Mailing List flyrotary@lancaironline.net Message #42850
From: Todd Bartrim <bartrim@gmail.com>
Subject: RE: [FlyRotary] Re: Revisiting Rotaries
Date: Wed, 14 May 2008 23:49:11 -0700
To: Rotary motors in aircraft <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>

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

 

 

 

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