EISPIRATEN

Photos I took today 1/27/2019
https://tinyurl.com/194909F51D

I have a parts manual for the P-51D and have Identified the parts in some of the photos

Glad you found it. Do you have any other sites you're actively searching for, or was this the only one?

the local wrecks I have looked for :
12/24/1944 "Mt Gleason" B-24 liberator in fall creek. I did find some small bits scattered down the creek. There is 2 other wrecks associated with this site 1 BT-13 crashed while observing the recovery of the crew and a much later beechcraft? that crashed while circling the site circa 1975. This was on fire as it headed in from witness statements. I had some good photos of the recovery process for the crew, I pretty sure this was salvaged and hauled away being close-(ish) to a road. The B24 had a history of leaky fuel system and generally was flow with the bomb bay doors open to clear fumes from the plane. Was it closed on this cold Christmas Eve after gunnery and bombing practice at Muroc dry lake?

"Dunsmore Cyn" BT-13 looked extensively for this one even from a helicopter the actual site is likely in one canyon to the east on private land in ward canyon. Some of the steel fuselage should be there

6/26/1969 Dunsmore Cyn Mooney Mk21, I have heard from longtime area residents tales of an engine and other parts but I have not found them

7/6/1944 Lopez Canyon P-38

1/12/1937 Boeing 237 Los Pinetos this was largely intact and certainly salvaged leaving a microsite

5/21/1960 Los Pintos BT-13 highly unlikely any of this remains except a few small shards

9/22/1960 Josephine Peak F-104 . There is little doubt where the plane hit the mountain. I have not seen any wreckage despite a couple trips. Would like to hike up near to where the impact site is

Matt - I had no idea you were on the hunt for these things. Not sure if the attached images will help. Serial number from a wing part.

Wing:


SN:


Also a piece that looks like it came from the tail, but I am in no way experienced in IDing anything like this.






This adventure got me interested in looking for the P-38 that went down Nov 1944 in the area. Attached is a .pdf of the crash report for that one if anyone would like to look at it.


-Kristin

Thanks for the report. The site is in an area "with peaks and ridges varying in height from 3000ft to 5600ft" and is "10 miles NE of Van Nuys". The latter is probably off by ~ 50%. I want to say I saw an old newspaper article that said that the wreckage was covered with dirt instead of being removed, but I can't find it anymore. This thing could be anywhere.

What about looking for the C46 in Wildcat Gulch that went down a week later? Lots more in the newspapers about that one.

K_Sabo wrote:This adventure got me interested in looking for the P-38 that went down Nov 1944 in the area.

Now is certainly the time to invest effort on this, because the recent fire has cleared so much of Little Tujunga. Unfortunately the report doesn't give a very precise location. 10 miles NE of Van Nuys is around the entrance to Little Tujunga, below Gold Creek. So that's probably wrong. The flight leader followed the troubled plane into a valley and watched it crash into a mountainside. So it's probably on a south-facing slope of a mountain. The cloud ceiling was around 3000', so maybe below that elevation. Though the report says they dropped through an opening in the clouds from 6000'. So, who knows?

Kristen
Yeah I've been wreck chaseing for years after I stumbled across the stone canyon BT-13 and caught the bug

The other wreck on Yerba Buena is a F-86 on the very steep big tujunga side sadly it was salvaged so there isn't much there. There was a big wing section a few years ago and some scattered wreckage . This was nonfatal as the early jet engine failed, the wwii ace turned into the unpopulated area and ejected . Local boys along with many others visited the site, the boys liberated one of the mangled 50cal machine guns which prompted a visit by federal athorities ? according to local lore

The other wreck of note in the area is F89 Scorpion microsite from the midair collision over sylmar , this site is I La Tuna Cyn