Another treasure hunt...

Rossco · **Posted:** Thu Dec 04, 2008 1:09 am

In about August this year Ausflyboy joined us for a bit of a kick around in the dirt in behind the museum where one of the old hangar sites resides..After the war the hangar was pulled down and a mobile smelter erected to dispose of the hundreds of aircraft slowly rotting away.Full wings were dropped in and with the ally melting quickly the steel components dropped to the bottom to be raked off the side into pits.The majority of parts found are Spitfire.

Also a walk through the treeline found more slabs and more parts..

Anyone like to sandblast???

ausflyboy · **Posted:** Thu Dec 04, 2008 3:42 am

ok ok I get the hint

Sorry, been flat chat at work and sweating my a*s off :twisted:

Since Rossco started it..lets see if i can give some more info

We arrived around 10 am ( i think) before the heat of the day set in.

Site one was apparently the location of two hangers during the war, and immediately after was converted as a dissasembly area and smelter

Those are the pics shown by Rossco

now being the forward thinking person I am...... i bought my trusty metal detector along and within seconds we had our first "hit". Ok it was a bolt but it was a start ...now with every swing the headphones quaked with the sweet beep of buried treasure below. With youthful enthusiasm, adrenaline pumping and an almost religious fervour volunteers magically grabbed any and all picks and shovels..those that didn't get one used there hands and started swinging and scraping away...each scoop of earth yielding discarded relics of once proud and mighty warplanes. Cabling , nuts/bolts , tubing, engine parts, mounting brackets , bakelite trim wheels and even brass ID plates were duly collected dusted off and placed in the now quickly growing pile of what one would call "junk" but to us afficiendos of all things warbird....... treasure

Close up of our pile

Volunteers hard at work

More parts

Panelling and slipper hook for drop tank

More bits

So after about 2 hours of digging, Rossco decides to show us the sites of the old area. Conveniently I left my detector on, and was rewarded with a nice blast

A quick dig reveled this part from a kittyhawk

Turning the object around revealed its already known but now physically shown scars of its demise

Anyway, a quick scan of the areas surrounding our dig site showed many parts still lying on the ground where they were unceremoniously dumped after stripping from the aircraft.

P-51Mustang filter

Engine parts

odds and sods

Moving on to another area

Misc parts at site

My turn to supervise

fellow Boomer restorer and good mate inspecting his personal haul

Spitfire armour plate

More spit bits

Parts sitting in decomposing aluminium dross

Appears to be Gun bay bits

Tubing

So anyway, after another hour or so of this we all packed up and went to the relative comfort of the restoration hanger for lunch and relaxation

This was a perfect opportunity for me to revist Rossco's bold and exciting "phoenix" spitfire project that his team have been assembling; and to see the progress made since my last expeditious visit.

So thanks again to Rossco and his team for inviting me out on this field trip. It was a humbling yet somewhat adrenalising excursion to the other side of the fence; and one that I had dreamed of since I was 6 after being told the tales and shown the photos of thousands of Spits, Boomers,Mustangs and Kittyhawks that were parked in their hundreds in straight rows..... once a long time ago.

My only regret is no Boomer parts :lol:

and my hope is that from this trip some of the parts will no longer be neglected and unloved and make their way home onto Rosscos airplane to be admired for what they are for the generations yet to come.

Rossco · **Posted:** Thu Dec 04, 2008 5:35 am

Can,t top that for a follow up post..glad you enjoyed yourself mate...Next time we will go over the other side to your holy ground near the tree... :shock:

Just give us a call so I can organise things...

ausflyboy · **Posted:** Thu Dec 04, 2008 6:22 am

sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet

the graveyard my plane came from

RyanShort1 · **Posted:** Thu Dec 04, 2008 7:57 am

That looks like fun. Wish I could find something similar here.

Ryan

bluehawk15 · **Posted:** Thu Dec 04, 2008 10:30 am

Ryan,

We do have something similar, supposedly, in our own backyard. The former Crossroads Squadron (then wing) of the CAF, based in Victoria, TX, had heard stories of brand new P-38's that were at Foster Field at the end of the war. The story is that a big pit was dug and the planes shoved in and covered up, possibly along with some jeeps and other surplus items. They had requested, and received, permission from the county to identify possible sites and to then dig and see what they could find. They had "blue topped" the areas (driven wooden pegs with tufts of plastic blue plastic on top), but the wing folded before they were able to get any digging done. That's the story that the late Jay Heaton (sp?) told me. This was back when we were restoring the Scatterbrain Kid II in San Marcos. Sandy Sansing, our project officer on the SBK II said then that he doubted much would be intact after all the years in the salty soil there.

Perhaps someone might want to follow up on it someday.

Fouga23 · **Posted:** Fri Dec 05, 2008 6:06 am

darn

Would love to have a place like that in my back yard!

ausflyboy · **Posted:** Sat Dec 06, 2008 4:25 am

A quick update..... the little junction box as seen in my photos has the part number 75-66-941 on the front face and ??-58-1019 on the back.

Anyone, care to Id the number

I will have a few pics up soon of parts that have been cleaned and straightened etc from this dig

coldkiwi1 · **Posted:** Mon Dec 15, 2008 12:43 am

This is an electrical junction box from a P40. Lots of P40's were scrapped at Oakey.

Most P40 parts start with either 75- , 81- or 87-. These numbers correspond to the Curtiss model that the part was first introduced on. eg 75- parts were first used on the Hawk 75 ( P36 or Mohawk), 81- parts on the Hawk 81 (P40 B/C Tomahawk) and 87- parts on the Hawk 87 ( P40 D-N, Kittyhawk, Warhawk).

N3Njeff · **Posted:** Mon Dec 15, 2008 6:30 am

Their is stuff here in the states. When I was in s.fla, the company I was with was building a new hangar on the airfield. My boss went out to check the site and was walking around in the sand and kicked up a browning .30 cal barrel. So myself an another guy went out and looked around. I found a bunch of airplane parts and pieces of aluminum. I also found 9 rounds of linked .30 cal dated 42...........still live!!!!

Much has been found at FLL too!!!

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