clovus

I was looking for a profile of a P-38 for a project when I came across this interesting little snippet of info.....

* One of the most remarkable flying survivors is a P-38 named "Glacier Girl". On 15 July 1942, six P-38Fs and two B-17Es were flying from Greenland to Iceland on a leg of a trans-Atlantic shuttle to Britain when they ran into a blizzard. They turned back to Greenland but the base was socked in, and they were forced to belly in on the Greenland icecap. One P-38 flipped over on landing but none of the aircrew received any serious injuries, and in fact the aircraft suffered very little damage. The aircrew were dropped survival gear and rations and were hauled out by dogsled about ten days later. One pilot threw the keys of his P-38 on the fighter's seat for anyone who wanted to recover the thing later.

The eight aircraft of the "Lost Squadron" forgotten until 1981. Two Americans, an airplane dealer named Patrick Epps JR and an architect named Richard Taylor, were chatting. Taylor owned a Learjet but told Epps he really wanted a P-38. Epps replied that he knew where six were, and said they would be like new. All they would have to do is shovel some snow off them.

They mounted a number of expeditions to find the machines, finally locating them in 1988 with ice-penetrating radar. Epps knew they would be buried in ice, but everyone was astounded when they found the aircraft at a depth of well over 86 meters (250 feet)! This was more than Epps and Taylor expected and they were not able to follow up the matter by themselves. Ultimately the project to recover the aircraft passed on to a Kentucky businessman named J. Roy Shoffner.

A series of expeditions used a hot-water drill to bore down through the ice and reach the aircraft. The recovery crew went down to a B-17 first, which turned out to have been crushed by the weight of the ice, but then they tried one of the P-38s and found it in excellent condition. They melted out a cavern around the P-38, dismantled it, and brought it to the surface in August 1992.

The P-38F was transported back to the US and was brought back up to operational trim after 50 years in the deep freeze. Although the airframe had suffered some damage under the ice, about 80% of it was still usable. The aircraft was given the appropriate name of "Glacier Girl" and returned to the air on 26 October 2002.

Here is the link:

http://www.vectorsite.net/avp38.html

Strange co -incidence?? I think not......Can GG confirm or deny this?
clovus

Glacier Girl

My Feedback: (4)

Glacier Girl Lives!!!!!!!!!!!
Shows up at many air shows, and can be seen at her home base too.
Check out the site. www.thelostsquadron.com for more info and photos.

tims880

Awsome!!!!!!!!!!!!

soarhead-RCU

The historychannel has made several hours of documenteries of how this airframe was recovered from deep in a glacier.. There were also 1 or 2 b17s in the area that crashed also but they havent figured out how to get them up or they are too far gone maybe to recover them. Also a show on the restoration after they were brought up and its re-maiden flight after all those years. Im sure if you are really interested you can buy DVDs of the shows. Those guys went through hell to bring them up and back to life. Had a lot of drive and patience so we (the public) can enjoy it..........
Bob

ea01bg

GG Hobby Lobby has a P-38... it could have your name on it AND be authentic.

clovus

GG,

I know you have a P 38... now it all makes sense..

Is it still flying?

ea01bg

Don't have it yet, its one of two options I'm looking at for my winter project plane (P-38 or B-25 from Hobby Lobby). I just thought it would be a hoot for you to be FLying a P-38.

clovus

Hey ea01bg,

I might have confused you. I meant to ask Glacier Girl if he was still flying his Glacier Girl P-38.

I thought the whole expedition story was very cool anyway.

clovus

Glacier Girl

My Feedback: (4)

I have 3 of them. My Guillows conversion, and the 52" and 90" Nitroplanes ones.
All sport the GG nose art.
And yep, white version of the GWS is winging it's way to me. GWS looks like an early variant like GG was, instead of the later versions that I have now.

Glacier Girl

My Feedback: (4)

If you go either route, give me a holler. I can save you a lot of grief on the B25.

ea01bg

GG,
I'll be sure to do that Thanks.

clovus

GWS have a P38 coming out??!!

Sigh, I suppose I better break out the credit card again....he he

Thanks for the photos Glacier Girl, nice,very nice.

clovus

rifleman_btx

Yeah man, I really want to see what that P38's gona be like. I want one... that is my next favorite plane! Next to the Hellcat.