Question about a crashed plane...

[I_FLY_LOW]

OK, here's the deal.
I had a 57' PA-22-20-150 Pacer.
Loved it...
Sold it a few years later.
Got curious to it's wherabouts several years ago, and popped the tail number in the ntsb database.
I found where it had crashed at a small airport in Arkansas, possibly on the way back from Oshkosh, iirc.
I can't seem to find anything saying that it was returned to service, or anything.
I called up the OKC FAA office, and filed for their records on the aircraft.
Finally got the previously listed owner's info, and tried to get in contact, to no avail.
I'd love to know what happened to the aircraft afterword, and see if it's still around, or shoved off into a dark corner of a hangar somewhere, forgotten about.
What happens to planes, when they get totaled, or someone throws in the towel, and there's no aircraft re-registration on it?
I'm kind of at a dead end, and would like to maybe try and find the plane, and see what shape it may be in, if there's anything left to salvage, by now.
Any ideas??

This was it in it's former glory...



Circa 1994...

[gbrasch]

Wow, what a beauty. I had a similar experience with the first plane I owned, a 61 Piper Colt. Tracked down the last registered owner who returned my letter saying they never owned it, and that was a official FAA record, so I hit a dead end. I hope your search is more successful than mine was.

[martymayes]

There are several places to start: If you have the serial number and/or last registration number, request the CD records from the FAA. Any major repairs or alterations recorded on Form 337 will be there. Potentially lots of leads in the form of names and addresses. If you have an idea of where the plane was based, call FBO's and look for people that may remember the plane or mechanics that may have worked on the plane. If you have an idea of when and were it may have crashed, search local newspaper articles from that time period for plane crash info.

Did you live in La when you owned that plane? It looks vaguely familiar. Many years ago at Don Babin airport in Prarieville, there were lots of restored classics around. Ah the good ole days.

[I_FLY_LOW]

I did/do live in Louisiana.
Back then that was in Shreveport, at Downtown Airport (KDTN).
The plane was originally a Tri-Pacer that was hangared at the former Lucien Airfield (F33).
Steve Culp bought it, ferried it to Shreveport Downtown Airport, and proceeded to do a complete ground up resto/conversion on it.
Class A job, all the way, and won Grand Champion Custom Classic, at Airventure in 93', iirc.
Here's an article on it, page 20:
http://members.eaavintage.org/wp-con...March-1994.pdf
I got my PPL, towards the latter part of 94' and dad decided we should get our own plane.
We did some shopping around, and found little more then the usual spam can cessnas, like I learned to fly in.
We had met Steve previously while we bummed around the airport, doing the local EAA thing, and whatever else we could get into, at the time.
Happened to mention we were looking for a plane, something in decent shape, preferrably well maintained.
He told us he had a plane for sale (I had no idea which one he was referring to).
We went back to his hangar, and there it sat, under low light.
My jaw hit the floor. (Palms started to sweat, too, as I haven't flown a single minute as PIC, in a conventional gear aircraft, until then)
Dad asked how much, and I was waiting for some gigantic price, based on what other planes we were looking for were selling for at the time.
Needless to say the answer was something that made our day, and my dad bought the plane, and I was his chauffeur.
In about 5 hours of training, I had it figured out, and got the most memorable compliment of my entire (though short) flying carreer, from Mr. Marion Cole, on how well my landings, were.
In 96' pops passed away, I wanted to buy it really bad, but it just wasn't in the cards, at the time, and later on we (4 other siblings involved in the succession, yadda yadda) sold it.
I know who bought it, and they had it until it's last NTSB entry previously mentioned.
Getting ahold of them, has been difficult (as in no luck at all).
They were older (60's at least, I would guess), when they bought the plane, then, add another 18 or so years to the clock, who knows if they're still around, now.
I may revisit the CD records, idea.
I didn't think about 337 records, and such.
That's a great idea.

Small world and all, funny you should mention Babin's airport.
I have a real close friend that kept a green and white 182, next door to his good friend who owns a tundra tired red and white super cub.

Here's the Super Cub, in it's current home, in Slaughter, LA:


Owner of the Super Cub, Mike, on the left, Richard, that had the C182 on the right.


That airport, as you may well know, has been sold, and redeveloped into housing... ugh..
Small world for someone to mention that little strip, out of the blue.
I have a few memories from years past spent down here in the Red Stick, hanging out at that little airport.
I didn't live here, then, but I miss the place, nonetheless.

The only closest thing to it, now, is Regional Airport, (L38) in Gonzales, and it just doesn't have the home town airport feel to it.
For that matter, neither does KDTN.
Not long after my pops passed, it seemed like the whole mood changed out there.
Nothing related to him or his passing, just the timeframe.
It seemed to have gotten cold, hardly anyone hung out at the hangars, anymore.
90% of the crowd we hung out with were retired 55-60's+, and I've heard of different ones passing, throughout the years.
Access got more difficult there, especially post 9/11, so if they were hanging out, it's an act of congress to go see them.
I pass through there on occassion, when I'm up that way visiting friends and family, and man, has it changed.

[martymayes]

Okay, I remember the Pacer now. Shouldn't be too hard to track it down.

I'm a Louisiana boy as well. Familiar with the airport in Slaughter dating back to when Dr. Piker owned it. I grew up just a few miles S. of there in Baker. I know the hangar your buddy has. I worked on 3-4 hangars out there when they were under construction. John Ashley used to have to good fly-ins at that airport with homemade ice cream. It was great.

[wacoc8]

I don't have any info on your Pacer but I am based at Slaughter along with Mike Thibodaux and his Super Cub. Have not seen Mike lately but come by sometime and visit. Here is a picture of my Waco in front of my hangar, which I bought from Bennie when I moved to LA about 5 years ago. I wish we had more activity, but it is what it is......



Marty, John stills lives on the strip but he sold the airport a couple of years ago to Jason Bliss. He told me some of the stories about the local activity......sounds like ya'll had a good time....some of it was even legal!

[culpspecial]

I built that back in the early 90s and it was an Oshkosh Champion in 1993. Great plane! I saw Younkins at Oshkosh in 1990 and thought it was such a cool plane. Purchased the gear conversion from Univair and the fun began. I flew it quite a bit and really like the speed. My mentor Marion Cole did the first flight with me after I built it. Will try to download pic.
I traded another plane to Doug Harvey at Lucian Field in south Shreveport. I later sold it to Phil Gill which is the guy in the picture. It was damaged while another guy was doing the annual and later sold to someone in AK that wrote it off. I did see it at Oshkosh after it was rebuilt by the guy that purchased it from Phil and it looked pretty sad. I was told it was a take off accident and the gear was wiped out after hitting a ditch.
There is an air to air photo at my Culps Customs site.
Steve Culp
Culp's Specialties
www.culpsspecialties.com
Culp's Customs
www.culpscustoms.com

OK, here's the deal.
I had a 57' PA-22-20-150 Pacer.
Loved it...
Sold it a few years later.
Got curious to it's wherabouts several years ago, and popped the tail number in the ntsb database.
I found where it had crashed at a small airport in Arkansas, possibly on the way back from Oshkosh, iirc.
I can't seem to find anything saying that it was returned to service, or anything.
I called up the OKC FAA office, and filed for their records on the aircraft.
Finally got the previously listed owner's info, and tried to get in contact, to no avail.
I'd love to know what happened to the aircraft afterword, and see if it's still around, or shoved off into a dark corner of a hangar somewhere, forgotten about.
What happens to planes, when they get totaled, or someone throws in the towel, and there's no aircraft re-registration on it?
I'm kind of at a dead end, and would like to maybe try and find the plane, and see what shape it may be in, if there's anything left to salvage, by now.
Any ideas??

This was it in it's former glory...



Circa 1994...

[I_FLY_LOW]

Well hello, stranger!
Thank you for popping in, and posting up!
BTW, I am Phil Gill...

[I_FLY_LOW]

Well, got the records from the FAA, today.
Looks like AOPA insurance bought it as a total loss in July of 2000.
It has an address listed in Gladewater, TX, but no name of the new owner, unless it's a salvage yard AOPA insurance had it delivered to.
Google didn't turn up anything useful when I put in the address.

[WLIU]

Airnav shows an airport in Gladewater. And the online yellow pages show some aviation businesses. Start there?

Best of luck,

Wes
N78PS