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CCI Newsletter, No. 38, 2007

Site to Shelf: Recovery of a Historic Aircraft from Charron Lake, Manitoba

by Nancy Binnie, Conservation Scientist, Conservation Research, CCI

On July 4, 2005, the F.A.R. Team¹ (working on behalf of the Western Canada Aviation Museum [WCAM]), located a rare Fokker Standard Universal bush plane on the bottom of Charron Lake in northern Manitoba. The plane had been submerged for almost 75 years, and after such a long time in cold water had likely suffered significant deterioration. A thorough understanding of its construction materials would therefore be essential if recovery and conservation efforts were to be successful. In February 2006, Shirley Render, Executive Director of the WCAM, contacted CCI for assistance. The plane was to be raised in the summer of 2006, dismantled, and transported to the WCAM in Winnipeg. This underwater aircraft recovery would be one of only a few such projects in Canada to be planned and carried out by a volunteer group, the F.A.R. Team, rather than vocational archaeologists. CCI’s role would be to advise the recovery team and the museum.

Fokker Standard Universal G-CAJD, built in 1928, took off from Winnipeg on December 10, 1931, heading north with a cargo of supplies for a party of gold prospectors at Island Lake. It never arrived. On encountering snow squalls and poor visibility, the pilot decided to land on the frozen surface of Charron Lake to wait out the storm. When the plane touched down, its skis broke through the ice. The pilot and his mechanic escaped unharmed but were stranded for several weeks before being rescued near Little Grand Rapids as they attempted to walk back to civilization. The plane remained frozen to the lake until the following spring, when Canadian Airways Limited tried to relocate it for repair or salvage. By then the plane had slipped below the surface as the ice broke up, and the damaged plane could no longer stay afloat.

An insurance claim was filed (and paid out), and no further attempt was made to locate the wreckage.

The WCAM began its search for the plane in 1975, conducting nine expeditions over the years. These expeditions were sponsored by George T. Richardson, son of aviation industry pioneer James A. Richardson — who had owned 12 of the only 45 Fokkar Standard Universals ever built. Success finally came on July 4, 2005, when the F.A.R. Team located the wreck using side scan sonar. The plane was “parked” on the bottom of Charron Lake at a depth of 38.4 m (126 ft.).

When Shirley Render approached CCI, she was looking for information about temporary on-site preservation of metal and wood, appropriate protective packaging for the wreckage as it was transported back to Winnipeg by helicopter and transport plane, procedures for stabilization and display of the aircraft after transport to the museum, and options for conservation including associated costs. After initial discussions, it was decided that CCI could best assist by preparing a conservation plan² that would “walk” the museum staff and volunteers through the issues and requirements for the recovery phase, surface assessment, cleaning, transport, and laboratory stabilization.

This plan would be prepared from the perspective of an archaeological recovery and would include information on the predicted condition of the fabrication materials. CCI staff³ with expertise in the treatment of waterlogged wood, corroded iron, textiles, and deteriorated modern materials would use their knowledge of these materials to develop and describe suitable treatment and handling methods for the submerged wreckage. In return, the information gained from the recovered aircraft would contribute to CCI’s understanding of how heritage aircraft wreckage deteriorates. The project was also in keeping with past CCI work involving artifacts recovered from waterlogged sites such as shipwrecks or wet land excavations.

The report that CCI subsequently prepared for the WCAM included:

• a preliminary inventory of the known construction materials and assembly techniques used in the Fokkar Standard Universal
  
  
• information on the expected structural condition of the plane after 75 years underwater that was obtained from video of the wreckage taken in 2005, and from viewing the wreckage of several other aircraft fuselages at the Canada Aviation Museum
  
  
• predictions of the condition and stability of the aircraft construction materials and structure that were made based on discussions with Parks Canada archaeological conservators and scientists, published rates of deterioration in scientific and conservation literature, and observations from previous archaeological field projects
  
  
• a detailed list of conservation supplies for use in the field
  
  
• recommended practices for artifact inventory
  
  
• packing methods
  
  
• special requirements for wet materials such as paper documents (logbooks and manuals) and waterlogged wood
  
  
• options for treating waterlogged wood once it arrived at the museum

Recovery operations were carried out from July 2 to 21, 2006, during which time there were as many as 21 people at the Charron Lake outcamp, a fishing lodge operated by Selkirk Air. One of those present was Clark Seaborne, who had previously restored a Fokker Super Universal plane to flying condition for the WCAM. He was invaluable in identifying the recovered materials and construction details. At the invitation of the WCAM and the F.A.R. Team, I was on-site from July 8 to 12 to carry out a condition assessment of recovered materials and assist in taking inventory, packing, and preparing artifacts for transport. During this period, a number of pieces of the aircraft were raised using underwater vehicles operated remotely from the surface. These included two fragments of wood spar caps with plywood fragments, brass nails, and yellow paint (part of the wing structure); and a 4-m length of aluminum conduit enclosing electrical wiring to a polished brass landing lamp (including an intact light bulb) and a wing light. By examining these pieces, we were able to make preliminary conclusions about the condition of the solid wood, plywood, brass nails, adhesives, paint, and other materials yet to be retrieved. Unfortunately, none of the steel tubing from the fuselage was recovered at that time.

On July 12, I transported the raised pieces back to the WCAM in Winnipeg, first aboard Selkirk Air’s twin Otter float plane and then by car. The next day I described site operations at Charron Lake to museum personnel, unpacked the transported artifacts, and discussed the probable condition of the remainder of the aircraft materials based on the recovered artifacts.

Museum preparators, other staff, and volunteers were ready to receive the recovered artifacts. Led by Director of Restoration Tony Morien, they were left to carry out inventory and cleaning, to start stabilization treatments, and to develop a restoration plan that will enable the WCAM to exhibit the remains of this rare plane as soon as possible. CCI will provide a condition assessment, analysis of materials, and development of conservation treatment for materials where the museum restoration staff require assistance.

Following my departure from Charron Lake, some volunteer members of the Canadian Amphibious Search Team (CAST), a group of professional divers proficient in surface-air-supplied deep-water recovery, brought to the surface the Wright J-4 engine complete with an intact Hamilton propeller. Prior to removing it from the water, members of the F.A.R. Team photographed and videotaped the engine with its still-attached throttle controls, temperature gage, and magneto as well as other components. These fragile and easily dislocated items were then dismantled, and large and small items lifted and packed for transport.

The F.A.R. Team core members, assisted by the CAST dive team, carried out a second recovery operation in October 2006 to lift the airframe, wing section, skiis, and other dislocated pieces. Using knowledge gained from the July trip, the group assembled additional supplies and conservation materials, and carried out documentation, structural stabilization, and packing of all recovered materials. These recovery attempts were only partially successful. Some artifacts were recovered and a portion of the airframe was dismantled and lifted to a protected shallow-water location, where it will remain until the next recovery attempt scheduled for 2007.

The entire project has been documented by film crews for the WCAM, Country Canada (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), and Mega Moves (National Geographic; Windfall Films of London, England). Information is also available in Altitude (the WCAM magazine)⁴ and on the Web sites of the Fokker Aircraft Recovery Team and the Western Canada Aviation Museum.

The recovery of Fokkar Standard Universal G-CAJD has been a successful collaborative project. The WCAM and the F.A.R. team benefited from CCI’s expertise in underwater artifact recovery and conservation, and gained some insight into the fragility of the wreckage and the importance of retaining the original construction materials in their original context through all phases of the project. In return, CCI gained a better appreciation of the goals of the WCAM in recovery, stabilization, and restoration of the plane. In addition, by having access to the wreckage for inspection and sampling at the time of recovery, CCI gained information that will be useful in its research project on heritage aircraft wrecks.

Endnotes

1. The F.A.R. Team was first formed in 1991 by Patrick Madden at the request of the WCAM. Over the years, he recruited a diverse team of specialists in underwater recovery, geophysics, and remote sensing and underwater photography, core members including Annette Spaulding, Gordon Nowicky, Ken McMillan, and Bil Thuma. For the 2006 site operations, diving recovery, and transport of the wreckage back to the museum, the core team was assisted by John Garstang, John Davis, Jerry Norbert, Mark Rowsome, James Snelgrove, and Nancy Binnie. For the July recovery, a team from the Canadian Forces rigged the recovered Fokker artifacts for airlift by Griffin helicopters to Deer Lake where they were transferred to a Hercules aircraft for delivery to the WCAM in Winnipeg. The October airlift was to be carried out by an A-Star helicopter provided by Provincial Helicopters.
   
   
2. Binnie, N. Conservation Plan for a Fokker Standard Universal Airplane through Recovery Phase, Surface Assessment, Cleaning and Transport, and Laboratory Stabilization of Aircraft. CCI Report 93769. Ottawa, ON: Canadian Conservation Institute, June 2, 2006.
   
   
3. CCI staff who advised Nancy Binnie (principal investigator) or reviewed the report included Tara Grant, Malcolm Bilz, Charlotte Newton, David Grattan, Cliff Cook, and George Prytulak.
   
   
4. Madden, P., and A. Spaulding. “Charron Lake, Ghost-Busted!” Altitude Vol. 31, No. 4 (Winter 2005),
   pp. 4–7.