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There are bad days and there are bad days

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Basil

Basil

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Now THIS is a bad day! Last clip of a documentary about an attempt to salvage and fly a B29 that had been stranded in the ice for decades.

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I saw that several years ago and nearly cried. What a heartbreaking way to go. :cryin:
 
There is a book called <span style="font-style: italic">Hunting Warbirds</span> by Carl Hoffman, and it mostly deals with the attempted recovery of the <span style="font-style: italic">Kee Bird</span>. From what I recall, the plane wasn't supposed to be attempting a take off at that time-the runway wasn't prepped correctly, and the resultant bumping around caused the jury-rigged APU fuel tank to spill and catch fire. But the weather was going to close in, and Daryl Greenamayer wanted to fly the <span style="font-style: italic">Kee Bird</span> to Reno for the races.

-Wm.
 
That's how I remember it, too, William. The APU fuel pump broke, they didn't have a spare and rigged a gravity feed system. The connections leaked fuel on the hot APU. They needed the APU to power nose gear steering, I think.

What a shame.
 
When I was a young lieutenant in the Air Force, one of my first jobs as an officer (I was 10 years prior enlisted) was as a radar evaluation engineer. One of my early assignments was to be part of a US-Canadian team to assess the best places to locate several radar sites as part of the "North Warning" system. My job was to assess each location for it's overall radar coverage and how well each site's coverage would overlap with that of possible adjacent sites. In all, we surveyed about 35 locations. One of the places we surveyed was at Saglek, Labrador. While we were surveying this location, we came upon the remains of a B-26. This B26 called "Times A' Wastin." That web site tells the story of the crew and their heroic efforts to survive. If only they had known that the village of Hebron was just over the next hill, they might have had a chance. That page also has a picture of what is now the Saglek radar site, which is part of the North Warning system.
 
They didn't at least remove the engines & props before she sank?
 
Basil said:
tony barnhill said:
They didn't at least remove the engines & props before she sank?
Click to expand...

Before what sank? They crashed on land.
Click to expand...
No, it burned on a frozen lake.
 
tony barnhill said:
They didn't at least remove the engines & props before she sank?
Click to expand...

They sat in lawn chairs and drank beer while they watched it burn and sink.
 
Twosheds said:
tony barnhill said:
They didn't at least remove the engines & props before she sank?
Click to expand...

They sat in lawn chairs and drank beer while they watched it burn and sink.
Click to expand...
Oh, did it sink right aweay? The film didn't say that....
 
Basil, you seem to be on a warbird kick today.
 
GregW said:
Basil, you seem to be on a warbird kick today.
Click to expand...
When he has his own Spitfire to work on!
 
tony barnhill said:
Twosheds said:
tony barnhill said:
They didn't at least remove the engines & props before she sank?
Click to expand...

They sat in lawn chairs and drank beer while they watched it burn and sink.
Click to expand...
Oh, did it sink right aweay? The film didn't say that....
Click to expand...

I think they said it would all sink to the bottom of the lake in the spring thaw...what a waste.
 
tony barnhill said:
Twosheds said:
tony barnhill said:
They didn't at least remove the engines & props before she sank?
Click to expand...

They sat in lawn chairs and drank beer while they watched it burn and sink.
Click to expand...
Oh, did it sink right aweay? The film didn't say that....
Click to expand...

Maybe just burn. I forget.
 
I saw that years back and it made me misty eyed too.

( you would think after freezin' your arse off for two years getting it to run SOMEBODY woulda been checkin' it out for things like FUEL LEAKS... wouldn't they ?!?!?!?!? "Na Bob, we'll wait till we get 'er of the ground 'fore we start doin' any of that stuff.")

But hey, those other guys got the P-38 out though.
 
kellysguy said:
I saw that years back and it made me misty eyed too.

But hey, those other guys got the P-38 out though.
Click to expand...

Yep, that would be Glacier Girl:
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My understanding was the apu was to power the electrics before engine start and they forgot to shut it down and toss the gas can before starting to move around. But nose gear steering brings up another thing, they apparently didn't have any, they were steering up and down the lake with by varying the engines since it would lock either. so the might have gotten out, but wouldn't that have been a serious risk on landing?? To me all in all, they were careless, didn't prepare like they should have and were just asking for trouble.
 
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