About a year ago, David Burke asked me what I knew about Deception Island. Back in the eighties, a picture of a DHC3 Otter had appeared in Flypast, so I knew straight away what he was referring to. Well, said David, its still there, still belongs to the British Antarctic Survey, and at some point, they have to clear the island. What did I think the chances were of the museum offerring a home for it??
We hatched a plan – David came up with a proposal, which I agreed, and we sent to the museum chairman, Philip Birtles. Philip set up a meeting with BAS, and in principle, they agreed to our proposal. They would aim to travel to Deception some time in 2004, and collect the aircraft, and bring it back to the UK. By coincidence, Philips son in law was working in the antarctic at the same time, with BAS, so he was able to advise us as to how to proceed.
Not long after, we got wind that some Americans were planning a raid on Deception, with the intention of removing the Otter, and eventually restoring it to fly. Naturally as BAS still owned the aircraft, they were keen to hang on to it, and so mounted their own recovery expedition, and successfully transferred the Otter to another of their bases. From their initial report, we understood that the Otter had deteriorated a fair bit, and was unlikely to be a suitable candidate for restoration to flight status in any case.
The Otter docked at Grimsby yesterday, and will be delivered to the museum tonight. I reckon this is one of the longest distance preservation missions ever mounted in the UK, certainly by a volunteer led organisation. The aircraft will remain the property of the BAS, and will be on loan to the museum for the foreseeable future.
If anyone knows of any parts that could be made available for this interesting project, then I would love to hear from you. We particularly need Engine cowls, a propeller, a fin and wheels to get us started. I will update this thread at the weekend to show the Otter at the museum.
Further information here:
http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/Living_and_Working/Diaries/RRS_Ernest_Shackleton/antarctic2003_2004/27/
Following photos nicked from the BAS site!
By: Stuart - 9th May 2005 at 11:58
Good work, well done to all. Do I take it that the Americans were planning to recover the aircraft without BAS’s permission? Surely that would be theft.
How many Otters are left in the world? Is this the only one in the UK?
Stuart
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May 9, 2005 at 11:47 am