http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/new-image-holds-key-hunt-5819555

Hello James, I am afraid that one is strictly off bounds…it is in a small unofficial ‘museum’ in the Solomon Islands near Tambea Point, and there’s no way anyone is getting it out of there….believe me, I used to dive in that area and knew some of the local people, and they are not parting with it for anything…besides, I last saw her back in ’98, there’s been a civil war since then, and even the road getting up there is gone now….and besides, she was originally salvaged from the ocean, the just stripped of the guns, so while she in intact, apart from that guns, she is dissolving in aluminum powder…all the would be good for is for wing templates, the Allisons and all the rest are simply now returning to the earth as powder….and I would not like to go into that ‘museum’ built by the locals, modest as it is – just a jungle clearing – and have a go at moving it. I doulb these days you would get out alive, no one even goes up there to dive the B-17 wreck, ‘Bessy the Jap Smasher’ or the Bonegi I and II wrecks because of inter-tribal bickering. Nope, she’s there for good. If you have the time and money, there are a lot of wrecks in the mountains around Henderson Strip – where commercial aircraft still land – but the Solomons is not like New Guinea, even if she was in top condition, they would not grant a permit to move her.

Steve if you dont plan on recovering the p38H you mentioned tell me were it is and i will see that it is brought back to the states and restored instead of rotting away . nothing pisses me off more that people that allow intact vintage planes to turn to complete garbage for no good reason other than they dont have the resources to complete anything. james w

Which P-38 are you referring to Sam, I imagine it is one of the ones off the Aleutian Islands offf Alaska? If it’s the one in the Solomon Islands near the ocean at Tambea Point at the small ‘museum’, you can forget about it, the pilot put her down in the ocean before the end of WWII, and the aluminium has corroded to powder in most places…it was salvaged about 40 years ago, the guns taken and then left to the elements. She’s not worth moving, even if the locals would let it go…she’s no ‘Swamp Ghost’, the folks there would not let anyone move her, even if she was in recoverable condition…I’ve been there many times, and while it is a shame to see her melt away into dust, there’s no way of getting her out. Everything I know of in the Aleutians is in deep, very, very cold dark water, hence their reasonable condition….one just needs an oilfield work-class ocean vessel – probably $20,000 a day – and a big bank account to have a go!

With respect John, sometimes it takes somewhat more than putting one’s money and time where one’s mouth is; one can stand to lose a heck of a lot of money and have a wide-open and very stunned mouth to show for the risk taken for zero reward in a high-stakes game.

Calculated facts based on percentages and extensive study of the game one is playing is needed if one is going to sit down at the table and risk the lot. Dreaming is great, but it’s not enough most of the time.

I never knock anyone for dreaming, and I still hope they find what they are looking for, but as the saying goes, ‘..it is great to dream….now put the foundations beneath the dream.’

Ask anyone at a hold ’em poker game who has tried to take on a very,very possible flush routine showing to the player you are betting against – even the slightest doubt is enough to make one fold then and there – when one is hoping to draw a full house, which even if one draws it, the hand won’t win the game if the other bloke draws the flush cards; it’s a low-percentage play.

A full house of aces is a great hand, but if the other bloke is holding an open-ended flush routine, he has eight chances – four cards either side – of beating you – that’s a heavy risk bet.

Watch ‘The Cincinnati Kid’ sometime, it’s all down to that one queen.

Here’s the play: Edward G Robinson draw the 8 of diamonds and the Steve McQueen the 10 of clubs. Robinson bets $500 and calls. Robinson gets the queen of diamonds and McQueen the 10 of clubs.

McQueen bets $1,000 and Robinson raises $1,000. McQueen calls. ( I would have folded then, as Robinson obviously is looking like pulling a straight flush, the first loss is always the best one.)

Robinson draws a 10 of diamonds and McQueen gets the ace of clubs. McQueen bets $3,000 as he has just filled his full house and Robinson calls.

Robinson’s next card is the 9 of diamonds, so he has the 8, 9,10,and queen of diamonds; McQueen gets the ace of clubs he needs to fill the house, but he isn’t sure, so he checks. Robinson bets $1,000. McQueen raises $3,500 in an attempt to bluff him off, but then Robinson plays the sucker punch and raises another $5,000. He agrees to take McQueen’s marker and McQueen calls.

Robinson turns over the jack of diamonds for a queen-high straight flush. McQueen turns over the ace of hearts, he’s got aces over tens, a great full house, but the queen high royal routine closes it out.

An old gambler taught me the way to win consistently is to ‘fold early, and fold a lot’ and it’s always been a fair stand-by. Boulder opal mining is one of the highest risk mining games going, and there’s no way I would dig a massive cut with a dozer and excavator and pour 60 drums of diesel into it unless I had drilled the whole location and knew there was at least enough there to pay for the cut.

Facts, figures and research is the secret to winning high-risk games, and even then, no one can count on drawing that jack of diamonds….

As I said, I wish them all the best and hope they turn up what they are looking for….the foundations of the dream are beginning to look very unstable thought, one must admit

Indeed. I have no expectation of any a/c turning up. I think this sums it all up quite well:

http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/national-news/3953-myanmar-s-phantom-spitfires-how-a-legend-was-born.html

Unfortunately, there is a big difference between believing and actual facts…..I’ve been a gemstone miner for a long time as well, and if I believed every story an old timer told me where ‘the others had missed the main run of opal’ I would be a millionaire….it’s a nice story, but I don’t see the facts thus far.