Need Help And Ideas On Salvaging Thru The Ice
 

i need ideas on how to find a sunken cat that is in 120 feet of water and about 4 feet of ice. this cat was lost while winter freight in 1958 and we figure a camera would work for hooking up the cable for recovery. but need something else that would help locate the cat by doing a grid pattern on the ice.
also some new army vehicles went down too. during the war, fish was an important supply of food and new army trucks were used to haul the fish. i went to borrow a picture of the army trucks which i think are cmps, but the fellow passed away and the kids have the pictures now. in the cold canadian water these sunken euipment should come up shine and new.
so any ideas and click on to see my website where i have more info on the sunken cat.

http://kingofobsolete.ca/sterling_SU...AT_WEBPAGE.htm

thansk

Use a magnetometer. THese are readily available. I would suggst that you strap it onto a wood sleigh and tow the sleigh. Should work. A magnetometer supplier might loan you one free of charge just to see how ell this works.

Re: Need Help And Ideas On Salvaging Thru The Ice
 

Short of side scan SONAR or stealing a MAD boom off an Aurora aircraft, if the lake isn't too big I'd identify the most likely point of access and egress onto the ice road, get a GPS, set two waypoints at these areas and drag an extremely powerful industrial or rare earth magnet a few feet above the lake bed, using a depthfinder to both set the depth of the magnet and possibly locate the vehicles. The GPS will be handy if you need to broaden your search into a grid pattern also. Good luck and keep us posted!


:cheers: CHIMO!

I don't know how clear the water is in summer but would it be possible that satellite photographs would be helpful? I understand such photographs are commercially available but don't personally know where.

Roger in Vegas

Spread the rumour a P-51 Mustang, B-17 Flying Fortress or similar made a belly landing during WW2 and it went through the ice. I'm sure someone will come up North with a magnetometer and scan the whole lake for you :D :devil:

H.

thansk i never thought of a plane story, good thinking, LOL

i will check the sat maps in the orning and see what comes up.
also checking it to fishfinders and depth finders too. '

thansk for the excellent info guys.

Ground Looking Radar
 

Ground looking radar is a possibility; I’ve used it on construction projects to determine depth and location of complicate underground utilities. We did a one meter grid on one project and then transferred the paper print out, which looked like a slice through the ground showing cross section of pipes concrete pipe conduit under lying ledge. That was many years ago modern equipment outputs directly to CAD

What are the lake bottom conditions hard or soft. If it is hard bottom then good sonar is likely to be the fastest and cheapest.

Also you might want to check the web for the guys who have salvaged tanks in Eastern Europe several tanks have been pulled up in the last few years. http://www.mil.hiiumaa.ee/2000_09_14...-36/index.html

Also look up finding the Monitor project of US Navy, US Naval Academy and Duke University combination of sonar and ASW equipment. Do you know any Naval reserve types that could arrange a training flight over the lake.

Bradford Washburn, did a detailed mapping of Squam Lake in New Hampshire write – up of that project might be of help.

There is a D-9 Cat at the bottom of a small lake near here which supposedly sank into the soft peat bottom of the lake without leaving a mark.

yes i have sen the tanks those boys have brought up. talk about nice equipment after all those years.
i read a little bit on the ground penatrating radar and that is neat stuff. most of the lakes up here are rock bottoms a sonar would be good to use.

thansk

Why not contact the Western Canada Aviation Museum in Winnipeg? - they have located and plan to salvage the "Ghost of Charron Lake" - the Fokker Standard Universal that sank there in the 30s. They used side-scan sonar to locate it, but it took them a long time. Someone there might give you a contact for one of their experts on underwater recovery. They have recovered other aircraft from lakes as well.

Meanwhile, a magnetometer drag seems like the simplest and most direct way of finding a big lump of metal under water.

Here's their link: http://www.wcam.mb.ca/

thansk, i have had no luck with that air museum,i bought a book on ebay that tells an indian's story in his own words. it as 3 pages of the plane on charron lake. so i phoned the museum several times and told my story on the voice message box and no one ever got back to me. they were searching the wrong end of the lake. if they read the indian story and found all the trappers cabins and search from there they would have found the plane sooner.
i have good luck with the air museum in brandon manitoba and i donate alot of stuff that i find. in fact i have 6 items ready to go down at xmas for the museum. there is a lot of stuff in the north that was military.

i have been reading on these magnetometers and i think i can build one.

thansk

Perfect Solution
 

Here we go. Don't even have to pay postage, we'll just sail over.
Captain Bob

Pin Finder
 

There are all kinds of inexpensive metal pin finders for locating metal. YOu could buy one, maybe off ebay, extend the wires from the sensor head to the buzzer or meter and water proof them. Then lower it down and make grid pattern searches for something metallic. In atmosphere it starts to buzz louder and faster as it approaches metal. At 20 feet from a chain link fence our pin finder would start to sense it.
It may be tough to do good grid search at 120 feet with such a light head though. Maybe a couple of bricks in a bag and taep the wires to the rope holding the bricks. Remember to mark the depth on the rope.
As for hooking up, driver is the only way to go. Advertise fro someone they might do it for the bragging rites.
Sean

thansk guys, lots of good ideas here and my buddy did build a sub from a propane tank that i gave him. i just can't find the picture of it to post. but it would be no good for us because the exhaust and air intake is only so long.

i have been looking in to metal dectors and such. will keep you posted but i did add a list to the webpage on my website on what the PLAN is.

http://kingofobsolete.ca/sterling_SU...AT_WEBPAGE.htm

also we are finding out that there is lots of military stuff sunk in the northern lakes. most of it is planes.

thansk

ok, i finally found the sub picture.

thansk