Mystery Wreck at Stead

[Faust190]

Re: Mystery Wreck at Stead

so its an Aussie plane ?

[3dWrightBrother]

Re: Mystery Wreck at Stead

Anyone remember when she was "Cottonmouth" and flown by Jerry Janes?

Or why all his planes were given the same name?

Have pics of it as Cottonmouth somewhere- I'll see if I can dig them up
Russ

[Hawker Driver]

Re: Mystery Wreck at Stead

Better than Sea Fuzzy as it was at one time.....

[Smee Again]

Re: Mystery Wreck at Stead

One of my favorite all-time Reno pranks involved that a/c in 2005 when it was raced by Fred Cabanas and called Conch Fury. They were pitted right next to us (RRIII) that year and one morning received a bit of a "modification" to the markings on the racer. It seems as though someone had changed the big CRA"F" (Conch Republic Air Force) down the side of the fuse to read CRA"P" with black electrical tape. The funniest thing was no one on the crew even noticed. They were happily polishing away on the racer, never suspecting a thing until a bunch of us next door began to collectively snicker at the change. They finally got the clue and laughed their a$$es off as well. Not exactly sure who done it, but kudos to whomever it was; it sure was funny.

SA

[SkyvanDelta]

Re: Mystery Wreck at Stead

Does anyone know what the going rate is for a Sea Fury in good cond?

After an accident like that, what happens with the insurance? Does the owner get paid off the value of the plane...? What will happen to the plane? Parts only, scrap, project for the wealthy...?

Does anyone know the yearly cost to insure a plane like that?

That has got to be tough watching your prized airplane go from flying cond to scrap/project cond.

[MRE]

Re: Mystery Wreck at Stead

Hey,Smee,how about Dan surounded by all those round engines.

[Smee Again]

Re: Mystery Wreck at Stead

Hey,Smee,how about Dan surounded by all those round engines.

That was really something. I remember standing next to Denise right before the 2005 Gold race watching the racers run up line abreast on the West end of the field and she says, "Wow! Race 20 sure looks tiny next to all those big radials!" It was like attack of the killer master rods on our poor little 1649ci V-12!

SA

[matthias Dorst]

Re: Mystery Wreck at Stead

This is Matthias Dorst, webmaster of Meiermotors.com South Germany.

MeierMotors/MaxAlpha Aviation Ltd purchased the wreck and they will bring it in the air again. The fuselage is undergoing some work at Sanders Aviation. Of course the ship will be restored in their origin colors in which she served as tugtower over Germany. The German Reg will be D-CACE and she will be reaquipped with a Centaurus engine. The engine is already in the shop of Vintage V12´s, engine-partner of MeierMotors.
meierMotors are planning to bring back the fighter into the air the next three years.

@jan Peters, is it possible to place your fantastic Reno shots of #103 on the MeierMotors homepage ? Would be fine

[Jan]

Re: Mystery Wreck at Stead

This is Matthias Dorst, webmaster of Meiermotors.com South Germany...
@jan Peters, is it possible to place your fantastic Reno shots of #103 on the MeierMotors homepage ? Would be fine

Great news !
I missed to see her fly from Luebeck. Too bad.

Hallo Matthias, ja klar - nutze die Bilder. Viele Grüße aus Hamburg !

[Doug Fisher]

Re: Mystery Wreck at Stead

Updated pictures from Sanders website:

http://www.sandersaircraft.com/restoration_seafury-meier.asp

[RAD2LTR]

Re: Mystery Wreck at Stead

If I remember correctly, our Cessna 175 was parked next to Cottonmouth at the Abbostford international airshow in '86. (I was 9 years old so I might be mistaken. Its been a year or two ) My dad landed and was asked by ground control to exit the active runway (we ended up slotted in between a C5 and the Antonov 224) and proceed across a field to transient parking on the east side of the airport. It wasn't a big deal until we found an unmarked hole where a telephone post had been removed and planted the nose wheel in said hole. The prop was nicely curled by this small inconvienience. After extracting the plane from the hole, we were then told to go park between the silver polished Sea Fury and a P51 in the warbirds area. The engine was still ok so we taxied over and parked as directed. Later on SONY did a VHS video of the airshow (since it was held in conjunction with the Worlds Exposition in Vancouver). They did a flightline pan and low and behold, there is our brown and yellow 175 missing a prop parked between a brighly polished 2 seat Sea Fury and a P51. (It could have been the P51 named Cottonmouth and a different Sea Fury, I really can't remember.)

To finish the story off, we did get the prop fixed and did fly back home to California.

Is good to hear that they are rebuilding the plane. I'm sad to hear its going to Germany.

Will

[Frank C.]

Re: Mystery Wreck at Stead

I believe the Sea Fury Freddie Cabanas was flying was called the " Conch Fury ", owned by a nice fellow named Greg Stewart. He also has, I think, a Steerman which Freddie gives rides in Marathon, Florida. I think it might have been called " Southern Cross " before Greg Stewart acquired it. I am not 100% sure about this information.


Frank C