The author, an aircraft wreckologist, together with several other like-minded friends, has investigated 30 crash sites in the Western States, both military and civilian, covering the period from World War II to the recent present. Together with hundreds of photos of the sites and wreckage found at them, the author records their findings as well as the story of the crash and any investigations into the incident. This is a follow-up volume to the three volumes the author produced for aircraft crash sites found in the Pacific Northwest. In contrast with the Pacific Northwest, aircraft wreck hunting in the deserts and mountains of Arizona, California, and Nevada is entirely different. With the absence of many trees, visibility and GPS reception is usually excellent. With a good set of binoculars one can spot gleaming pieces of wreckage in bright sunshine from many miles away. Weather is not usually too much of a factor although we have witnessed some ferocious thunderstorms and flash flooding which can be very dangerous. We also need to limit our hiking to early mornings or spring and fall months to avoid the intense heat of the summer. Normally crash sites are located miles out in the middle of nowhere in the southwestern deserts and accessed only by four-wheel-drive vehicles. Because of this, we bring at least two vehicles to have a backup in case if one breaks down. The vehicles are equipped with winches, shovels, and spare tires because getting stuck in sand is all too common. Before making trips out on the desert, our wreck hunting groups usually conduct meetings early in the mornings to make sure that everyone is accounted for and that we have plenty of survival supplies. This means that our backpacks are loaded with food and water, that we have cell phones and portable radios, and that we have several cases of extra drinking water. The vehicles are topped with gas, checked for tools and equipment, and tires are deflated to give better traction in sand. It is not uncommon to lose all cell phone coverage, so we test and make sure that each individual hiker has a functioning hand-held radio. We also bring along medical supplies onboard the vehicles and in the backpacks of each hiker. Without cell phone coverage we are unable to call for help and it is usually at least an hour drive out of the desert. We exercise caution and good judgment in knowing that help is going to be a long time coming. 535 mostly color and some B&W photos, bibliography.

Merriam Press Aviation History Series First Edition 2013 Aviation archaeology has grown significantly within the past ten years and is represented by groups throughout the entire United States and several countries abroad, mainly in Europe. As aircraft wrecks become much older, their historical significance becomes much greater. It is hoped by many modern day aviation archaeologists that with more public awareness, the historical significance becomes better understood and valued, and that many of these old crash sites will be saved and protected. Most surviving family members of those who lost their lives in these accidents consider these sites as hallowed ground and the mention of these to surviving crewmembers themselves still brings tears to their eyes. Recently, it has become fairly common for surviving family members to contact aviation archaeology groups in an effort to locate crash sites to help bring some type of closure to these families. As a group, we have been successful in making these connections, and in expressing our gratitude in helping with this effort, many aviation archaeologists have spent a lot of their own money, time, and research establishing and building memorials at these sites. It is an expression of their own respect for these families. Contents Missing B-18 Bomber Found on Oregon's Wolf Mountain Pikes Peak Claims B-17E 41-2598 Solving the Mystery of P-38E 41-2276 Two Dog Night in Ephrata Cape Lookout, Oregon: Low Flying B-17 Lost In Fog B-17 Spins Down From 20,000 Feet P-38 Exceeds Design Speed Limits B-24 Strikes Mountain Ridge On Night Training Flight Vertigo Claims The Life Of A Young Navy Pilot P-38 Spins Out of the Clouds B-24 Night Training Flight Ends Near Ukiah, Oregon F6F Hellcat Mysteriously Disappears From Pasco Naval Air Station B-24 Orienting For Instrument Practice Hits Mt. Harrison High-Altitude Stall Destroys Liberator B-24 Formation Flight Collides With Mountain At Night Carburetor Icing Dooms TBM Avenger Above Oregon's Blue Mountains B-25 Carrying Material From Maury Island UFO Incident Crashes B-29 On Training Mission For New Bomb Group Hits Mt. Spokane Northwest Airlines Martin 202 Dives Into Farm Field Snowblind: Rescue B-17 in Trouble Control Locking Mechanism Dooms C-124 Globemaster F-86D Sabre Fades From Radar Republic RF-84K Falls From Sky On To Riblet's Bluff First of its Type: West Coast Airlines Loses a DC-9 by Dan Thomas Nelson Explosion From Boeing B-47 Crash Observed Fifty Miles Away Day Mountain Claims KC-135A 'Mourn 79' Shadow Mountain Wreck: Faulty Altimeter Setting Claims KC-135A Japan Air Lines Convair 880: Training Flight's Tragic End Engine Fire Brings Down Lockheed C-130 Hercules Near Bliss, Idaho Eyewitness to Navy EA-6B Prowler Crash West Coast Airlines F-27 Hits Stukel Mountain During Snow Storm Crewless B-17 Bomber Crashes Near Harvard, Idaho Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat Strikes Low Hill On Night Strafing Mission Appendix 1: Washington State Crash Locator List Appendix 2: Oregon Crash Locator List Appendix 3: Idaho Crash Locator List 354 color, 42 B&W photos, bibliography

Finding an historic aircraft crash site is 95 percent research and five percent field work. Wreckchasing 102 is the continuation of the Wreckchasing series. Wreckchasing 101 discussed how to research aircraft crash sites and the many resources available while Wreckchasing 102 presents 16 stories for the arm-chair adventurer, taking them from the mountains and deserts of the United States to a forest outside Paris, France. Historic aircraft types range from commercial Boeing 247s, to DC-3s, C-46s and DC-10s; fighter aircraft such as the P-39 and P-51 to the F-86 and F-100 jets; and large bombers and patrol planes including the B-17, B-1A, and P-3 Orion. The accident and decades later search for these aircraft are told in detail. Sixteen chapters with more than 200 black and white photos.

Merriam Press Military History. Detailed history of each of 33 aircraft wreck sites visited and investigated by the authors, with photos of the aircraft before the accident, and numerous photos of the crash site and evidence found at the site. Includes Washington, Oregon and Idaho state crash locator lists. 354 color photos, 42 B&W photos.

Describes wreckage of Japanese military aircrafts found in Oceania.

This is a different approach to Aviation Archaeology. The book includes 18 crash sites and each chapter includes a description of how the incident occurred and the reasons behind the crash. Copious notes then reveal what the authors have discovered about the artifacts and the history surrounding the cause of the event. Contact with surviving relatives or fellow comrades has in many instances revealed new information and gives a more detailed insight into the geographical location itself. Each chapter will be illustrated to show the site, wreckage and objects found, the crew involved and aircraft type. In addition there will be location information. The appendices will give outline only information on some 400 other incidents, date, location, aircraft type, crew, fate etc.

A century of aviation research and military flights over Los Angeles County has left the San Gabriel Mountains, Mojave Desert and the near-shore Pacific Ocean strewn with more than 1,500 aircraft crash sites. Barnstormers and test pilots too often made unexpected final landings. Accidents occurred on a nearly daily basis during World War II training maneuvers. Private planes, a sign of 1950s prosperity, also met tragic ends. These epic incidents include the 1971 tragedy of Flight 706 in which an airliner collided with a marine fighter jet above Mount Bliss, killing fifty people. Renowned aircraft crash search specialist G. Pat Macha recounts dozens of sorrowful, triumphant and surprising true stories of those who lived through these ordeals while offering touching tributes to those who did not.

This first of three volumes reports the findings of aviation wreckologists after examining the crash sites of military and civilian aircraft in the Pacific Northwest. There are 33 chapters, each covering an aircraft crash, the search and rescue efforts of each, what happened to the pilots and crews, and present day examination of the sites and remains of the aircraft. Aviation archaeology has grown significantly within the past ten years and is represented by groups throughout the entire United States and several countries abroad, mainly in Europe. As aircraft wrecks become much older, their historical significance becomes much greater. It is hoped by many modern day aviation archaeologists that with more public awareness, the historical significance becomes better understood and valued, and that many of these old crash sites will be saved and protected. Most surviving family members of those who lost their lives in these accidents consider these sites as hallowed ground and the mention of these to surviving crewmembers themselves still brings tears to their eyes. Recently, it has become fairly common for surviving family members to contact aviation archaeology groups in an effort to locate crash sites to help bring some type of closure to these families. As a group, we have been successful in making these connections, and in expressing our gratitude in helping with this effort, many aviation archaeologists have spent a lot of their own money, time, and research establishing and building memorials at these sites. It is an expression of their own respect for these families. With 396 photos, most in color. A Merriam Press Aviation History.

Weather, darkness and twists of fate have contributed to more than three hundred airplane crashes in San Bernardino County, California. Many of these accidents occurred in the vast Mojave Desert, others on the cloud-shrouded, snow-capped mountains of the largest county in the lower forty-eight states. Searches often were labored yet fruitless, even for the privileged: Frank Sinatra's mother perished here in a downed plane. The quest for an aircraft containing $5,000 in cash has become the stuff of legend. Tales of survival in uninhabited, rugged landscapes have been especially harrowing. Join renowned aircraft-crash search specialist G. Pat Macha for dozens of sorrowful, triumphant, touching and surprising true stories of those who lived through the ordeals of plane crashes--and others who didn't.

Merriam Press Aviation History Series First Edition 2017 In the past decade, the role of aircraft wreck hunting as a hobby has changed more toward protecting crash sites as memorials, honoring those whom were lost, bringing closure to families, and placing memorial plaques in honor of those who were lost in these tragic accidents. For those of us who are offspring from the World War II generation, we feel an ever stronger sense of respect in honoring those that gave their lives for such a great cause. There is a strong sense of responsibility for us in keeping their names alive, and maybe it might be that we are the last real link to them. As youngsters we witnessed the war heroes that received a lot of attention especially those involved in the flying world, but it was sad to think of the aircrews that were lost states-wide whose names were never known. They never had a chance to fight a war, but they were just as much a hero as anyone else. Just think of where they might have gone in life. Contents: Chapter 1: Grand Coulee P-63A Kingcobra Chapter 2: Feathered Engine: A B-24's Failed Go Around Chapter 3: "Tommy's Tigator" Chapter 4: United Flight 173: Portland Oregon Chapter 5: Missing F4F Wildcats Found Chapter 6: Mid-Air Over The Olympics Chapter 7: General Aviation and Unidentified Sites Chapter 8: "Dutch Roll" Sheds Engines From Boeing 707 Jetliner Chapter 9: "Firewood One" Chapter 10: B-47E Refueling Technique Turns Night Mission Into Disaster Chapter 11: "Article 123" The Cover Up Chapter 12: Speed Brakes: A Fatal Consequence to a Sabre Jet Forced Landing Chapter 13: High Altitude Stall Downs P-47D Thunderbolt Chapter 14: Controlled Flight Into Terrain Chapter 15: Failure of Engine Turbine Wheel Severs Aft Fuselage from F-86D Sabre Chapter 16: Mid-Air Break-Up: The Touchet B-24 Tragedy Chapter 17: Broken Connecting Rod Ends Airacobra Night Flight Chapter 18: The Salish Peak F-89s Chapter 19: Ejection From F-86 Sabre Jet Conforms With Fire Warning Light Chapter 20: Echelon Formation Creates Airacobra Collision Chapter 21: Blackbird's Night Training Mission Goes Awry Chapter 22: Mystery Solved: Super Sabre Found Hundreds Of Miles Off Course Chapter 23: Inclement Weather: A Trap for a Vultee BT-13 Chapter 24: Snow Storm Dooms B-25 On Mt. Timpanogos Chapter 25: Phantom Jet Disappears On Routine Training Mission Chapter 26: Regina Airlines DC-3: Attempt at VFR Flight Proves Fatal Chapter 27: The Dakota Crewmen of Sulphur Mountain Chapter 28: In Weather Over Mountains And Out Of Gas Appendix I: Washington State Crash Locator List Appendix II: Oregon Crash Locator List Appendix III: Idaho Crash Locator List Bibliography and Suggested Reading 36 B&W and 313 color photos