Lake Michigan F6F recovery and restoration thread

[shepsair]

I was told by one of the team they are Quagga mussels, not Zebra????

Zebra are at shallow depths and Quagga at greater depths.

Don't know the difference or the life cycle or survivability times.

http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/FactShee ... eciesID=95

Still cannot tell the difference.

regards

MS

[mh53eflyguy]

Here is another from yesterday's recon op



http://www.flickr.com/photos/19178908@N02/4173948877/

Somehow this one didn't make that post. It shows the engine a bit better. Looks to be in relatively good shape considering where it's been the past 65 years!

[k5083]

Sounds like we had better be careful that the warbird movement doesn't get blamed for making the zebra/quagga mussel infestation worse. Half-

On the melted butter, my understanding is that zebras and quaggas actually are edible and high in nutrition. The problem, at least with the quaggas and I imagine likely the zebras as well, is that they are filter feeders and are highly efficient at removing pollution from the water, which has noticeably cleaned up the Great Lakes (like almost anything in ecology, they are not 100% bad). Much of that pollution ends up in their own tissues where it can reach concentrations hundreds of times that in the surrounding environment. So eating them is a risky proposition, depending on where they have been growing. Then again, melted butter has its risks as well.

August

[mh53eflyguy]

I'm going to head back over to the NMNA and get some more pictures tomorrow of this bird and a few others. The Wx is supposed to be terrible and a wash-out, so I may not get this bird in those conditions, but I will do my best to get up close to it.

If I'm successful in going back there (possibly off the tour route if I can coordinate the correct channels), weather providing, I'll take as many as I can tomorrow. If you have any specific request on certain photos or angles on the F6F-3 I'll entertain them, but I cannot guarantee that I'll be able to get up close. Send me a message with regards to that and I'll see what I can do.

Just out of curiosity, and not to threadjack this page, but what happened to the Wildcat and Dauntless that were back there this past summer? The last time I saw it it was like this:
This is also the exact spot of where the F6F-3 is now sitting

And there was some kind of Wildcat with red landing gear (assumed rebuild or refurbished) without wing fold?

[Taigh Ramey]

I would think it might be a bit difficult but I would love to see any interior shots if possible. Cockpit and rear fuselage showing radio compliment. I would love to see what the antenna on top is connected to; either IFF or ARR-2 or something interesting. Were there any wire antennas present?

Were there any guns on board? Inquiring minds want to know.

Thanks,

Taigh

[tom d. friedman]

blecch!!! save the garlic butter for a lobster!!! you'd need about 5000 mussels & a pair of tweezers just to make a meal!! i've heard the quagaa mussel theory too. 1 fact for sure..... they are a pain in the butt & ruining countless artifacts in all the great lakes. question......... has anything of interest been found on the hellcat?? such as personal items belonging to the pilot, graffiti from workers while under construction or repair / servicing.

[Owen Miller]

To answer the question about where the SBD & F4F went......

An SBD was disassembled and crated up for shipment over
the last couple of weeks. Capt Rasmussen is continuing to
send the Lake Birds to various museums around the country
on long-term loan. I don't have definite info but I think the
SBD went to either the D-Day Museum or the museum in
Hawaii. Don't know about the Wildcat.

[shepsair]

Do not believe the Wildcat was this year? Looks good though.

The first SBD-5 recovered in April is going to New Orleans.

The second SBD-2P recovered in July is going to PAM, Ford Island Hawaii. (The on on its nose in the previous picture).

The F6F-3 had no guns fitted but did have a orange survival pack/bag in the cockpit. Assume this contained first aid, food and water.

Would be interesting to see the cockpit now - full of mussels when I saw it.

regards

Mark

[mh53eflyguy]

Do not believe the Wildcat was this year? Looks good though.

The first SBD-5 recovered in April is going to New Orleans.

The second SBD-2P recovered in July is going to PAM, Ford Island Hawaii. (The on on its nose in the previous picture).

The F6F-3 had no guns fitted but did have a orange survival pack/bag in the cockpit. Assume this contained first aid, food and water.

Would be interesting to see the cockpit now - full of mussels when I saw it.

regards

Mark

Actually, the Wildcat picture was taken if not the same day, about a month after the SDB picture. Its one of the 286 that did not have a wing fold option. I can check the EXIF data on the pictures, but it was around the same time frame (July or August 2009).

I'm going to brave the elements tomorrow for some more pictures. I did not hear back from the museum regarding my request, but it is the weekend. I have a contact on here that might be helping out with getting the museum to let me off the tour route to get some better close-up shots, and a few folks have messaged me and it looks promising that I'll get the pictures I need.

Just out of curiosity, there is a "2" on the side of the fuselage, and while I know this bird was with different squadrons over the years it was active, what is the "2" from? There was one on the cowling too I was told.

[Taras]

USS Sable Friday 5th January 1945

8 to 12

F6F (F-28) pilot Lt. (jg) W.B. Elcock, A-1, USNR crashed into and through starboard catwalk

Does that explain where the 2 comes from? The airplanes training number was F-28

How about you walk into the Museum office and ask if you can go out and take some photos of the Hellcat?

You can tell them that Taras gave you the idea to just ask nicely.

[shepsair]

Taras

Yes, there is a 2 but cannot see the 8 to go with it?

Also this seemed to be a deep historic marking - most of those on the recovered airframes relating to CGTU were on the top layer of paint that disappeared quite quickly.

Thought the 2 on the engine cowl yies in with the 2 under the cockpit but in a very odd position. Would be interested to see a close up of this area now dried and cleaned.

There was the 28 was on the door covers. (F-28 from CGTU time). Remember it was only there for 3 weeks so very short service and 'might' not have had the full side numbers on the fuselage applied.

Still looking for Carl H Johnson family - could you not have found an easier name to research!

Have a good weekend

regards

Mark

[mh53eflyguy]

The weather cooperated today and I snagged some more pictures, but I was not able to get a hold of anyone to go back into the restoration area, but I've still got some great pictures to share with you all.

Progress has been made since Thursday! I noticed more mussels were cleaned off, and the cockpit had been worked on, such as the pilot's seat was removed. Various other parts had been removed and it's looking better and better! I did notice that the "2" wasn't as pronounced as it had been prior to the mussel clean-up.

Hopefully I'll get some closer shots this week, I'm still working with folks to get behind the fence for some closer shots before it goes inside the hanger. More to follow!
My current hindrance with capturing better shots


Here we see the pilot's seat and various other components


Looks towards the tail and you can see some more extensive mussel removal has started.



I must say that I did not adjust the size of these pictures before posting them to Photobucket, but I will post them to flickr and remove these links if they are giant "life size", and apologize ahead of time!

Taras, I'll drop your name too, I'm going back tomorrow. Fortunately I'm stationed there so its all in a days work!

Blue Skies!

-Scott Shea

Last edited by mh53eflyguy on Mon Dec 14, 2009 7:14 pm, edited 3 times in total.

[shepsair]

Scott

Interesting

Lower engine filler cowl? from Bu.No.04893 which is another F6F-3 - No idea of the history. Nothing on the Bauchers site.

Will have to look that up and see where this Hellcat moved around from. nothing on Google either.

Will be interesting to see if there are any other Bu.No on the removed panels.

The '2' looks less visible today. Still an odd location for a side number.

Looking good now it is getting cleaned.

regards

Mark

[mh53eflyguy]

Scott

Interesting

Lower engine filler cowl? from Bu.No.04893 which is another F6F-3 - No idea of the history. Nothing on the Bauchers site.

Will have to look that up and see where this Hellcat moved around from. nothing on Google either.

Will be interesting to see if there are any other Bu.No on the removed panels.

The '2' looks less visible today. Still an odd location for a side number.

Looking good now it is getting cleaned.

regards

Mark

Hi Mark,

I don't know if times have changed much, but in my past dealings with pulling aircraft panels while working avionics is a lot of times the panel numbers more less were just for identifying the location of the panel by station lines and water lines. I don't know if things were different back then, but it's common for panel numbers to not correspond with the BUNO number, but that is in regard to modern-day Navy stuff. Of course, I'm comparing a Sikorsky product to a Grumman product too. You might or might not be onto something with that stenciling, I don't know enough about how Grumman did things back then, but I just wanted to contribute my $0.02.

Cheers!

-Scott

[Jim MacDonald]

Scott,

Thanks for posting the photos, she seems to be in pretty good shape.

Mac