Email Collin Tiura ([email protected])
Here are some photos of my latest trip to Nome in Joe’s 180 Cessna. We were looking for a wrecked P-38 World War II fighter which crashed 50 years ago about 100 miles east of Nome.
Nome is 5 1/2 hours in the 180 and my description of Nome is ‘5 blocks wide and 12 blocks long’ and that’s just about it.
We located the wreck from the air and marked it on the GPS, and the only way to get there (a chopper was $350 an hour) was on a quad.
I got stuck 20 to 25 times. Joe only got stuck a dozen times.
I wish I could have taken more photos however. We didn’t get back to Nome until 2:30am. A long day…………started at 6am.
We crossed back and forth on the river for 30 miles down and 30 miles back. Got stranded in the middle once……….it killed both the quads……….that was about 9pm.
We got close to the wreck but kept getting the quads stuck in the tundra, what a bitch and it was getting late so we had to split.
But, it was a hell of a trip.
Then on the way home in the 180 we got hammered by severe turbulence going through Rainy Pass crossing the Alaska Range. We got the shit kicked out of us. I was amazed the wings weren’t ripped of the plane. That lasted almost 45 minutes.
Yea, I’d do it again…………….Collin
