What's in the middle of nowhere? (Big Spring, TX)

[gooseguy]

Gary,
Great pix! I just joined WIX because of finding your post of Connie Edwards' airplanes. I had long ago found lists of them in the FAA registration database, but had never seen any photos published anywhere, except for an occasional one of the PBY-6A or the Albatross (7226). I am most interested in his Gooses. (The Spitfire is kinda special too.)

Somebody mentioned that the white Goose outside is N322 (s/n B-73). I read an accident report on it that said it got a clogged fuel vent line that caused the engines to quit. Was it scrapped and never repaired after that? What a shame.

I assume that the Fleet Air Arm-painted Goose is N68157 (s/n 1138) because that one was actually a British JRF-6B.

His other two registered Gooses are N3282 (JRF-5 s/n 1110) and N7211 (JRF-5 s/n B-24) but I have no info to determine which is which and there was not a good photo of the second Goose inside the hanger. There were two pictures in which parts of it could be seen. In the first Spitfire photo, it is tucked back behind and under a Goose wing, which happens to have retract floats. The Spit appears to be between and behind the Goose and a PBY. In another photo, primarily of the one Piaggo P.136 seaplane, more of the 4th Goose can be seen, but it is still not a great view of that Goose either.

If you ever get a change to get a better photo of the 4th Goose and to identify each of them conclusively for me, it would be greatly appreciated.

Dave M.
Antilles Seaplanes
Gibsonville, NC

Dave, I am the guy who mentioned N322. I was told by a good friend of mine who's buddy Dennis Buhen visited Mr. Edwards to look into buying it and restoring it, that N322 suffered a bent fuselage when it crashed back in the 80s. Evidently it flipped over on its back. N322 had a landing light mounted in its nose. The white goose has what appears to be a hole right where the light was. Dennis said that it would take two gooses to restore N322.

I hear that your company is building brand new gooses. Glad to see someone keeping the seaplane alive. Good luck to you and your company.

Mike

[Enemy Ace]

Bumpity-bump.
Does anybody know if anything new's been going on down in Big Spring?

[warbird_patrick]

Last I know it was all for sale in 08 when i talked to his son Tex, $10,000,000.00 takes it all.

[ZRX61]

Last I know it was all for sale in 08 when i talked to his son Tex, $10,000,000.00 takes it all.

Bugger! tonights lottery is *only* $8M

Just think how much it would cost to freight everything out of there... I guess if the seller is willing to pay freight it might be ok..

[Obergrafeter]

$10m don't include the amphibs.

[ZRX61]

$10m don't include the amphibs.

Thats ok, I live in the desert

[206stationair]

I've been trying to look into what Connie Edwards has - is there anywhere that has photos of what he's got. As the ones in this post are no longer available

Cheers

[Jack Cook]

Even though Brad paid to keep Gary's photobucket account going
it sadly was lost along with his photos

[Speedy]

Even though Brad paid to keep Gary's photobucket account going
it sadly was lost along with his photos

Wouldn't it have been great if somebody had the foresight to download and save all those pictures of Connie's place while the account was still active because he figured they might come in handy at some point in the future.....or even just for posterity's sake?



I know someone who did. Just sayin'......

[Jack Cook]

Sadly that's what Brad thought he was doing when he paid photobucket

[Steve Nelson]

I downloaded a few..if I'd known they were in Gary's account, I would have saved all of them. Here's what I've got.

SN


*Mod edit: pics removed on request*

[carlisle1926]

Wow! I can't believe that there is that kind of collection in Big Spring.

[Jerry O'Neill]

I hope no one minds, but here's the rest of what Gary had posted:
I hope this helps.
Jerry


*Mod edit: pics removed on request*

[Warbird Kid]

Jerry! THANK YOU for saving these shots! Im sure no one will mind.

[Brad]

Even though Brad paid to keep Gary's photobucket account going
it sadly was lost along with his photos

Actually, somebody will mind. Connie was never fond of these pictures being posted and they should be taken down. Gary was going to remove them and never got around to it.

Gary's photobucket account was hacked or corrupted or something along those lines. I didn't know about it until a few weeks after it happend. From what we were able to figure out, we were locked out of the account and everything was deleted. Nobody else that had access knows why. Photobucket didn't have a satisfactory answer and finally refunded my money when they admitted that the entire account was gone.

I ended up with all Gary's pictures, digital and print, are have donated them to Classics Wings magazine. For over a year now I've been intending to get all of it shipped down to New Zealand and just haven't gotten around to it. Everything is now their property and any use of the pictures should be done with their permission.