The Historic Ski Hut & Revisiting the Hellcats
Вставка
- Опубліковано 21 гру 2024
- On this hiking trip, I was originally planning to check out the crash site of a Curtiss C-46 Commando but of course some plans change. Instead, on the way up to the ski hut and beyond, I revisited the site of the two F6F Hellcats that crashed on the side of the mountain way back in March of 1949. Unfortunately both pilots were killed in the crash. I found alot more pieces of debris higher up the gulch including part of one of the propellers and the Pratt and Whitney engine! Hope you guys enjoy this one.
F6F Hellcat
Grumman F6F-3 Hellcats in tricolor camouflage[1][Note 1]
Role Naval fighter
National origin United States
Manufacturer Grumman
First flight 26 June 1942
Introduction 1943
Retired 1960 Uruguayan Navy[2]
Primary users United States Navy
United States Marine Corps
Royal Navy
French Navy
Produced 1942-1945
Number built 12,275
The Grumman F6F Hellcat is an American carrier-based fighter aircraft of World War II.
What a tremendous fighter it was.
Thanks for finding this wreckage. A sad day in our history, but a good remembrance of the sacrifices for freedom.
God bless.
Wow the engine in the dirt was a pretty emotional sight... Very cool, thanks for sharing.
14:31 flap at wing fold joint. 15:48 supercharger intercooler
I enjoy the hikes every bit as much as the mines. Really beautiful part of the country out there..Thanks so much for taking us along...
Very cool video! I like how you put still photos in as well.
One of the many trails up to Mt. Baldy and one of the steepest.
It's crazy how many parts are scattered out there. Really cool to see.
Did you see the cool little bird hopping around you at the ski hut?thanks for another exploration video!
Yes! I think it was a dark-eyed Junco. But another sharp-eyed birder can confirm that
Thank you very much. Great hike and what a great find.
Heck yeah! Thanks for another good one WMD
Great video as always!! Got me looking at the Hellcat we have at our museum. You did pretty good identifying the parts! Love to the C-46 wreck, we have one of those planes too! 👍
Very interesting parts of the plane and wow looks very nice and peaceful up there
No interior views of the ski hut? Was the door locked? Midair collisions create large debris fields.
Yeah the last couple times I've been up there the door has a lock on it. I've seen some older pics of the inside.
looks like a really fun hike,wish i could go there
Ditto here...
There’s never a time when you don’t look at something, that I am hoping you will look at 🎉
Great work mate.
Good video thanks mate👍
Stunning views pants or no.
Thanks from Australia
There's several aircraft on the San Francisco peaks and Mt. Elden here in Flagstaff, lots cleaner though. This looks like CFIT or controlled flight into terrain, about 200 mph or so. 175 knots
VERY VERY COOL,,THANK YOU
Does the outhouse feed the spring?
its always very deceiving to think of a single seat aircraft as being small, but hell cats were a formidable aircraft in its time and pretty large for comparison, certainly when you meet one in the flesh - if you ever get a chance to build a model kit of one, you may well easily recognise some of the parts, and which way up they should be - some thing that i have done myself
to think of two aircraft colliding over this hillside and smashing into the ground, so much wreckage scattered and the violent forces required to pull something apart, its a sad sight for sure, seeing parts so smashed, do you happen to know if the pilots bailed out and escaped or not?
the large section you found with the remains of main gear struts, would be a large box section built into the main wing with main wing spar (what's left of it), somewhere above it would be the cockpit - makes me wonder how severe the collision was, a gentle tap and damage to control surfaces, or a full on smash, followed by a horrendous impact to the ground, cartwheeling in all directions and possibly blowing to pieces, spreading both wreckages in all directions, there's a lot went on here
the engine remains is in an interesting posture sat almost on top of that fallen tree, might it have hit trees before coming to rest, probably explains its relative good condition, although i suspect it has moved over time, with snow drifts, and been scavenged by enthusiasts - its still pretty cool that so much is still available to see after so long, its a lot of scrap aluminium, and also from experts point of view to locate pieces that can be reverse engineered for rebuilds, something we do in the UK - its easier to locate crashed parts than to take apart a serviceable aircraft especially if the part is so deep behind other components
Love me some crash site videos!
Will you go back to view the C-46? Great video!
Yes! I would love to it's just a matter of when. Definitely plan to get back up there and check out the Commando
used to be some 50cals and 20mm stuff up there.
I'm sure there's some buried still! But yeah imagine when it first wrecked up there all the guns and such.
always good videos
You can tell Navy planes by the anodizing of most of the aluminum giving it a darker gray color, where no telltale blue paint survives. Rusted part landing gear trunion.
was that bird running around ?
I think it was a dark-eyed Junco
😀👍👍
amazing the amount of wreckage everywhere unlike the plane? that hit the pentagon where there was about nothing, just goes to show you can crash on a rocky mountain and have wreckage but hit a modern building and the debris vanishes unreal
hey, if you get deployed. stay safe and thank you
👍👍
wing spar
this plane must have had bombs on it,is why its torn into so many peices