Foto Friday, Foto Sunday, what's the diff?

Richard Flanders · 05-04-2015, 12:42 AM

I'm sure these get boring but I had a great day shooting (at) clays on my favorite ridge at 4100ft in the Alaska Range. First flew past a B-24 wreck 35mi south of town. This plane went down during a test flite in the early 40's and killed a few folks. They decided to duplicate the flite to try to sort out the issue and repeated the wreck nearby and killed even more. This one was used for strafing practice with P-51's and P-38's and has more holes in it than there is metal. A vintage test pilot friend, now deceased, was one of the strafers and had good stories about it. Getting onto the ridge, it was too brisk for a nap so I hiked up the ridge and had a good view down to the south. Sandhill cranes were going over by the hundreds at about 9000ft; amazing how loud they are even from that high.

Gary Laudermilch · 05-04-2015, 08:48 AM

Boring? You've got to be kidding!

John Taddeo · 05-04-2015, 10:56 PM

Beautiful scenery, But a hell of a way to troubleshoot a malfunction.. Did they ever determine the cause??

Researcher · 05-05-2015, 12:01 AM

The Armed Forces Skeet Shoot was underway at Birchwood, AK, this past weekend --

Didn't see a single side-by-side while I was there, so left!!

Richard Flanders · 05-06-2015, 07:12 PM

The only time I ever see S/S's at Birchwood is when Trigg and I shoot there.

There was a story on what the issue with the B-24 was but I can't remember it. A bunch of the mangled parts of the second plane are stacked behind the hangar where I park my plane. The rest is still out in the woods but was swept over by a wildfire about 8yrs ago, which ended the salvage operation.

TOOL MAN · 05-06-2015, 08:13 PM

Richard,

You give new meaning to: "I'm going out to shoot a few clays!!"

PS---I sure hope you tipped the trapper?

charlie cleveland · 05-06-2015, 10:23 PM

great views as always...good storey of the 2 planes...shoot one for me sometimes when your out there again.....charlie

Richard Flanders · 05-09-2015, 12:29 PM

I should add that the pond visible in the B-24 picture is likely a bomb crater... or maybe a double bomb crater. They also used these wrecks bombing targets. There is what WAS a complete B-29 not that far from this wreck that was bellied into the spruce forest during WWII and subsequently bombed to smithereens. What a shame! I stopped to look at it while going through with a helicopter in 2008 and was amazed at how intact much of it is. I even found a bomb casing next to a crater, but it was too heavy to carry out or it would be in our air museum here now. There are thousands of usable parts scattered around the forest; even the engines are entirely intact and just a bit beat up and scattered. Gear legs with wheels and tires, instruments, heaters, bulkheads, gun turrets, prop blades, the entire tail section, you name it and it's there. Had they not blown it to smithereens it it would be very restorable and at the very least could provide a treasure trove of parts for other restoration projects. It's still a good source of parts actually. Sad. There was an L-4(J-3 Cub) observation plane next to the B-24 pictured that was slung into town and was for a time behind the hangar where I park my plane. The fuselage tag was there so it was restorable; not sure what happened to it.