Souvenirs, Souvenirs ...

[ebutner]

Re: Souvenirs, Souvenirs ...

I have a piston from John Crocker's P-51D #6 Sumthin' Else.

[flyingjibus]

Re: Souvenirs, Souvenirs ...

Does Kermit play the Banjo?

I mean this Kermit

http://www.fantasyofflight.com/

He does a bluegrass festival there.

And to be honest it's my Fathers Banjo.

Kermit was the only bluegrass/aviation connection I could come up with, it was a joke.

[split-s]

Re: Souvenirs, Souvenirs ...

I know who Kermit Weeks is. I was being obtuse.

[J.SMITH]

Re: Souvenirs, Souvenirs ...

My Dad was on the Uss Manila bay an Escort carrier and after a kamikaze plane hit the flight deck he pickup a piece of it. It is about 6" long and the weight is about 4.6 oz.

[split-s]

Re: Souvenirs, Souvenirs ...

Wow. (:-0

[steve D]

Re: Souvenirs, Souvenirs ...

My Dad was on the Uss Manila bay an Escort carrier and after a kamikaze plane hit the flight deck he pickup a piece of it. It is about 6" long and the weight is about 4.6 oz.

Now that there is way cool!

[split-s]

Re: Souvenirs, Souvenirs ...

A few of us aeroarcheologists made it out to Reno-Stead today and combed through the sagebrush of Red Baron's debris field, inadvertantly marking the 30th anniversary of the crash. Present were Bigger Al, 3rd Wright Bro, myself, T-Dub and his friend whose name escapes me and isn't a AAFO poster yet.

Pictures of the yield to follow.

[MRE]

Re: Souvenirs, Souvenirs ...

In the RR111 pit we were just thowing away our used plugs after every session.

[3dWrightBrother]

Re: Souvenirs, Souvenirs ...

Some of Saturday's find-the consensus was that the round caps and some of the other pieces were possibly from some kind of training ordnance or device. Also found brass shell casings and belt links. Anyone that can ID any of this is welcome to chime in. Still was an awesome way to spend a couple of hours on lovely fall day in Nevada
Russ

[split-s]

Re: Souvenirs, Souvenirs ...

Hey, BA,

Are you sure about the direction of RB when it crashed? The RARA database says:

Notes: Blew engine on final lap, finished race, crashed short of rwy 26, aircraft destroyed, multiple injuries to pilot.

[emphasis added]

That would suggest that the a/c was headed, more or less, north-by-northwest at the time.

$

[t-dub]

Re: Souvenirs, Souvenirs ...

Hey Split-s, First of all, it was great meeting you, BA and 3d on Sat. Pictures are worth a thousand words, and these two speak volumes. The first clearly shows the direction, (from left to right) and the second one (aerial) clearly shows me that he would have been trying for 32. Imagine Steve crossing the finish line (flying parallel to 8-26) then flying over the edge of "Hoover Gulch" banking right, and coming around for 32. That would have been a much better choice, (and one that i think Steve was trying to make) than trying to line up for 26. This is of course JMO, but after quite a bit of research (and the fire path that i discovered at the site) i think i'm fairly close on this. Again, it's all just speculation, as only Steve really knows...............

[AAFO_WSagar]

From what I remember...

Steve went by on the next to last lap trailing vapor of some sort.. stayed with it through the finish, pulled up high going past home, went out over Lemmon Valley, he was turning left, I'm thinking trying to make 26, as he approached the bluff, saw he would not make it and then continued the left turn to across the bluff.. which would, I think, be roughly a south heading... Biggest thing I remember was that he went down pretty much below the bluff, crossing to your left to right if you were looking down toward the 26 side of 8/26, very similar to what the CAF had done earlier with their "shootdowns"....

Hope any of that makes sense....

[split-s]

Re: Souvenirs, Souvenirs ...

I see what you mean. Hinton was too far south to be setting up for 26 and once he hit dirt any curve he was flying would have become a straight line, more or less.

Gandt's book describes the crash in pretty fair detail (I don't have possession of my copy. Anybody?)

I've attached a pic of the wreckage I gleaned yesterday. It was great having an A/P man along -- thanks, Bigger Al -- to better determine if the cr@p we found was aviation-related.

A couple of the shards (row 1, #3; row 2, #2) seem to be colored a dark brown along the jagged edges. I wouldn't expect it's corrosion or it would be seen on other surfaces; and superficial scorching would of course have eroded away long ago, so is this significant?

The strainer-cap has the remnant of a black mesh, fabric liner. Not terribly certain it's an RB artifact.

And wouldn't Mr. Steve be the best source on what the hell he did at the time? So did he reef it around to the right after passing the home pylon or did he climb left as is customary then fly a big "S" before the crash?

$

[split-s]

Re: Souvenirs, Souvenirs ...

Look what I stumbled across at facebook:

http://www.detektorweb.cz/index.4me?...87decccf8824f7

[Skyracer]

Re: Souvenirs, Souvenirs ...

What would be most helpful is some film of the race and accident, but I've never heard of any being out there. Perhaps someone on the board has some Super 8 that they shot. That would go a long way toward fueling more speculation, and that, in turn, would keep the forum nice and lively through a long, cold Winter.

Didn't the ABC WWOS coverage show the pull-up and "disappearace" below the bluff edge? I just seem to recall that sequence along with video of Steve being removed from the wreckage, interview in the hospital, etc. From a quick search on the web it looks like copies of that footage is in privae hands.