Friday 11 April 2008

Reims Cessna 310 F G-ARMK or Douglas Boston Mk.III Z2186?

Reims Cessna 310 F G-ARMK or Douglas Boston Mk.III Z2186?
Havoc/Boston:Pen yr Oleu wen
Originally uploaded by seansonofbig2

We had a visit to Snowdonia yesterday, not to the best wreck sites there, but to satisfy Mick's desire to climb some bigger hills. These are from the third biggest hill in Wales, so he was reasonably satisfied.


This first wreck site matches descriptions of that of an A20 Havoc/Boston which was reportedly cleared by the National Park Authority, but this reasonably sizeable component remaining on Pen yr Oleu wen does not look like the engine mounting from a Havoc that our source led us to expect.

The item photographed is marked with three numbers: 538488;2 and 8-31-61, if that helps anyone to know what it is. Comments by Alan Clark below support my suspicion that this is a flat-6 engine crank case, rather than an engine mounting. Such a crank case would be similar to that in the Continental IO-470-D engines to be found in a Cessna 310 F. All of the crash sites we have recorded in the area are for radial engined craft. Cessna 310 F G-ARMK did reportedly crash "near Bethesda" in 1968.

Snow hampered our search, but we visited four sites reportedly previously marked by substantial wreckage from this Havoc, with no finds other than this, and an odd bit of plastic, which I will post later..

Location:SH 66645 62266

More info:Boston

More info:Cessna

4 comments:

Peak District Air Accident Research said...
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Peak District Air Accident Research said...
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Sean said...

Yes, it didnt look like an engine mounting to me, more like the crankcase from a flat-6 engine. What was confusing before we heard about the Cessna was that all of the crashes we had listed were radial engined..

Thanks for that, will research further and make appropriate corrections.

Arjayempee said...

The GR I took for the Cessna in 1970, not long after it happened, was approx SH670626. It is not too hard to imagine the engine making its way from this GR to its current position, with the help of gravity and human intervention!