Hi! What's a Metal Detectorist doing here you ask?

A Grumpy Old Aircraft Mechanic said: "It's an Emergency release for the side glass in T-6/SNJ canopies with two piece glass." and added: "BTW, I maintain a T-6D, T-6F, SNJ-4 and Harvard Mk. 4 along with a few others..."

And another Grump said: "I've spent many hours staring at that thing." "He is correct."

You know, I was thinking I'd seen one of those things before, but I couldn't remember where. It must have been on the SNJs that we worked on in school.

Rich
 
Hard to keep up, but it's looking real good - would the 63 relate to year made?

You are all wonderful -

molewacker
 
A Grumpy Old Aircraft Mechanic said: "It's an Emergency release for the side glass in T-6/SNJ canopies with two piece glass." and added: "BTW, I maintain a T-6D, T-6F, SNJ-4 and Harvard Mk. 4 along with a few others..."

And another Grump said: "I've spent many hours staring at that thing." "He is correct."
I'll email the photos to Laura - she flies a T6. If this is the same thing on hers, I bet she can email back a picture.
 
Laura said she flies a T-6D and T-6G. She'll get pictures tomorrow. Here first thought was that it was part of a locking tailwheel rather than a side canopy.
 
Laura said she flies a T-6D and T-6G. She'll get pictures tomorrow. Here first thought was that it was part of a locking tailwheel rather than a side canopy.
That's what I thought initially too, but you don't want to UNLOCK a tailwheel lock for takeoff, but rather it should be locked.
 
That's what I thought initially too, but you don't want to UNLOCK a tailwheel lock for takeoff, but rather it should be locked.
If she can find something that looks like that on the plane(s) she flies, we'll know soon enough.
 
63 series part numbers are for a BT-13 or BT-15 aircraft. I'll swing by a friend's hangar later today or tomorrow and take a look at his IPB.
 
63 series part numbers are for a BT-13 or BT-15 aircraft. I'll swing by a friend's hangar later today or tomorrow and take a look at his IPB.

I was thinking it might be the canopy jettison for one of those. I posted the pic to the Vultee Valiant Facebook page. Maybe someone will answer.
 
I was thinking it might be the canopy jettison for one of those. I posted the pic to the Vultee Valiant Facebook page. Maybe someone will answer.
Look closely and I think I see two of them, but they don't have red handles:

bt13-n63884-2.jpg


Here's a better picture:

bt-13b_valiant_08_of_17.jpg
 
By the way, this is Laura in her airplane. It looks like the canopy has the same shape as the BT-13 that might indicate the same latches:

Laura.jpg
 
I'd work my way upstream and try to find the rest of the plane.
 
Outstanding work, fellas.

When's the next puzzle?

Going detecting in N. central WA next week - lots of fly overs from Yakima - :)

Seriously, my totally sincere thanks for everyone's time / effort on this "What is it"

So the vote is for a BT-13 not a T-6/SNJ due to the 63 prefix?
 

No, 60+ miles downstream on Columbia River - my piece was found next to Kalama River near where I-5 crosses - N of town of Kalama WA

Next step for me will be contacting a gentleman named Sig Unander Jr. researches old military crashes in the NW.

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/03/loggers_find_world_war_ii-era.html
 
Keep us posted on what you find out.

Matthew, rest assured that I will keep posting updates - as well as keeping this thread bookmarked. I'm now at "What is a BT-13 canopy latch doing under a tree root on the Kalama river?" Made progress!

Digging out history isn't just done with a shovel - Take care everyone, thanks, chime in with any info!
 
Wow, I'm impressed. Very cool find and interesting detective work.

It's a lot of work and some intelligent guessing, but you might search the NTSB aircraft accident database for incidents and accidents of the relevant types. Area wise, it's harder to get down to the MSH area or upstream on the Columbine river if you found it close enough that it could have washed down the Columbine river. It came off some aircraft and there's probably a record of one having a problem.

http://www.ntsb.gov/_layouts/ntsb.aviation/index.aspx
 
Wow, I'm impressed. Very cool find and interesting detective work.

It's a lot of work and some intelligent guessing, but you might search the NTSB aircraft accident database for incidents and accidents of the relevant types. Area wise, it's harder to get down to the MSH area or upstream on the Columbine river if you found it close enough that it could have washed down the Columbine river. It came off some aircraft and there's probably a record of one having a problem.

http://www.ntsb.gov/_layouts/ntsb.aviation/index.aspx

Thanks for the link!

I really don't know if there is enough tidal influence from the Columbia to push it upstream to where I found it on the Kalama - but a spring melt flood, combined with a high tide (The Columbia has tide changes up to Bonneville Dam.) Note: add water movement research
 
Gosh, bouncing between my MD forum and here -

OK, a thought from fellow MDer - lever falls when canopy popped for bail out?

Looks like independent piece - no need for water movement - washed crash -
 
Hmm. What would you Unlock BEFORE take-off that could also need to opened? Seems odd.

Some type of escape hatch or ???

Gently smiling as he was right to guess an escape hatch....

Awesome detective work. There is a chance this part could come from a plane that no one has found and might now have a better idea of where to look.
 
I found this part, copied and sent it to myself -
USAF Serial Number Search Results

37-458 ... 37-634
Douglas B-18A
MSN 2458/2634




549 W/o Jun 23, 1942 at Nome, AK
551 converted to B-18B. With 59th BS, w/o in Caribbean area
Feb 23, 1943.
552 (MSN 2552) became N66014 then HK-519.
553 W/o Aug 30, 1940 at Kalama, WA ************
554 to N66809
561 to N66272
 
Last edited:
http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=120331

last entry on on this page:

http://www.aviationarchaeology.com/src/dbaat.asp?theAT=&offset=17026

edit: says it crashed 10 miles NW of Quincy, WA

These are the 1944 accidents. I could only find one BT-13 in Ephrata, WA. There might have been more. I think I saw that Ephrata AAB was a bomber training facility, maybe the BT-13 was used there as a trainer. If so, there probably would have been a lot of accidents.

edit: Here's another one from 1945 (top of the page):

http://www.aviationarchaeology.com/src/dbaat.asp?theAT=BT-13&Submit3=Go&offset=450
 
Last edited:
http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=120331

last entry on on this page:

http://www.aviationarchaeology.com/src/dbaat.asp?theAT=&offset=17026

These are the 1944 accidents. I could only find one BT-13 in Ephrata, WA. There might have been more. I think I saw that Ephrata AAB was a bomber training facility, maybe the BT-13 was used there as a trainer. If so, there probably would have been a lot of accidents.

I don't know how far they would range Ephrata is N of Yakima - Vancouver has a historic field, Pearson Field. I will see if they had the BT-13 coming through. Another lead I hadn't thought of.
 
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