Lake Michigan F6F recovery and restoration thread

[shepsair]

Matt
Believe Hellcat left Tuesday morning for Pensacola.

Whether they will be able to locate the wings is unclear. The team are not even sure of the wings were left on the aircraft (unlikely) when it went off the deck and crashed in the water inverted.

Canopy was there but frame and perspex basically fell apart.

Prop might get recovered next year - reduction gear was mush and literally fell off. (Being 5ft in the clay silt did not help either.

Lots of stuff to work around with markings etc, but confirmation it was with VF-38 at Mundu/Guadalcanal in September 43. VF-38 emblem found painted on airframe.

regards

Mark (Sheppard)

PS You were going to send me a podcast of the P47 Jeff Harris interview!?

[Dan Jones]

Great pictures.

Anyone got some HOT SAUCE?? Me and my buddies can have that airframe free of mussels in an afternoon.

Shay
____________
Semper Fortis

What, do you cook 'em or just use the hot sauce to hose 'em off?

("Hellcat Mussels" sounds like a good recipe though!)

[tom d. friedman]

i'm not b.s.ing.... some in the marine anti - fouling paint industry use cayenne pepper in the paint, it's a proven fact that the ingredient deters mussel bulild up on boat hulls as well as copper.

[Nathan]

bump

[snj-5]

Don't know if this link has been posted yet or not....

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/11/navy_hellcat_recovery_113009w/

Bela P. Havasreti

[WarbirdRadio]

Mark,

Thanks for the great info. PM sent regarding the podcast.

v/r

Matt Jolley

[Pat Carry]

Taras, Are there any additional Hellcats in Lake Michigan?

[Owen Miller]

F6F sighted heading east on I-10 @ 1300....

[shepsair]

Pat

From what Taras said to me, there were four Hellcats were lost in Lake Michigan. It is thought that the other three were recovered during WWII as they were lost at a shallow depth and salvaged with hard hat divers.

Loads of SBD's and TBJ Avengers. Unfortunately it seems no-one wants Avengers.

So I-10

So when will it get to Pensacola.

As for the wings - believe the left wing broke when it ground (carrier) looped, left undercarriage collapsed, broke wing and went over the side of the carrier inverted - taking off the fin. It is thought the starboard wing broke off when it hit the water. Fin/port wing might have been left on the carrier - would they dump it or take it home!? Starboard wing should be in the lake - if hanging 14 minutes (which seems a very long time!) the wing could be anywhere. They were outside of the ice field so free water but very cold!

regards

Mark

[Pat Carry]

Very informative. Thanks Mark. So it looks the they will have to fabricate the missing wing components?

[John Kerr]

Was able to spend a quick, and very cold, 10 minutes at Pensacola this afternoon. Here are a few photos for you to enjoy.

[Chris Brame]

Thanks for those closeups! Looks like it had three different styles of star and bars; note how the bars are more faded than the star, and a bit of the red surround showing in the last photo. The mussels of course are more recent; there was nary a mussel on that first-to-be-raised TBF I photographed back in 1980...

[tom d. friedman]

Thanks for those closeups! Looks like it had three different styles of star and bars; note how the bars are more faded than the star, and a bit of the red surround showing in the last photo. The mussels of course are more recent; there was nary a mussel on that first-to-be-raised TBF I photographed back in 1980...

the zebs just got a toe hold at that time. by 1990 it was beyond pandemic in all the great lakes.

[shepsair]

Chris

Correct - three stars and bars applied.

Factory original - white field with blue star and white bars.

Then in Sept/Oct (ish) 1943 it had been repainted 5% smaller to take account of white field, blue star, white bars and 2" red outline.

Then towards the end of 1943 the red was over painted with light blue.

The Hellcat did not have the late war over blue with white over painted markings.

regards

Mark

[Steven M. Dennis]

Loads of SBD's and Avengers. Unfortunately it seems no-one wants Avengers.

Ahem.... I'll take three please.