Looks like she is in Georgia now..
http://www.columbustelegram.com/article ... /news5.txt
WWII pilot gets look at rescued plane
By JEAN WILSON/Telegram Assistant Editor
COLUMBUS - After climbing a ladder to get a better look at the cockpit, Jack Bullington tried to remember the positions of the mixture controls and throttle controls at the time of the emergency landing about 57 years ago on a frozen lake.
"That was kind of interesting. It didn't seem like they were in the right positions when we came in," Bullington said.
The Columbus man recently traveled to Douglas, Ga., to watch the unloading of the World War II search and rescue plane that had been pulled out of Dyke Lake in Labrador in August. Don Brooks of Georgia is funding the recovery and restoration efforts and plans to fly the plane once it is in good working condition. It took years to gain approval from the Canadian government to pull the plane out of Dyke Lake and to return it to the United States.
On Dec. 24, 1947, Bulling was the co-pilot of the U.S. Army Air Corps aircraft that was making a routine delivery flight when a fuel shortage caused navigational problems. Surrounded by the clear, cold water, the B-17 bomber had been protected from ultraviolet rays and pollution.
Most of the plane remains in good shape, according to Bullington, who was the only crew member present at the unloading.
Much of its body is rust free. In 1947, the U.S. Army Air Corps had cut off the nose of the plane to salvage radar equipment and other instruments. Part of the tail section is also missing, but is thought to be the easiest part to replace. The tires are still inflated, Bullington said. One part of the aircraft still had green primer paint on it. The propellers will have to be replaced because they are bent as will the engines because they were under water for too long.
The aluminum front end was crushed, probably after sinking underwater and having ice push down on it.
Rectangular rubber gas tanks are still in one piece, but will most likely be replaced, Bullington said.
The airplane was dismantled and loaded onto three semi tractor trailer trucks for transporting to Georgia. Because the load was wide, the trucks only traveled during daylight hours. Even after all the years of cutting red tape, it took lawyers to get the trucks through customs at the Canadian border.
Bullington spent about five days at Douglas. On the second day, before the trucks were known to have arrived in that town, he was riding in a car at the edge of town and saw two of the trucks, which carried engines, the fuselage and some wooden boxes packed with parts.
"That was quite a shock. To see them right there," Bullington said.
He had been waiting for the day for a long time.
"Since '98. That's when we first heard about (the recovery efforts,)" he said.
The next day the third truck came in with the wings.
As he captured the unloading on film, Bullington thought about the uniqueness of the situation.
"It doesn't happen very often to crash a plane then have it recovered. Most of the time if you crash, ... there's nothing left of it," he said. "When it came out of the water it looked pretty good."
Mud still clings to many of the nooks and crevices, and its removal with a fire hose is the first step toward restoration.
After the emergency landing 57 years ago, the seven crew members and two passengers spent two nights in the wilderness waiting for rescuers in temperatures that dropped to 20 degrees below zero.
In 1998, when the abandoned aircraft was located about six miles from where searchers expected it to be in the lake, the B-17 was described as a time capsule. The corresponding discovery of the campsite used by the plane's crew and passengers was unexpected. Cooking utensils, a canteen, an ax, a can of food and a wood pile were as they had been left all those years before. Parachute shrouds that had been used to tie makeshift shelters onto trees were still tied in place.
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