Stearman and N3N "graveyard" Mid 1980s

Thu May 28, 2009 5:21 pm

Found some old photos that I took in the mid 1980s at Mesa, Arizona. Gary Abrams and I had flown up there from Avra Valley Airport to look at a pile of dusters and sprayers that had been offered to he and his father Bud Abrams. It was a big pile of cool stuff but since he and his father already had four Stearmans between them, he decided not to buy the inventory. From what I recall, there were Marsh satellite duster strips all over the place between Tucson and Phoenix. Back in the early 1980s, I landed my Stearman at a bunch of these old duster strips and almost always found a few bits and pieces of Stearmans and N3Ns laying around. I have more photos if anyone wants to see them. I can edit out the N3N stuff because I'm sure nobody wants to see those old clunckers anyway, right?

Landing at Mesa, headed for the Marsh part of the field. Check out all the old fire bombers and sprayers.

You can see Gary Abrams is having second thoughts about this!

Here's a strange looking Stearman.

Sat May 30, 2009 5:23 am

What a tease!!!!!

Sat May 30, 2009 5:27 am

I can edit out the N3N stuff because I'm sure nobody wants to see those old clunckers anyway, right?

Oh thats nice.................

Sat May 30, 2009 5:27 am

By the way, those airplanes are still in Chino.

Sat May 30, 2009 8:48 am

So this stuff went from Mesa to Chino? A few weeks or maybe months afer Gary and I made this trip, we flew up to Goodyear or maybe Sky Harbor with his father to See George at Aero Salvage. It might have been called Aero Metals, I'm not sure. Anyway George had about the biggest pile of N3N projects that I've ever seen. I'm not sure if I took any photos of that trip or not. I'll have a look today.

Last edited by astixjr on Mon Jun 01, 2009 2:06 am, edited 1 time in total.

Sat May 30, 2009 11:28 am

Well those 2 stearmans look like ones that I have seen in chino pics. Marsh N3N's have been scattered all over. Recently 2 were sold on ebay, just fuselages tho..........they were still in AZ. Post the rest of your pics and I will tell you for sure..............think that N is N45288???

Sun May 31, 2009 5:17 pm

Anyone else waiting on the rest of the pics???

Sun May 31, 2009 6:04 pm

I know I do!!

Sun May 31, 2009 6:10 pm

N3Njeff wrote:Anyone else waiting on the rest of the pics???

It probably takes some time to Photoshop out the N3Ns.

:twisted:

PS: I like N3Ns!!

Sun May 31, 2009 6:25 pm

I'm waiting for the pix, Al!!!

Does anybody remember the collection of crop dusters in Hershy, Nebraska, or what happened to them???

How about all the Stearman's at Hayti, Mo.???

Mon Jun 01, 2009 2:05 am

Sorry guys, I thought these scans were only loaded on my hard drive at work but I must have bulk loaded them onto photobucket before I left the office on Friday. I guess most of the N3Ns from this Marsh facility had already been sold to George at Aero Salvage. Most of the stuff in the remaining photos is not N3N, it's Stearman.

And my all time favorite aviation photo (at least of the ones that I've taken)

Mon Jun 01, 2009 7:05 am

"guess most of the N3Ns from this Marsh facility had already been sold to George at Aero Salvage. Most of the stuff in the remaining photos is not N3N, it's Stearman."

Obviously George knew where the QUALITY was and left the rest to rot.

Thanks for posting the pics tho..............still pretty neat to see.

Mon Jun 01, 2009 5:50 pm

Poor Airplanes... Makes ya want to cry

Robbie
I can fix that...