Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: jigsaw on October 30, 2004, 12:30:36 AM
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Just saw it on the news and on their website. She'll be leaving on the 1st. I'm going out early Sunday to get some pics.
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I've got four pics of her from the Dayton airshow a year and a half ago.
Give me an e-mail and I'll shoot them to you. :)
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An awesome effort and a great tribute to the guys that served and to the fine old gals who flew the sky in WWII. The documentary and footage of the recovery is one of the most enjoyable pieces to date.
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Glacier Girl
by: Megan Kopp
Fifty years, 268 feet of crushing ice, thousands of gallons of scalding hot water and she still had air in her tires.
I sat entranced in the small Middlesboro, Kentucky hangar turned museum as Project Manager Bob Cardin described the journey to recover "Glacier Girl" -- one of the P-38 Lightening warplanes of the infamous "Lost Squadron". On a wooden bench nearby, retired businessman J. Roy Shoffner sat quietly, watching the last minute touches being put on the fully-restored fighter. It was his dream and financial resources that lead to this three-part adventure of discovery, recovery and finally... flight.
The story began in July of 1942. Operation Bolero's mission was to ferry planes from the United States to support war efforts in Britain. At the height of World War II, six P-38F fighter planes and two B-17 bombers were crossing from Maine to England. False weather reports sent the entourage off-course and, running short of fuel, the planes were forced to make an emergency landing on Greenland's Icecap.
Pilot Brad McManus attempted to land his "Lightening" bird with wheels down. The plane flipped, but luckily McManus was not seriously injured. The remaining seven planes landed safely. After 10 chilly days the 25 airmen were rescued. The planes, including the P-38's, with only 74 hours of flight time, a mere 62 days old, were left behind.
Fifty years of snow, 35 to 50 feet a year, turned with time and pressure to ice, burying the fledgling fighters. A score of expeditions attempted to first locate and then recover the buried birds. None succeeded. In 1983 the planes were located by subsurface radar. In 1992, fifty years after the P-38's first landed, yet another recovery attempt was launched.
Retired military officer and entrepreneur J. Roy Shoffner put up the capital to finance the expedition (working with the Greenland Expedition Society), but he also was responsible for finding a project manager capable of pulling it off. He chose Bob Cardin, ex-military as well, but more importantly a natural leader. They'd need
the edge to wrestle their target from its icy prison.
Where previous recovery crews attempted to chip a solid out of their way, Shoffner's team took a different tact. They changed the solid to a liquid and began a meltdown of the ice, drilling a hole with 180-degree water, descending at the laborious rate of 2 feet/hour.
At 268 feet they finally reached a plane. "It was like sliding down a soda straw..." said J. Roy of his half-hour journey down into the belly of the glacier, lowered on a cable attached to his body harness. Landing on the tip of one wing was an eerie feeling.
The crew now faced the daunting task of melting the plane out of an ice cube, disassembling the frozen fuselage and raising the fighter to the surface, piece by piece. "Pretty slippery working conditions," noted Bob Cardin, who spent up to 18 hours at a time working in the hole.
After 14 weeks it was time to leave. The expedition did not come cheaply. Total recovery costs: $638,000. But where others had failed, Shoffner's team had the satisfaction of leaving with a ccomplice P-38 to restore.
And what a restoration they faced! "After we took off all the broken pieces, we had nothing left," said Cardin. Chief mechanic Robbie Grosvenor took on the daunting task of getting "Glacier Girl" (as they dubbed her) flight-worthy again.
Each piece was evaluated. Did it need to be straightened? Rebuilt? Replaced? After 10 years of hard labor they managed to salvage 80% of the original aircraft. On October 26, 2002, Glacier Girl taxied down the Middlesboro, Kentucky runway... with a little of that original 1942 air back in her tires... and took flight for the first time in 60 years.
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Originally posted by jigsaw
Just saw it on the news and on their website. She'll be leaving on the 1st. I'm going out early Sunday to get some pics.
Prepare yourself to see what may be the finest aircraft restoration in the world today.
And please, if Mr. Roy and Jim Cardin are there, make sure you thank them for doing it. Cardin devoted ten years of his life to that plane exclusively, and Mr. Roy spent well in excess of $4.5 million on it. They are two of the best people you'll ever get to meet in your life.
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Originally posted by Captain Virgil Hilts
Prepare yourself to see what may be the finest aircraft restoration in the world today.
On what are you basing that statement?
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Originally posted by Bodhi
On what are you basing that statement?
Several years of careful inspection of aircraft restorations. Not to mention the fact that "Glacier Girl" beat some of the finest restorations in the world at one of the most prestigious air shows in the United States for the Rolls Royce Trophy.
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Originally posted by Captain Virgil Hilts
Prepare yourself to see what may be the finest aircraft restoration in the world today.
And please, if Mr. Roy and Jim Cardin are there, make sure you thank them for doing it. Cardin devoted ten years of his life to that plane exclusively, and Mr. Roy spent well in excess of $4.5 million on it. They are two of the best people you'll ever get to meet in your life.
She is indeed a beautiful plane. In better shape than some "off the line" GA planes I've seen. Even the paint on the props looked like it'd just been put on. Makes me wonder if they fly or truck her to different locations.
Neither of the gentlemen you mentioned were there. I was actually a bit surprised at how few people were, but I've no idea what their regular weekend draw is. When I was paying admission, the gentlemen at the counter asked if I was there to see her. When I said "Yes" and told him I'd just heard about her on the news, he smiled and said he was very glad they'd gotten the last minute publicity.
I was a bit surprised that they didn't have any merchandise for her. I'd have bought a t-shirt.
If anyone is interested, I can post a few pics later. Didn't get around to anything but pulling them off the card earlier due to working on stuff from yesterdays shoot that has to be ready by next weekend.
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Yes, please throw us some pics up to drool over.
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With Mr. Roy's poor health, I'm not terribly surprised he did not show. However, I am surprised Bob Cardin (dunno why I called him Jim, must be all the medication I'm on) was not there, that plane is only out of his sight when he's asleep.
Steve Hinton flies "Glacier Girl" everywhere she goes, he's the ONLY pilot allowed to fly that plane.
It is VERY odd they did not have merchandise with her, they have nice top quality stuff they sell at fair prices.
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What piece of the Glacier Girl does Dave Talichet own?
IKON
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To the best of my knowledge, Mr. Roy Schoffner owns "Glacier Girl", and no one else. He took over funding for the expidition, and then the recovery, to the tune of over 1/4 million dollars. Then he spent $4.6 million and over ten years on the restoration.
There may be some pieces of the plane that were not repairable that are owned by other people, as there was a lot of trading done in order to get the plane restored and flying.
For example, one of the prop blades is on the P-38 in the Bong Museum. Cardin needed a good blade, and the Bong Museum needed some sand tires, so Cardin traded them the blade that couldn't be repaired and some tires he had traded for and got a useable blade in return.
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does it have the same type of engines the original P38f had?
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Originally posted by Flyboy
does it have the same type of engines the original P38f had?
It has its original engines, original turbochargers, and even its original guns. It is believed to be the most original P-38 in existance.
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Here's a quickie pic. I'll put more up as I have time to process them.
(http://www.r-cooper.com/fly/pics/DSC_0841b_600.jpg)
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Originally posted by Captain Virgil Hilts
It has its original engines, original turbochargers, and even its original guns. It is believed to be the most original P-38 in existance.
wanna bet?
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Originally posted by Bodhi
wanna bet?
If it isn't, which one is? Meaning a restored flyable P-38.
According to Bob Cardin, Glacier Girl retains some 90%+ of its original components.
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You can see the turboes in the picks, but I bet they are not hooked up.
I read on their web site they want to fly it the whole route from the US to the UK, like it was supposed to durring the war.
I hope they do not try, they seems way dumb.
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The show I saw on Glacier Girl's restoration showed them manufacturing many parts by hand because they couldnt be repaired, especially the metal skin. 90% original? That might be a bit exaggerated.
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More pics. Probably wont get around to posting any others.
(http://www.r-cooper.com/fly/pics/DSC_0853.jpg)
(http://www.r-cooper.com/fly/pics/DSC_0855.jpg)
(http://www.r-cooper.com/fly/pics/DSC_0862.jpg)
(http://www.r-cooper.com/fly/pics/DSC_0864.jpg)
(http://www.r-cooper.com/fly/pics/DSC_0866.jpg)
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Bodhi!
Share what you know man, the suspense is killing me!
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Originally posted by GtoRA2
You can see the turboes in the picks, but I bet they are not hooked up.
I read on their web site they want to fly it the whole route from the US to the UK, like it was supposed to durring the war.
I hope they do not try, they seems way dumb.
When I saw it with the covers off of everything, the turbochargers were hooked up, and when I was talking to Steve Hinton and Bob Cardin, they both said they were. I know the sound of a turbocharged Allison, they sounded right to me as well.
Yes, they do want to fly the Bolero mission. I don't know if Steve Hinton has the time to fly it.
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It would an incredible tragedy to lose the plane and Hinton on something like that....
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Originally posted by Captain Virgil Hilts
If it isn't, which one is? Meaning a restored flyable P-38.
According to Bob Cardin, Glacier Girl retains some 90%+ of its original components.
Ask him to lay it out on paper some day as to what is and isn't original...
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Originally posted by GtoRA2
Bodhi!
Share what you know man, the suspense is killing me!
Pay attention to the mags in about 6 months...
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As for Glacier Girl, I think it is a nice restoration, and is historic at that. The one thing that does agitate me though is when people say it is "the best restoration ever"
That is just plain not true. It is a nicely restored historic aircraft, but frankly, it is historic for one thing, and one thing only. It suffered an operational loss, it is not even a combat vet. It was a brand new airplane that got lost in a storm, and ended up getting stricken. Don't get me wrong, I am not cutting on Cardin or the restoration, I just do not feel it is "the best restoration ever" or that it is the most authentic P-38 in the world.
Either way, it is nice to see the aircraft fly, and, as Schoffner funded it, he should get to do whatever he wants with it, including flying the Bolero Mission if it's what he wants.