Seaplane recovery in an alpine lake

John Rawlings · Post by **John Rawlings** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 7:08 pm

Last October a seaplane crashed in Lake Isabel, which is located East of Monroe near Gold Bar and the Skykomish River. The pilot and his passenger swam to shore and were able to bushwhack their way out despite their injuries. The pilot swore that he would salvage his plane and that it would fly again.

Two problems: there are no roads or even official trails into the lake, and the plane was resting nose-down in mud at around 200 FFW.

Utterly determined, the owner and his friends have hauled and flown literally tons of gear and equipment into the lake, from folding boats and outboard motors to lift bags and tools. They had all the stuff....amazing amounts of stuff, actually.....now they needed a diver capable of reaching and working at those depths.

Enter NWDC member Curt McNamee.

Curt called me last week and asked me to come with him on this adventure. I'm dealing with some viscious bronchitis right now, so diving was out of the question....what he needed from me was surface command and control, which I gladly offered.

I'll probably tell the tale in a future issue of ADM, but for now suffice it to say that after two dives and the use of three 3000 pound lift bags, the aircraft was raised! It is now sitting in shallow water at the other end of the lake awaiting repair work by the owner and his crew....all of whom are overjoyed. Kudos to Curt for some outstanding deep recovery work!

Here are some pics:

This is the TINY-ASS little seaplane that I was flown into the lake with. Curt got to fly in a larger plane with all of the dive gear. My knees were almost touching my chin! HA!

Here's the final approach down into the lake itself:

Here's "headquarters" at the Eastern end of the lake. The plane on shore is the one that Curt arrived in while the one on the right in the water is the one that I was in.

Here's a shot of Curt right after I clipped his bail-out bottles to his harness and he is pre-breathing his CCR. We were out in the middle of the lake on a small but stable raft on pontoons, located almost directly over the sunken seaplane.

Weighted down....but ready to go!

The descent begins:

Other photos will have to follow later....neither of us was there when the lift bags finally pulled the aircraft free from the muddy bottom as we had to fly out before darkness arrived.

They called us the following morning from the trailhead to shout success over the phone!

A long, tiring day.....but really, REALLY worth it!

- John

Joshua Smith · Post by **Joshua Smith** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 7:18 pm

OK, That's the coolest thing I've seen or heard about in quite a while. Thanks for posting!
A couple questions-
How were the lift bags inflated, if Curt wasn't down there with them? Some kind of remote control?
Was Curt the only diver involved?
Did this opperation cost more than buying a new plane?

This absolutely looks like a great ADM article!

John Rawlings · Post by **John Rawlings** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 7:38 pm

Nailer99 wrote:OK, That's the coolest thing I've seen or heard about in quite a while. Thanks for posting!
A couple questions-
How were the lift bags inflated, if Curt wasn't down there with them? Some kind of remote control?
Was Curt the only diver involved?
Did this opperation cost more than buying a new plane?

This absolutely looks like a great ADM article!

The lift bags were inflated gradually from an air compressor powered by a small generator on the pontoon raft. Each 3000 pound lift bag had its own color-coded air line attached to it, and each bag was at a different depth. There is no way that Curt could have inflated them at depth - not only would it have been physically impossible, it would have been insanely dangerous. I wouldn't even allow the generator to be started until he was safely out of the water, equipment off, and physically checked out.

Yes, he was the only diver to enter the water. Diving was out of the question for me, although I would have LOVED to dropped down with him if I could have done so. Open circuit would have required WAY too many heavy tanks and stage bottles to do the dive, and a second dive would have been out of the question for OC simply due to the fact that the seaplanes were so small that very little equipment could be transported in. This was a job that cried out for the use of a CCR, and it worked out extremely well.

Believe it or not, no, all this is NOT as expensive as a new plane....apparently this one is pretty top of the line and everyone involved considers it to be worth it all.

- John

sparky · Post by **sparky** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 7:49 pm

Thats realy Wild Curt your an animal !

I would have loved to been there just to see first hand all the stuff that it took to make this happen

John thanks for shareing this with us First

Sparky

DiverDown · Post by **DiverDown** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 8:01 pm

So who located the position of the plane?

jackieg · Post by **jackieg** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 8:19 pm

John - I am sure there is a "rest" of the story lurking in those photos. Sigh....I shall have to wait for the Advanced Diver article..

and you are correct - that is a TINY ASS airplane to fly into the Cascades!
Holy Cow! You are my new hero. Years of Alaskan bush pilots flying me about and I still would have had a hard time in that one.

Glad that all are back safely, and...for what it is worth...that the muck released the salvaged plane to a more manageable depth.

Well done, Curt!

Jackie

thelawgoddess · Post by **thelawgoddess** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 9:06 pm

wow; nice work - very cool story ...

Ken G · Post by **Ken G** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 9:25 pm

Wow..... Thats an amazing story. It must have really been a great experience. I am looking forward to seeing the rest of the photos.

Thanks for sharing it with us.

Maverick · Post by **Maverick** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 11:15 pm

sweet story john.
Mav

Sergeant Pepper · Post by **Sergeant Pepper** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 1:25 am

Thanks for taking us along John.

Grateful Diver · Post by **Grateful Diver** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 5:39 am

John, you get involved in the coolest adventures ... I'm eager to read the article.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

John Rawlings · Post by **John Rawlings** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 6:52 am

DiverDown wrote:So who located the position of the plane?

They already knew approximately where it was because the pilot/owner clearly remembered where they had crashed, (the lake is deep but not that big). They also had dropped down a video-cam to search for the exact location, and marked it with a float when it was found. I later used that same camera on dive # 2 for Curt to signal me when he had the harness secured and it was time for the topside crew to cinch it tight from the surface.

Thanks, everyone, for the comments. I was involved....but this time it was as a surface honcho and pencil-pushing geek. Curt is the real star of this particular show.

Heck....he HAD to do something exciting this past weekend! His wife, Mel, is off diving the Andrea Doria! This way they can BOTH swap stories when she gets back! HA!

- John

Jan K · Post by **Jan K** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 7:00 am

Get Off Your Butts and Explore!

You are sure true to your maxim John, great story of a interesting venture, thanks for sharing.

dsteding · Post by **dsteding** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 7:07 am

Very cool John, I too look forward to the article.

I have to ask, is the plane a Beaver? I know people will go to great lengths to recover those when they crash.

Are they going to use a helicopter to lift it out of there?

John Rawlings · Post by **John Rawlings** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 8:35 am

dsteding wrote:Very cool John, I too look forward to the article.

I have to ask, is the plane a Beaver? I know people will go to great lengths to recover those when they crash.

Are they going to use a helicopter to lift it out of there?

The plane is a floatplane version of the Helio Courier. Here's a link to the company's description of the aircraft:

http://www.helioaircraft.com/ourplanes_courier.htm

Once the plane has been lifted to the surface, drained, and additional on-site work on it has been performed, it wil be taken out by helicopter.

- John

girldiver · Post by **girldiver** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 8:36 am

Can't wait for the story!! Showed the pics to my co-workers (non-divers)...they thought that was "hella cool"!

And the idea that the original guys not only got out of the plane...but then bushwhacked their way out of there...WOW!!

Very cool life you lead Mr. Rawlings!!

dsteding · Post by **dsteding** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 9:13 am

John Rawlings wrote:
The plane is a floatplane version of the Helio Courier. Here's a link to the company's description of the aircraft:

http://www.helioaircraft.com/ourplanes_courier.htm

Once the plane has been lifted to the surface, drained, and additional on-site work on it has been performed, it wil be taken out by helicopter.

- John

Oh yes, that would be another one that people would go to great lengths to recover . . . very cool.

Pinkpadigal · Post by **Pinkpadigal** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 9:46 am

I am curious...how was vis? I love diving in mountain lakes because of the awesome visability. I would imagine that if vis was good, once underwater, the plane was easy to spot.

Zen Diver · Post by **Zen Diver** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 11:48 am

Wow John, awesome adventure and I can't wait to read all about it in ADM.

-Valerie

Curt McNamee · Post by **Curt McNamee** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 12:12 pm

The lake is very deep and dark, but the vis on the wreck was actually very good. I had no problem seeing the airplane, however I did have a problem seeing the bottom.

The bottom is very simular to Lake Washington, you don't even see it then all of a sudden you are in the muck.

On the first dive, the plan was to put a lift bag line on the propeller. When I got down to the wreck, I could not even see the nose because it was buried in the mud.

By the time I fooled around trying to find things, the visibility started to go away. So I decided to survey the rest of the plane for a new attach point with the time I had left.

What I found was that the float struts were still attached to the bottom of the fuselage. This became the new place to attach a lifting harness.

After a 2 1/2 hr surface interval and re-rigging the lift bag system, I was able to do a second dive.

This time the dive went just as planned. When I got to the wreck, I found the end of the lift bag system with the new lines to attach to the float struts. I hooked the lines to the struts and started back up. My second dive time was 35 minutes.

It was really nice to have a plan come together and it was the last chance to get the job done

.

A great thanks to John Rawlings for the surface support that I really needed to pull this off

. I would not have even thought about doing this without his help.

I will post more information as this adventure unfolds.

Curt McNamee · Post by **Curt McNamee** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 12:42 pm

The other thing that was interesting about these dives was that they were done at a 3,000 ft altitude and in fresh water.

Using the proper dive software for an altitude dive, the bottom line was that even though I was only going to 195 ft the dive plan was using 220 ft for deco calculation. I also did some extra time at 10 ft just to make sure.

After the dive, I needed to wait as long as I could before flying out. We only had to go up another 500 ft to get out of the lake. Once I was below 3,000 ft, it actually helped with the safety of the decompression.

Alot to think about and very interesting.

Sounder · Post by **Sounder** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 12:44 pm

And you both got what I'm sure was an absolutely beautiful float plane ride! I remember the first time my uncle took me up in his float plane, how beautiful the scenery was, and how much different a water landing is from a dry landing!!! Sounds like a great time.

Curt - how long after your last dive did you wait to fly out?

LCF · Post by **LCF** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 1:22 pm

What a very, very cool way to put your equipment and skills to good use. A great story.

Curt McNamee · Post by **Curt McNamee** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 11:09 pm

Sounder wrote:And you both got what I'm sure was an absolutely beautiful float plane ride! I remember the first time my uncle took me up in his float plane, how beautiful the scenery was, and how much different a water landing is from a dry landing!!! Sounds like a great time.

Curt - how long after your last dive did you wait to fly out?

It was about three hours after my last dive before we flew out.

Sounder · Post by **Sounder** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 8:12 am

Wow. I figured you'd spent the night or something. I'm really interested in the flying after diving thing. I understand that the rule of 24 hours (air) and 18 hours (nitrox) is to cater to the lowest common denominator, but 3 hours doesn't seem very long.

If you'd had the option to fly later, would you have? What kind of altitute do you think you were at (assuming you were in a non-pressurized plane). I guess if you weren't that high then flying concerns aren't as much of an issue.

Could you expand on this a bit? Maybe John could weigh in too? I'm interested.

Northwest Dive Club

Seaplane recovery in an alpine lake

Seaplane recovery in an alpine lake

Lake Vis

Altitude Dive