It’s mostly all still there, just very badly destroyed and buried in mud.
The banks of the ravine are always shifting. Last spring (easier to shovel when
melt water is flowing) I shoveled some away from where the prop tip is sticking
out of the ground and exposed a little of what may be a reduction unit. This
spring a large section of the bank further up the ravine gave way and some mud
flowed down onto that site again. Friday night the 2 of us spent 2 hours
digging there and we didn’t uncover as much as I had last year. But there is
another spot further down the ravine where there was a small section exposed that
I surmised may have been one of the tailcones. In front of my garage door I’d
installed a U-drain channel to catch melt water which feeds into a 6” “Big O” flexible
pipe (also collects water from the eavestroughs) which then runs underground, over
the bank and 200’ to the bottom of the ravine, where I positioned the outlet just
above where there was less than a foot of this “tailcone” exposed. The water did
an excellent job and now there is about 5’ of the tailcone exposed with little
doubt as to what it is. I wonder how much more is there underground.
There are also numerous other pieces scattered on the
surface, including what I believe to be a section of the elevator and a section
of a fuel tank (clearly has the filler neck). Only one engine was ever
recovered from the wreckage, so I have a lot of wishful thinking that somewhere
below the prop is an Allison V12. Maybe next spring I can get organized with a
crew to take advantage of fast flowing melt water to work with shovels to dig a
little deeper.
2
summers ago (50th anniversary of the crash), the local newspaper ran
a big story written by a local historian about the events surrounding the crash
(beer was involved). That resulted in a parade of visitors to the site, but I
don’t think any significant pieces walked out. Unfortunately access is easier
from crown land below, where I can’t see or hear anybody. It gets the dog
barking, but more often than anything there are bears or moose traveling through
so I really don’t pay much attention to him barking down into the ravine.
Incidentally, in the newspaper article the author was
been shown the site by the son of another nearby property owner from below (separated
by a large swath of Crown land), who in his interview stated that it was
located on private property where trespassers are not welcome, while also
leaving the false impression that it was HIS property and that he was some sort
of self appointed guardian. I’ve never called him on this because so far I can’t
see that it’s caused any harm, so long as he doesn’t start carting off any souvenirs
of his own or interfere with any excavation I choose to do.
But first I need to quit being a lurker (that really
sounds creepy) on this list and become a Rotary builder/flyer again.
Todd
Bartrim
-----Original
Message-----
From: Rotary motors in aircraft
[mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net]On Behalf
Of Russell Duffy
Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 8:57
PM
To: Rotary motors in aircraft
Subject: [FlyRotary] Re:
Revisiting Rotaries
Only
because an airline pilot was coming over to look at the P38 wreckage on my land
and I knew he’d want to look at the RV too. But it’s the most work I’ve done to
it for almost 2 years L.
Hi Todd,
I’ve been meaning to ask
whatever became of the P-38. How much of it is still there?
Rusty