 |
| The
Salvage |
The
morning dive completes the rigging for the lift and Mark starts to
inflate the
lift bags. In eleven minutes the plane
again raises to the surface, this time the torn end of the fuselage
raises high
out of the water.All the lift bags are inflated until the excess pressures is vented and rises to the surface in a surge of bubbles. The aircraft is clear of the river bottom, but is nosed downward. At this point though we now have control of the aircraft and can actually waggle the wings by venting and inflating the outboard nacelle lift bags.
Once
again the team goes
through the grueling task of removing the lift bags from the nacelles,
getting
them ashore to be flattened and prepared for placement.
The lift bags are repositioned and secured
around the nacelles to ensure that they will remain forward of the
center of gravity of the aircraft.
It
turns into another long day. Zak and
John are fighting currents that are running at three knots as the river
flow is
forced between the wings and river bottom. All
but one lift bag is repositioned before the crew calls
it a day from
shear exhaustion.
Before
we head back up to camp a black bear is sighted swimming away from the
little
island that we are camped on. Apparently
all the raucous snoring coming from the tents
after dark has
proved to be too much for the bear to tolerate.
As
the aircraft is almost floating free of the bottom, Mark starts to set
the team
into anchor watches to maintain observation of the B-17 during the
night. Don advises Mark that it won’t be
necessary
as he and Gary Shaw Sr. will keep the night
watch so that the dive team can get the sleep they need to finish the
job.
Pat
has prepared us another fine meal that we heartily consume before
heading to
our bunks. We have control of the B-17
now and tomorrow we should finally wrestle is clear of the water.
Don
and Gary settle in with a fire down at the shore to keep an eye on the
plane.
