Ice Cap Recovery of Aircraft 57-490 – Page 4
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When we arrived at the crash site and began to load the parts and equipment, we found that there wasn’t sufficient space inside the aircraft to load everything. With the aircraft fully loaded, there still remained the damaged main ski, a work stand and the Trackmaster. Remembering how hard it had been the previous day for the support aircraft to take off and how much harder it would be for this heavily loaded one, I recommended that we load the work stand on the main ski and chain the main ski to the open cargo ramp. I would drive the Trackmaster. This we agreed upon. My plan was to remain to the left of the aircraft
with an airman in the right seat of the Trackmaster keeping the aircraft in
sight. We had used the track-
master only for moving the support equipment to various locations around the
aircraft but we had never used it for any significant period of time. What we didn’t realize until we
started the taxi trip to Dye III was that the radio was inoperative and that
the windshield anti-icing didn’t work.
We hadn’t expected a need for the anti-icing but, as we started the
trip, the weather began to change, ending in a partial “white-out”. The windshield began to ice up and, before long, I could no
longer see through it. I had
told the airman on my right to keep the aircraft in sight; however, when I
asked him where the aircraft was, he said that he couldn’t see it. Not wanting to get lost, I made an
immediate right turn and drove until I spotted the ski tracks and then turned
left to follow them. Meanwhile,
the men in the aircraft had lost sight of us, so they stopped until I caught
up with them. I then told the
airman to get in the back seat, after which I steered to the left of the
aircraft and placed it in sight through the right front open window. From then on, it was “pedal to the
metal” in keeping up with the aircraft.
Since we were far away from any crevasses, my main thoughts were to
keep my distance from the aircraft and keep the aircraft in sight. I know that we crossed over some of
the rolling stratugies but that was insignificant to keeping my position,
with the Trackmaster going at its maximum speed to keep up with the
aircraft. I understand that the
men in the aircraft had fun watching our vehicle go up and down. Finally, we arrived at Dye III. It was an experience to be
remembered. The men had been working on the truss mount all
day and, on the following day, it was finished. We then hung the engine and propeller with the hoist that
was owned by the Dye Site and, with the sheet metal work completed, began to
check out the aircraft systems.
Once the engines and propellers, along with all of the aircraft systems,
were checked and systems were |
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Photographs courtesy of Earl Huddleston |
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