Missing Piper Tripacer

[guywalters]

Forget the two elderly flyers who are most certainly gone, as nobody in Pueblo seems to care! My new thread is the Tri pacer itself. This is a rare aircraft, much in demand by the bush pilots of interior Alaska, maybe-just maybe someone will search for it for the spare parts value.
If I ever fly in the Pueblo vicinity I will most certainly have on board a GPS locator beacon, one that will transmit beyond the White water rafting or DNC preoccupied citizens of P Town. With great disgust, guywalters@msn.com!

[Zen Curmudgeon]

Forget the two elderly flyers who are most certainly gone, as nobody in Pueblo seems to care!I guess I don't understand your vehemence. News reports from April clearly state the two flyers were experienced but rarely filed flight plans, plans that might have helped searchers locate the plane and passengers. Remember, their disappearance coincided with a spring blizzard, too, despite which ground crews and the Civil Air Patrol pressed forward with a nine day search spanning the distance from Fremont County up to Leadville. A large number of people who didn't know the unfortunate victims risked their own lives in the search. Seems like maybe they did care.

If I ever fly in the Pueblo vicinity I will most certainly have on board a GPS locator beacon, one that will transmit beyond the White water rafting or DNC preoccupied citizens of P Town. With great disgust, guywalters@msn.com!As you say, the "elderly flyers ... are most certainly gone". When trained and equipted search teams fail to locate the plane, what more is there for the average citizen to do? What, exactly, does your disgust require? Aren't you being a little harsh, maybe even a little unreasonable? Or am I overlooking something?

Take Care -

ZC

[guywalters]

I guess I don't understand your vehemence. News reports from April clearly state the two flyers were experienced but rarely filed flight plans, plans that might have helped searchers locate the plane and passengers. Remember, their disappearance coincided with a spring blizzard, too, despite which ground crews and the Civil Air Patrol pressed forward with a nine day search spanning the distance from Fremont County up to Leadville. A large number of people who didn't know the unfortunate victims risked their own lives in the search. Seems like maybe they did care.

As you say, the "elderly flyers ... are most certainly gone". When trained and equipted search teams fail to locate the plane, what more is there for the average citizen to do? What, exactly, does your disgust require? Aren't you being a little harsh, maybe even a little unreasonable? Or am I overlooking something?

Take Care -

ZC A little harsh? I hope so. Until your post I had been unable to find any information about this incident. I'm glad to hear that they are not forgotten but would like to see an update on the search. By the way, I was a member of the Cival Air Patrol in the late forties, before going into Naval Air in 1950. Thanks for the info. GW

[large]

With all due respect to the two elderly pilots, one of whom I knew . . Anyone who flies in the Rocky Mountains in a light Airplane, and does not file a tenative flight plan . . is going to be the subject of a search at some time in their future . . .

The CAP and several Sheriff's Departments searched dilligently for the Tri-Pacer and it's occupants . . but . . . having no idea of where they went from Meeker (the last sighting, they fueled at the Meeker Airport) and the double fact that they were returning over rugged terrain with "Rocks in the Clouds" and flying into a late Winter Storm . . . those two gents actually committed "Suicide" and lots of money was spent looking for the crash site . . (if there is one) . . High altitude hikers or Hunters may find it this summer . . .

And there's plenty of information about it, if you go to the right sources . . but it ends when the search was suspended!

How many hours in the air did you spend looking for them?

[Zen Curmudgeon]

A little harsh? I hope so. Until your post I had been unable to find any information about this incident. I'm glad to hear that they are not forgotten but would like to see an update on the search. By the way, I was a member of the Cival Air Patrol in the late forties, before going into Naval Air in 1950. Thanks for the info. GWThe Chieftain does have a rudimentary archive search function that will return synopses of older articles and textx of more recent publications. Try entering "missing airplane" and you'll get the summaries of articles from last spring.

Take Care -

ZC

[HockeyMonkey]

Looks like the plane has been found. You can read the full story at :

Plane carrying elderly men missing since April found in Grand County


http://www.9news.com/acm_news.aspx?OSGNAME=KUSA&IKOBJECTID=8c7aac70-0abe-421a-0086-67e42c3267bd&TEMPLATEID=0c76dce6-ac1f-02d8-0047-c589c01ca7bf