Beech 18 Wreck at Sawmill Bay

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jspitfire
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Beech 18 Wreck at Sawmill Bay

Post by jspitfire »

I had a chance to walk over to an old Beech 18 sitting at Sawmill Bay, on the south-eastern end of Great Bear Lake. Couldn't find a registration on it, and haven't been able to come up with any details on how it got there. It's got "Great Bear Lodge" titles on either side, which is the fishing lodge that was based at Sawmill bay until roughly 1987. There's also a couple steel cables around the spar just inboard of the nacelles, perhaps meaning it was slung from the crash site (possibly on the ice?) to it's present location. If anyone knows it's identity or how it crashed it would be interesting to find out.

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snoopy
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Re: Beech 18 Wreck at Sawmill Bay

Post by snoopy »

Email this guy: Bob Parmerter
beech18@stny.rr.com
He wrote Beech 18: a Civil and Military History and knows more than anyone about the history of nearly every Beech 18 manufactured. You can also find him on Beech18.net user is beechbob. If you have a spare $70 I'd strongly recommend his book - it is very well done. He'd likely appreciate a copy of your pictures too...
Cheers,
Kirsten B.
ex Beech 18 driver
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Flybabe
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Re: Beech 18 Wreck at Sawmill Bay

Post by Flybabe »

That's not Hartwell's, is it?
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aurora
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Re: Beech 18 Wreck at Sawmill Bay

Post by aurora »

looks like the corpse was cannibalized a fair bit.
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Re: Beech 18 Wreck at Sawmill Bay

Post by gianthammer »

I think Hartwell was working for Gateway when he crashed, but I may be mistaken
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Re: Beech 18 Wreck at Sawmill Bay

Post by Flybabe »

I don't remember, either - but that's what Wiki says. Not a lot of info "online".
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Re: Beech 18 Wreck at Sawmill Bay

Post by bobo »

I believe I can solve the mystery of the Sawmill Bay wreck.
I flew Great Bear Lodge's Beech 18 CF-GXI during the summer of 1972. The A/C was at Bristol in Winnipeg being converted from wheeled format to a float plane. New Pontoons and mounts were installed, an escape hatch built in the cockpit roof, new radios seats, etc. The outside still looked standard RCAF but she was a sweet flying bird with very low time. I ferried the plane along with members of the lodges staff from the river just noth of Winnipeg to Great Bear Lake on July 4th 1972 with fuel stops in Flin Flon, Uranium City, and Yellowknife. 11.9 hrs of flight not counting the time for fuel stops.
Spent until September taking guests to Minto Inlet for char, Coppermine for char, Holman Isand for fuel and Blackwater lake for grayling.
Returned south to Winnipeg on September 3rd with stops in Yellowknife, Uranium City and Lynn
Lake for fuel Stuck there by weather for 2 days and finally arrived at the base on the Winnipeg River where the A/C was stored for the winter.
In The spring of 1973 Great bear Lodge offered me the position again wanting me to be chief pilot of Minto Airways, (their company based in Canada) but I decided to not go back.
They had painted the aircraft and refurbished everything over the winter and it was with regret that I opted no to go north for the summer.
They hired another pilot (and I use the term pilot in jest) who got lost on the way north and finally figured out where he was when he landed in Hay River. Got his bearings straight and headed for Sawmill Bay on Great Bear Lake. On his first landing there he had glassy water and decided to land heading into the bay towards shore. He was still on the step when he hit the shallows and shoreline and flipped the A/C over basically destroying it. The company hired some mechanics to come in and salvage what was left and later that season barged the engines, wings, pontoons etc. out of there. I imagine the hull of the a/c was pulled up deeper into the trees so later guests would not want to get scared of flying.
Great Bear Lodge was owned by a group of doctors in Sioux Falls S.D. where they also had their corporate offices. Jack Bauer was their manager in Sioux Falls and arranged all bookings of trips etc. Guests were picked up once a week in a DC4 in Minneapolis and flown north with a stop in Winnipeg for customs. They landed on the 7000 foot sand strip at Sawmill Bay, and picked up the departing guests for their flight back to Minneapolis. We used the beechcraft, GXI and another one that was leased to move the guests, their luggage and all fresh supplies that came in on the DC4 to either of the lodges to camps, Bear Island or Nealand Bay. Bob Ostrom, Corpus Christi, TX
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Re: Beech 18 Wreck at Sawmill Bay

Post by Flybabe »

Thanks, Bob :smt023
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Re: Beech 18 Wreck at Sawmill Bay

Post by jspitfire »

Yes Thanks a lot Bob!

That's a great explanation of what happened. I hope no one was seriously injured? Must have been quite an impact to flip it on shore like that.

Jason
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Re: Beech 18 Wreck at Sawmill Bay

Post by bobo »

Jason,
No serious injuries, Generally bumps and bruises. Not sure how the pilot didafter the passengers go done with him.
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Re: Beech 18 Wreck at Sawmill Bay

Post by Siddley Hawker »

Well the lodge was owned by a group of doctors, so he would have been in good hands. :)
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Re: Beech 18 Wreck at Sawmill Bay

Post by swordfish »

Paint seems to be in pretty good shape after 38 years! Must have been a good paint job!
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Re: Beech 18 Wreck at Sawmill Bay

Post by W5 »

Yeah, that was my impression as well. Didn't think that particular wreck had been there that long. I did go into the Sawmill Bay strip a few times in 1981 and remember a few wrecks around the strip. One seemed to be a DC-4, but don't remember a Beech 18.
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bobo
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Re: Beech 18 Wreck at Sawmill Bay

Post by bobo »

All I can say about the paint is that it has not been exposed to raindrops, hail etc. while moving forward at 150k.
Idout if they moved the wreck close to the strip at all but rather pulled it off the shoreline into the trees between the west end of the bay and the east end of strip.
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