L-19 in Green Lake

[cweimaraner]

I'm sorry for not posting right away, but I'm out of town and only have a pitiful internet connection.  But here is the jist of it...

1st off, I didn't want the plane to be recovered, however... it still would have been brought up with or without me or any of the other county dive team or other divers involved.

2nd off... it was the best diving day I've ever had.  It started off around 8:00am.  We loaded up two pontoons full of divers, a pontoon with underwater video equipment and underwater commo, a two pontoon lifting vessel and several other boats.

Once we got out to the site, which was bouyed off the night before, we tied off over the plane and sent down a diver with video and commo to record all the gauges, position of rudder, etc....  Next we sent down two divers to hook up the special made harness to the top of the plane, this was to help lift the plane evenly.  Upon finishing that, myself and another diver went down to secure an aleron that was broken and recover the rudder which was laying under one of the wings.

The plan was to put back on the door (which some divers removed), and close up the interior (broken windows) so that when we were to move the plane underwater the personal stuff and interior stayed in tack.  However, after examining it, the pins were damaged and I couldn't get the door back on, so I brought that up next.

Next we started lifting on the harness with a 8,000lb winch connected to an a-frame with scale so that we didn't exert too much stress on the plane.  It came off the bottom with ease an made it's short but slow journey to the bottom of the pontoons, which is where we secured it for the trip to shore. 

With the plane now suspended under the pontoon, I methodicaly remove all the interior under the guidance of an archeologist with underwater experience.  Items recovered were, two parachuts, seat, log book, possible the wallet or checkbook of the pilot, electric razor and various other personal items.  All items were put into tubs of water and that is all I know of it.

Now we made the slow drive back to shore, only about .48 miles to the landing.  This is where the real work started.  We got the plane into about 8 feet of water, but were still a ways from the landing, where a crane awaited us.  Since the wheels were gone, we had to secure some tow-truck dolleys to the landing gear.  This proved to be quite challanging as nothing fit.  We had to get some parts fabbed locally in order to get the dolley properly secured.  Once this was done, we put a 200lb lift bag on the rear of the plane to keep the back from hitting and placed about 6 rubbermaid plactic containers upside down and filled with air, 2 in the cockpit, and two under each wing.  This was done to make sure we had the proper support.  We then tied the tow pontoon to a tow truck winch on shore and pulled the plane within the cranes reach.  We hooked up the crane and moved the plane close to shore.  It was now around 10pm and we called it a day!  I had to leave town the next morning and haven't been in touch, but I will update this forum when I get back home next week.

There was a ton of people there all day and it really was a community event.

Jim