A Beaver in Belem

A Beaver in Belem, Brazil

October 19th, 2024

Most of you know the backstory on this story. In April of 1990, I was hired over the phone by the famous stunt pilot and aerial coordinator, David Jones, to maintain a Dehavilland Beaver used on the Film “At Play in the Fields of the Lord.”

I flew from Seattle to Miami to meet David Jones, and we flew to Belem, Brazil, at the mouth of the Amazon, to work on the movie.

The Beaver, which I’d checked out in Minnesota, was flown from St. Cloud, MN to Belem by a Canadian ferry pilot. Once the plane arrived, I took out the 60 gallon fuel tank in the camera bay which the plane needed for the long trip to Brazil.

The Beaver, Shoo Shoo Baby, was painted up by the arts department for the movie and David Jones flew the aircraft in and out of a tiny one way strip at the movie set.

The plane was kept at the Cruzeiro hangar at the Belem International Airport. That’s where I went to work in the morning. Jones then flew from the airport to the airstrip in the jungle. My asshole puckered every time we landed on that jungle strip, and takeoffs weren’t any better.

One time, it was Jones and I flying back from the jungle airstrip to Belem International, and Jones let me land the plane. Jones ran the throttle, and I ran the controls. I landed the plane just fine.

Jones tried the same experiment with Miss Arizona, who was part of our Aerial Unit. Jones told me that Miss Arizona landed sideways and blew out the tires on the landing gear.

Interestingly enough, Miss Arizona told me that when flying to Belem from Miami on Varig Airlines, the Brazilian airline, the pilots had asked her up to the cockpit and let her fly the jetliner. Welcome to Brazil.

After the filming was done at the first set, Madre de Deus, in the jungle, David Jones had me put the Beaver on floats to ferry the director, producer, and actors to the second jungle movie location, The Mission.

I put the Beaver on floats in the Cruzeiro hangar, and then it was put on a truck and taken across the main runway to the old military amphibian ramp and into the Amazon River. The Brazilian Air Force had an old Grumman Goose on display at the entrance to the base. A Goose is a pretty big amphibian plane.

The Beaver on floats ferried the big shots to and from the jungle for a while, but one day, a bigger-than-usual storm hit Belem at 4:30 PM. The Beaver crashed trying to land in a thunderstorm on the river by Belem. The plane landed okay but glided into a steel barge tied up onshore.

No one was hurt, and the actors, etc., were able to walk onshore without much difficulty. But I had to clean up the mess.

The plane was jury-rigged with steel drums for the damaged pontoon. It was taken to the old military amphibian ramp and loaded onto a truck. Then it was taken back to the Cruzeiro hangar.

I asked Jones if I could ask a friend and fellow mechanic and pilot, to come down and help me repair the plane. It needed its wing repaired, a new engine and propeller, and to be put back on wheels.

Jones said, “Yes.”

I told my friend John, in Seattle, to ask for $5,000/month (I was only getting $2500) and to bring plenty of condoms. He’d need them.

So, after John arrived and we finally were able to get the rebuilt Pratt & Whitney R-985 radial engine through Belem customs, we got the plane flying again.

Supposedly, Saul Zaentz, the producer of the film, had bribed the local officials to smooth the way for the movie production. But Valeria, the local Braziliera in the production office, and I had to go to the Customs office to try and get the Pratt & Whitney out of customs.

That was a typical 120F and 80% humidity afternoon in Belem. We drove to the customs office. It was in an old Portuguese colonial building.

When we walked into the office, we saw 7 secretaries, all beautiful young secretaries, licking Acai ice cream cones at their desks. In Belem, everyone eats Acai ice cream.

The customs man was fat and about 40, though, on the Equator, it is hard to tell people’s age. People age quickly.

Valeria and the customs man spoke rapid Portuguese, and I couldn’t keep up with the conversation. Three days later, John and I had our engine. Nothing happens quickly in Belem.
John and I got the plane flying on wheels. John wanted to take it for a test flight at Belem International Airport. So, John, me, and Manuele our Brazilian liaison from Rio de Janeiro and his assistant, Andrez, climbed aboard and taxied out of the hangar to the taxiway.

John hadn’t filed a flight plan, hey, it’s Belem. John contacted the tower of the airport using his lousy Portuguese. The tower staff had even worse English.

We weren’t going anywhere.

Finally, Manuele spoke to the tower in Portuguese. By now, the Belem guys in the tower were pissed off at the Yanquis. They quit answering the radio.

John joked about taking off on the taxiway but thought better of it. The Beaver can take off in a very short distance.

We ended up taxiing back to the hangar.

…

Another time, David Jones, Miss Arizona, Manuele and the rest of the Aerial Unit had taken off into a storm from the Madre de Deus dirt strip. I was left behind to get back to Belem by car.

I was still at the dirt airstrip on the movie set when the radio crackled and Jones told me that the Belem Int’l Airport was closed due to the storm and they were coming back.

I checked the dirt strip for broken planks and obstructions. It was clear to land.

Jones came in low and hanging on the prop in a pouring rain. We all took cars back to Belem.

The next morning, we arrived by boat at the Madre de Deus movie set. There was the Beaver in the morning mist on the dirt runway.

I went to the plane to sump the fuselage tanks to remove any water in the fuel. Unfortunately, the airstrip was covered with poisonous millipedes. I found a blue tarp and threw it on the ground under the plane to lie upon. I sumped the tanks and threw the fuel/water onto the millipedes to watch them writhe in agony.

The jungle was not my friend.

…

One morning, we’d flown into the airstrip early in the morning. Saul Zaentz, the famous Oscar winner producer, wanted to go for a ride in the plane.

David Jones said, “Sure.”

Jones was in the pilot seat. Saul was in the co-pilot seat. I sat behind Jones and Manuele and Andrez sat behind Saul.

Mornings are the best time for flying in the Amazon. The air is calm and only about 90F. Humidity isn’t too high.

Jones took the Beaver low over the jungle. Then Jones saw the boat coming upriver with the director, Hector Babenco, and the film crew.

Jones went up to 500’ and then cut the engine and dove straight down at that boat. I could hear Zaentz gasp.
At about 50’ over the boat, Jones hit full power on the throaty R-985 radial engine. It sounds like 9 Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

Jones was laughing. Zaentz was pissing in his pants. I really didn’t care about danger at this point.

Zaentz did get back in the Beaver again. This time, the plane was on floats, and Chris, the pilot Jones hired, flew so low over the jungle that the bottoms of the floats were stained green from the leaves. I had to clean twigs off of the float struts.

Oh, there are lots more stories of that plane in the Amazon. Most of you have heard them.

As for the plane itself, it ended up being rebuilt and flew in Southeast Alaska. One day it disappeared into the rain, forest, and mountains with four aboard.

It was never found.

TJM