[meteorite-list] OT: Hunting the Harper - Part #3

From: Robert Verish <bolidechaser_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat Feb 26 07:00:26 2005
Message-ID: <20050226120021.4372.qmail_at_web51704.mail.yahoo.com>

Hunting The ZEL: Part #3
A Tale of Desert Adventure, Crashed Airplanes, and a
Search That Would Never End
 
by Curtis Peebles
© Copyright 1999


 - Try, Try Again (cont'd.) -

When we got back to the Jeep, the three of us had
sodas, with plenty of ice. Merlin then took us on a
tour of historical sites of the Mojave desert, both
ancient and modern. We went to two sites in the hills
north of the lakebed where there were Indian
petroglyphs. These are common in the hills north of
the lakebed, and date from several thousand years ago.
One of the sites was a small hill that had been
fortified. It could still be seen where rocks had been
placed to make walls. From the top of the hill the
whole valley floor and Harper Dry Lake stretched out
into the distance. It was an impressive sight, but
frustrating as well. Somewhere in that expanse of
brush was the debris we were seeking. I was looking
right at the crash site, but I could not see it. We
also visited four aircraft crash sites. They were of
the X-2 and X-31 experimental aircraft, as well as an
F-86H flown by Capt. Joseph McConnell, Jr. and finally
an F-101. McConnell was the top-scoring U.S. jet ace
in the Korean War with 16 kills. In 1954, he came to
Edwards AFB to evaluate a new F-86H. During the
flight, the elevators (which controlled the up and
down position of the plane's nose) failed. McConnell
had to fly the plane using the elevator trim. Rather
than bailing out and losing the airplane, he tried to
fly it back to a landing at Edwards. Several miles
short of the lakebed, the attempt failed. McConnell
bailed out, but he was too low for his parachute to
open. The plane hit a quarter mile away, digging an
elongated crater, and sending debris flying for 830
feet from the point of impact.

The site had been discovered only recently, and we
were among the first to see it. Among the earlier
visitors to the site was Patricia McConnell. She had
been nine years old when the crash occurred. She had
asked Merlin to show her the place where her father
had died. Despite the passage of 44 years, the impact
crater still existed, and there were large quantities
of debris on the ground. The debris field was
fan-shaped. It was easy for me to find the edge as I
walked back and forth. Another particularity was that
the debris was not randomly distributed within the
field. The parts from the forward section of the plane
were closer to the impact point than the engine
fragments, which were near the far end of the debris
field. The F-101 debris was similar - an impact crater
(round this time) with the debris spread across the
desert

This was different from what we expected at the ZEL
F-100. Its debris would be concentrated in the
immediate area of the crash, with only a minor amount
thrown any distance. This made it hard to find; while
the F-86H debris was thrown the distance of three
football fields, we would have to come within a few
feet of the F-100 debris to ever find it

It was Fall before we tried yet again. In the
meantime, higher-quality copies were made from the
video. This was done by Tom Tschida, who, like Merlin
and Moore, worked at the NASA Dryden Flight Research
Center. From the photos, Moore attempted to pinpoint
the crash site. Comparing the overhead photo with a
topographic map, he thought he found a spot. It was
atthe end of one of the channels, where it flared out.
Looking at the map location, I thought it was at about
the point where I thought I recognized the terrain in
the firemen shot. My recollection of the exact
location was, shall we say, heat damaged.

And so, on October 4, we set out once more on the
search that never seemed to end. This time, we brought
reinforcements. The search party was composed of
Merlin, Moore, myself, Tschida, and J. Lynn Lunsford,
a staff writer with the Dallas Morning News. Whatever
happened, the press would be there to record it.
Failure was not an option. We drove out to the general
area in Merlin's white Jeep and what Lunsford called a
rattletrap red Ford pickup. We parked the vehicles,
and got out and walked. We headed south towards the
lakebed, then turned east, forming a skirmish line.
The desert has its own particular beauty, with its
endless skies and distant horizons. It was just that
this particular part of the desert was getting a
little too familiar.

As I said, the area we were searching was very
isolated. However, even here the hand of man was
apparent. Over the course of the next four hours, we
found a Winnie-the-Pooh balloon, three instrument
packages from crashed weather balloons (yes, weather
balloons are real), a tow target dating from World War
II, and numerous .50 caliber machine gun shell
casings. We also ran across one of the local
inhabitants. It was a rattlesnake about eight inches
long, tan with brown stripes, and a really bad temper.
We photographed the rattlesnake as it hid under a
bush, but paid it more respect that the typical
Paparazzi would. After all, how many movie stars have
a poison bite?

In the course of our wanderings, we had covered the
channels where we had thought the crash was located.
This included the area where I had thought it was
located during the previous attempt. Again, there was
nothing. For the first time we crossed the fence line.
All three earlier searches had been west of the fence.
We continued east, then turned south towards the
lakebed, then back west. I think it was Lunsford who
observed that the last time anyone had been looking
for the crash site they were guided by a plume of
black smoke that rose into the desert sky. We had no
such help.

At one point, Moore said, "When I get the hills lined
up, the lakebed is in the wrong place." He continued
"And that fireman is standing on a slight rise where
the dirt is gray, but there aren't any rises like
that." Finally, Moore realized we had been misreading
the photos. We had always assumed the firemen shot was
taken looking nearly due south. With the hills to the
east correctly lined up, it was apparent the firemen
shot was not looking to the south, but rather almost
due west, towards the present location of the solar
power station. We had been thinking that the
intersection of the two lines of sight would form an
X. Instead, the crash site was somewhere along a line
running east to west.

During this period, there was a seemingly minor
mishap. Lunsford was carrying a camera, and he
discovered that its battery had fallen out. He set off
to look for it. At the same time, Moore and I started
walking west, using the fireman photo to determine our
path. We continued until we reached the fence.
Meanwhile, Merlin and Tschida had gone back to the
vehicles to drive them to our location. (They were so
far away that we could no longer see them.)

We were leaning on the fence, looking west. There was
a rise past the fence that, to me, looked promising.
This was in the same area where I had thought the
crash site was on the third attempt. Lunsford was to
the south and east of us.

It was now about 1:30 p.m. and we had four hours
before it would begin to get dark. The day was warm,
but not hot, and there was still plenty of time. Yet,
for all the Saturdays and Sundays we had spent out
here, all the many miles we had walked, we had not
found a single indication we were anywhere close to
the ZEL F-00 crash site. The debris field was small,
and it was a very big desert. Moore and I were looking
towards Lunsford, a small figure in that very big
desert. Moore said, "Wouldn't it be funny if he found
it?" It was a minute or two later, as I recall, that
Lunsford began waving his arms, and yelling that he
had found a piece of metal

Closing in on the ZEL
We ran over to Lunsford to see what he had found. The
fragment was the size and shape of a thumbnail. The
front side was shiny aluminum, while the curved back
still showed traces of green primer paint. This was
the type of paint used in 1950s aircraft interiors. We
were on the ZEL's trail. Lunsford had marked the point
where he had found the fragment with a large X. The
three of us began a circular search pattern. After a
few minutes, I found a second piece of metal. It was
larger, with smears of gray paint. I later found out
that gray paint was used in the cockpit. I thought it
might have washed down from farther north, and I
searched an area close to a rise. There was nothing
there, so I rejoined Moore and Lunsford.

We started walking west; I followed Moore, while
Lunsford was more towards the lakebed. Our pace was
fairly slow, as we looked for any additional
fragments. It was now about 2:20 p.m. Finally, Moore
found another one. We knew we were close, and we
started to walk faster. I began to see a few small
metal fragments scattered on the ground.

And there it was.

(to be continued:-)
Received on Sat 26 Feb 2005 07:00:21 AM PST