Patsy Cline Airplane Artifacts-3

Airplane Artifacts Part 3

Fall 2001

Bill Knight wrote to me last August, "... A rather large (6 feet+) section of the right wing of the plane has surfaced. I talked to the owner the other night.... I told her I would help her authenticate the piece. I believe it is the same piece that is shown in the newspaper articles hanging up in the tree, the same piece that was spotted first by the searchers. She says the person who recovered it got it out of a tree, after most of the rest of the wreckage had been collected by various people. It was hung up with the cables and limbs and was difficult to get down.... The color sure matches up, and I think the piece is consistent with a Comanche. I can tell from the picture that it is certainly the right wing because of the taper, and the side where the control surfaces are normally mounted is still intact." (The lady has since sold this piece to a man in Texas.)

You know what, Bill? It is extra painful to look at these pics of the right wing, because Patsy was sitting on the right side... it's like this is her wing. This would have been one of the last things she laid eyes on.

Winter 2001

Bill wrote to me again. "Things still continue to happen regarding plane wreckage. I got a call recently from an old fellow from Camden who had heard about me and said he had the propeller from Randy's plane." Bill flew down in February to check out the propeller parts, and sent copies of these photos to the New Piper Aircraft Company in Vero Beach ~ the Piper museum in Lockhaven, PA had referred Bill to them for research on Randy's aircraft.

Recently this spring, Bill wrote the following:

"I finally got a hold of someone sympathetic to the notion that this project was something worth their time. I have been talking with the guy who is in charge of crash investigations for Piper. I find it a little worrisome that they have a whole department for crash investigations, since I fly a Piper. They do not actually conduct the investigations, but cooperate with the NTSB. I told him about the one small report on Patsy's crash and told him that the FAA and NTSB claim there are no other records available. He said that would most likely be true, as they do not keep records going back that far and, at the time of Patsy's crash, the investigative agency was the civil aeronautics board (CAB). I sort of knew that.

He is sending me the data on Randy's Comanche. Actually, it sounds more like a bill of material that manufacturers use to make various products.... He said that plane was a 'prototype' or 'demonstrator' of some kind. Anyway, I asked him to compare the serial number I sent him with the propeller numbers on the specs and they do match up. So, the old guy in Camden (with the propeller) has got the real McCoy. I called and left (the propeller owner) a message, and as soon as I get the documentation, I am going to send him a copy so he can prove authenticity.

From here, I guess I need to get down there and look it over and get some more pictures, because I noticed something odd in the pictures he sent. The propeller blades are bent forward, away from the plane, instead of toward the plane, based on how the propeller normally mounts. You would think if the impact came from the front, the blades would be bent back toward the plane cabin. I am still pondering that one. Anyway, I will be in touch when I have further to tell you...."

Special thanks to Paul Lehman, Manager of Air Safety Investigations at Piper Aircraft in Vero Beach Florida

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