De Havilland Canada Twin Otter (N70465)

What I do know about this skydiving Twin Otter is that it is registered to the US Government and is used by the Air Force Academy, but I have no idea what it was doing here in Southern California.

Mark... possibly this is why - There are two (2) nearby "intensive parachute activity" caution boxes marked on a sectional chart which also shows French Valley Airport, F70.

A pretty nice shot, Mark! I believe this is used by the USAF Academy Skydiving Team - Wings of Blue. They were in Tucson in March for the airshow there. I have a couple of pics posted here in FA of them jumping, and I think I have a shot of this particular bird in the air. If I can find it, I'll post it.

According to Joe Baugher's published information, this De Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter was acquired as USAF s/n 77-0465.

Mr. Baugher adds this information... "de Havilland Canada UV-18B", "Military version of DHC-6 Twin Otter for USAF Academy", "0465 MSN 554 delivered Sep 6, 1977 to USAF Academy. Registered Nov 17, 1977 to Air Force Academy as N70465."

Edit: Two identical of these aircraft exist at the U.S. Air Force Academy.

"0464 MSN 555 delivered Sep 6, 1977 to USAF Academy. Registered Oct 30, 1979 to Air Force Academy as N70464".

This one would be USAF s/n 77-0464.

Thank you both for the info on this aircraft.

Cliff I have flown pretty extensively in the area and knew about the parachute areas, but I just thought that it was a bit odd to see this Air Force Academy aircraft using them for practice b/c we have already had most of our local airshows for the year (unless of course there is one I'm forgetting about coming up soon that they are here for)

You're very welcome, Mark... and thanks to you also for sharing this photo with us!

This chosen location might have something to do with proximity to nearby Air Force bases... or the California location and weather is more favorable for practice jumps at this time of the year?

There is yet a third Twin Otter in use by the U.S. Air Force Academy... and the only photo example I find of this aircraft on FlightAware as properly identified by its USAF tail number was submitted about a year ago by our friend Gary Schenauer...

http://flightaware.com/photos/view/368798-aea053115982dfa917a5407e800b97889d2262e4/aircrafttype/DHC6/sort/votes/page/1

According to Joe Baugher's published information, this UV-18A Twin Otter is de Havilland of Canada MSN 800, U.S. Army s/n 82-23835, and was transferred to the U.S. Air Force and the USAF Academy.

Cliff that is very interesting find. The thing that is surprising for me is, the one that Gary posted doesn't have an N number like the other two do. I also checked out the website you have been referencing and found it to have a great amount of info on military a/c. Thanks for bringing my attention to it.

Mark, you are welcome and thanks for the kind words. I also noticed that Gary's UV-18A Twin Otter lacked a FAA "N" number!