I bought a Plane for $5,000 - And it almost killed me...

So I bought this plane for $5k and it just about killed me.
The story on this old bird is it was abandoned at Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage, Alaska. It sat there for years after the company using it to haul fuel and freight around Alaska went out of business.

After years of no one paying the tie-down fees for it, the airport wanted it gone and gave it to the Aviation Museum. The museum in Anchorage was like "oh great, another project, no thanks" and they auctioned it off to raise a bit of money for the Museum. Susan from Everts Air Cargo was in a buying mood and paid $7k for it, with the catch she had to get the thing moved out of there ASAP.
The lovely hot potato airplane then got towed over to the Everts Air Cargo ramp to get it out of where it was rotting away. Unfortunately, ramp space is at quite a premium around airports and a 108ft wide airplane that doesn't fly is not making anyone any $$$. After posting it on Facebook Marketplace with no takers (because the big catch is you have to disassemble it to get it out of there), we ended up with it for $5k and had to get it off the airport ASAP.

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[janhedberg]

I don’t understand. Jimmy Stewart did it in the desert and flew it out!

[jeebusk]

I'm glad it's being saved instead of scrapped,
but still sad to watch...

[maxsmodels]

I know that old 119 was beyond practical restoration but it is still kinda sad to see it pulled apart for the last time. Would love to have flown one. Amazing engineering.

[SonexB_NSX]

My name is James, I am a member of the Atterbury/Bakalar Air Museum in Columbus Indiana. We did a restoration and static display of a C-119. We had the 71st SOS (C-119 Gunship) and the 434th Troop Carrier Wing that also flew the C-119 out of our airport. A couple of us would like to talk with you about any parts (flight deck, avionics, paratainer delivery rail, etc) that you won’t need.

We have videos of the exact opposite, putting the whole thing back together.

Can you share contact info so we can reach out to you?

[rocketman]

Saying "It almost killed me" is like sitting on the branch your chopping off a tree and then complaining when you fall with the branch

[Blowinshiddup]

I was involved in a couple of similar projects years ago- dewinging and moving a Lancaster bomber and a Neptune for our museum, the catch is the wings had to go back on. We did such an awesome job we got volunteered into dismantling a CP-107 Argus, trucking it to the museum and reassembling outside during the snowiest winter we'd had in years... it has a 144ft wingspan.

[MrMarkguth]

Wow, sorry man, but got to say that I’m not surprised someone didn’t get hurt earlier when taking the retaining hubs off the prop without the prop being slung.
As a heavy diesel mechanic and pilot myself it looks like a great project, a bit rough tho, wish I was actually part of it.
Stay safe

[earth]

Second entry. When you called the airplane a "Boxcar" that brought back memories. Back in the 60's in my hometown of Rockford IL I used to see them fly over head in formation I was told they were on their way to an unfun country that was in the news at the time, a lot.

[PikaPilot]

Man, you really gotta take safety more seriously. There were already plenty of close calls and, "i didnt expect that to happen" cuts to imply that there wasnt a whole lot of safety planning put into this teardown

[walt]

I was a FE on C-119’s for 8 1/2 years in the 60’s and 70’s. Our Unit the 130th AW was the very last AF Unit to fly the 119’s and took ours to the Boneyard in September 1975. That one you bought is a C-119L. In early 70’s several C-119G’s were converted to “L”s by removing the 4 blade Aeroproducts Props and converting to a more efficient 3 blade Hamilton Standard prop off of C-121 Connie’s that were already in the Boneyard being scrapped. You will discover that the 119 had a Paratainer drop system that put cargo in drop bags on a rail system and had doors in the bottom of the fuselage that open much like Bombay doors on bombers to drop the paratainers out the bottom. Have dropped a lot of paratroopers at Fort Bragg out of 119’s, (out the back troop doors) they loved jumping the 119’s. I have flown all over South America and even to England and Germany in our 119’s back in the day. I first started flying in C-119C’s that had R4360 “corncob” engines, then the G and L’s that had R3350’s like yours. Rugged old bird ! Fully loaded came in at 72, 000 pounds. It will make a great “motel” 😊 Sure hope no broken bones from that horrible fall ! 😮

[rong]

God Bless you Brother! You take on projects that I and most others can only dream about. Good luck and be careful.

[smithjones]

The folks who said you could just fly it out should be invited as passengers and crew for the occasion. Once you pulled that wing panel and exposed the decades of corrosion it's obvious why this bird will never take to the skies again.

[lucasszymanski]

Awesome video! Love your work good sir! We have one of those Everest Cargo DC6 in our school hangar for maintenance right now. Keep up the great work!

[karaayers]

You should turn the fuselage into a small man cave and use the parts to build up the FOTPhoenix escape airplane mockup. A c119 is close enough to the c82 for us pilots IMO. Show the movie, charge admission, serve food and beer

[lmarkey]

Wow! That property is looking spectacular! Congrats on team new plane and all that hard work! Just amazing!

[travisdepcinski]

Glad to see you bought it. 2 years ago I was in the bidding “war” with the purchaser you bought it from. The museum I guess had enough with it… I’m glad I lost the live action bid! But it was fun and a good story. Also, nice job, honestly you were safe enough for Alaska, especially considering the amazing help you received from the purchaser… Knowing them they probably gave you a week or some deadline to get it off their ramp. ;)

[djpmatchbox]

its impossible to get this air worthy again(nothing is impossible, but you guys know what I mean). Would be really incredible to see this aircraft in the air again. Amazing aircraft sir. Thank you for saving her and not scrapping her.

[davecaron]

Many years ago, I had an NCOIC who was a WW2 Vet, he was in the third wave at Normandy and used to call in P-47s to attack German armor. He later flew as a radio operator on C-119s. Told us a story how they had a runaway prop while flying from Bermuda to Tyndall AFB FL. It vibrated so much, in his words, ”It ripped off the engine, so we feathered the firewall.” They called Air Sea rescue and soon were met by a B-17 with a lifeboat slung under it. He said how they flew in formation for some time, but even with only one engine soon they outpaced the old bomber. The told the rescue plane, unless anything bad happens we will see you back in FL. They had been on the ramp for 20 minutes or so before the B-17 finally made back. I guess those boats created a LOT of drag.

[glike]

The test pilot for this design taught Flight Test class at CPSLO in the 90s, very memorable.

[rogerkober]

Glad you didn’t get severely injured. Doesn’t matter if you’re flying planes or working on them….. Sketchy will get you hurt or killed.