Taylorcraft at War

[Ed O'Brien]

A Taylorcraft piloted by Capt. Norman Kramer and Spotter Lt. Athur Mosher, flying out of Alamosa, CO. Civil Air Patrol... found a crashed B24 Liberator on the side of Mt. Baldy near Taos, NM in the winter of 1942. For 2 days these men braved harsh winter conditions and dropped medical supplies, food, blankets, and water to the stranded crew. On the second day these intrepid aviators actually landed on Mt. Baldy 6 times in adverse condition at 10,300 ft. From the Liberator crew of 10, 9 men were rescued alive. If anyone can figure out anything about this Taylorcraft... (model type, N# etc., serial number...I'd love to know about it.)
With regards; ED OBRIEN

[Forrest Barber]

Re: Taylorcraft at War

Where did you get this information, anything there to add, pictures?

[Ed O'Brien]

Re: Taylorcraft at War

Forrest (re:information)
Taken from the book the Flying Minute Men, the Story of the Civil Air Patrol. Published in 1948. Pgs 152-154. I'm working on getting a list of Airplanes NC#s from the Colorado Wing.
I know the plane was red and black. Perhaps NC44051.
Although I doubt it... (about a 1 in 20 chance as we go through a bunch of material.) (This plane has been restored and is flying in the SW/US somewhere. Records are incomplete at best) We're still coordinating all the information. By the way, I've got half-a-dozen more good stories on T-Crafts during the war. The Civil Air Patrol has a museum at Maxwell AFB in Alabama and Wright Paterson in OH has most of the records... so this will take some time.
With regards; ED OBRIEN

[jstall]

Re: Taylorcraft at War

This story is correct! I wasn't aware of the L-2 involvement, but am familiar with the crash site on Baldy, have spent a lot of time in that area, and particularly back in the mid to late 50's the wreckage was clearly visible
from Midnight Mine, and ghost town North or Red River, N.M. and one of the
propellers was at a local cabin campground call big pine Campground on the
west end of Red River, all bent up and such. it was a rough and high
area, however angles and inclines just below the impact site were relatively
dooable, i.e. maybe 10 degrees or so, and no more, so an airplane could have landed but it sure would have been a rough ride, and interesting to get out, you could however take off "DOWN HILL BIG TIME" and get it out
as the terrain falls off into a valley below.

JS

[jstall]

Re: Taylorcraft at War

If you goto Google and type in Baldy Mountain Crash Site, it will pull up info on this, they called it a Curtis Commando, C-46, I'm not sure what it was
but it swung a big prop!!! saw that for sure, and the wreckage from
about 2 miles away with telescope

JS

[Ed O'Brien]

Re: Taylorcraft at War

My information was a B-24 (not unlike a B17-4 engines, 10 crew) not a C-46 (not unlike a C-47. Crew of 2-3 but carried passengers - so 10 can easily work). BUT, sometimes those things get lost in time. However, the rescue CAP plane was NOT an L2. Likely it was a Taylorcraft B-BL model... CO/CAP flew both. I can't believe they flew these 65 HP T-Crafts daily, on about 30 different routes through the mountains. Liaison, rescue, forrest fire,
saboteur patrol, pipeline scout, on and on... TCraft and Luscombe were the backbone of the Second Airforce Training Command Liaison, Observation, Rescue Squadrons.

I've seen black and white photos of the planes... here is the design in color. Handsome yes... underpowered for
mountain flying... but they did it... every damn day!

http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r68/convair640/taylorcraft.jpg

With regards; ED OBRIEN

[Ed O'Brien]

Re: Taylorcraft at War

My mistake on my previous reply. Of course, the Taylorcraft in question was an L2... K, F, J Model? (side by side) What I meant to say was it wasn't a DCO-65 (tadem set up) which are the L2A,B,M Models. Please continue the discussion and forgive my typing.
With regards;
ED OBRIEN

[Ryan]

Re: Taylorcraft at War

For the prop, I know most C-46s swung four bladed props, but not sure if early models only had three...might be a way to settle that mystery. Anyway...

Ryan

[Ed O'Brien]

Re: Taylorcraft at War

JS/Ryan;
I think you'll find your C-46 story here....

http://www.qnet.com/~carcomm/wreck22.htm

Different mountain (CA not NM), different dates (1945 not 1942)... different events.
I'll stick with my B-24 Dec. 42 Story and now you have a C-46 1945 Crash story.
All the best; ED OBRIEN

[Fred W]

Re: Taylorcraft at War

Hi Ed,
I own NC44051, yes it is red and black and has civil air patrol markings
but alas it is a 1946 BC12-D and therefore is not the airplane in your
very interesting story... I fly it regularly out of Reedley airport in
central California.
Fred Westerling

[astjp2]

Re: Taylorcraft at War

My airplane was in Civillian Pilot Training program in Utah during the war. I have the orignial logs from '41. I had a gentleman come up to me right after I bought it and he told me he flew it back then. That was a trip. Tim

[Ed O'Brien]

Re: Taylorcraft at War

To Fred Westerling; That CAP painted BC12D bird yours is pretty as they come-- If you're ever in the Denver area... I'd love to buy you dinner and take some pictures. Yours is painted just the way the "Mountain Boys" painted their birds in the 40s. These guys ran the 5th largest airline in America... using Luscombes and T-Crafts mostly. I say the 5th largest.... not by tonnage hauled, miles flown, but by take-off and landings. It was a liaison/courier/SAR Service out of Petersen Field, CO. Springs. It flew all over the mountains in single engine 65Hp planes. The only way I figure that could've been done is gravity must've been about half what it is now. I hope we meet one day!
With regards;
ED OBRIEN