I was first introduced to Kenmore Air when living at my family’s beach compound near Tacoma in the mid-1980’s. At the time, I was cooking professionally aboard large private yachts and also provisioning for long-distance sailboat races. Given the time-sensitive nature of food for these races, for any race with a Northwest start, I would charter a Kenmore float plane to land on the beach in front of my home to be loaded with two weeks of food in dry-ice packed fish chests and off we would go!

Since that time, I have been a regular on Kenmore and, with a fleet of 25 aircraft providing scheduled flights to the San Juans (as well as British Columbia with the option of charter services) and mainland terminals at Kenmore, Lake Union, and Boeing Field, I highly recommend it to friends and clients alike as a viable efficient, convenient, and affordable option for trips to and from Seattle. Additionally, many second homeowners opt to have an “island car” in order to commute via Kenmore either on floats or to the various airstrips in the islands.

While the Kenmore fleet consists of five different aircraft, my preference is the Beaver — technically known as the Piston Beaver. Indeed, someone once asked me to name my three favorite sounds. I quickly responded:
1. the cry of an Eagle
2. water lapping against a wood-hulled boat
3. a deHavilland Beaver on floats lifting off the water

The distinct sound of a Beaver is very common here in the San Juans. In addition to being the mainstay of the Kenmore fleet, there are 88 privately owned Beavers in Washington State. Considered to be one of the most perfectly designed small utility aircraft ever built, the Beaver is a rugged single-engine high wing monoplane with short take-off and landing capability and a range of up to 800 miles.

Production ceased on the Beaver in 1967, but with so many still flying, heavy modifications to adapt to changing technology are provided by our very own Kenmore Air. Indeed, these modifications are so desirable, the aviation community refers to these rebuilt Beavers as “Kenmore Beavers”! To say that Kenmore maintains their planes is an understatement.

Family owned and operated and founded in 1946 with a business philosophy of “do the right thing”, in my estimation, the island experience is not complete without a flight on a Kenmore Beaver.

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Tags: Flights to the San Juan Islands, San Juan Island Travel

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 8th, 2010 at 4:59 pm and is filed under Island Living, Island Transportation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.