polish Radial’.

Besides, there was one interesting twist on a path of the engine’s evolution, which, I believe, would lend itself awesomely to being a next good chapter in our ‘Bush Operation on both sides of Arctic’  collection.