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In order by Navy Bureau Number.
Various Trackers, Traders and
Tracers. 147535, 147877, 148750,
152810, 152810 Private Yard at Tucson, AZ next to AMARC, Owned and
operated by United Aeronautical Corporation in North Hollywood, CA May
2009 -
These airframes are used to supply spare parts to those that are still
operating the type worldwide. The photos were taken from outside the
fenced in compound.

One of the many rows of Trackers in the yard.

This is what is left of 152810. It looks like
someone wanted a cockpit section for display.

This is what is left of 147535. It looks like
this supplied wings and tail section to someone.

Unidentified Tracker and Tracer.

Tracker 148750.

Tracker 152815 has supplied a nose gear.

Tracker 147877.
Nine Derelicts: 149260,
149856 152804, were the only Trackers
I was able to identify on site due to the high amount of vegetation that
surrounded the aircraft in March of 2008. The following have also been
subsequently identified as being located here also:
149261, 149270,
149860, 149876, 149888: Private Yard, possibly owned by Wes-Tern,
AZ, St. Augustine, FL.
There are ten S2F Tracker hulks sitting in a residential yard just to the west of
Route 1 just south of the St. Augustine, FL airport. I was able to capture
photos of the ten as best I
could, due to the trees and brush that are growing up among the aircraft.
People had also been dumping their trash in this yard also which can be seen
below.
Records indicate that many aircraft came through St. Augustine to supply the
Turkish Navy with Trackers and no doubt spare parts. Aircraft have been
either at the St. Augustine Airport or at this storage yard since 1986.
What a story these aircraft could tell if only they could talk!!
The property is currently up for
sale as from information gained in late 2009. Also, the property has
apparently been cleaned up and the vegetation cut down. For December 2009
photos of all 10 Trackers go to:
Grumman Tracker S-2 Boneyard 12-2009

This is what you see from Route 1 looking west;
Photos taken 3-14-2008 just after sunrise. It was overcast also.
133090: Columbia Airport,
Columbia, CA May 18, 2009
This particular Tracker operated most of its CDF lifetime out of the
Columbia Airport as Tanker 76, with the exception of the last two years of its
service when it operated out of Porterville as Tanker 74. This was during
the transition from the S-2 to S-2T tankers within the CDF. After it became surplus, the
Columbia Airport, under the leadership of Jim Thomas who is Airport Director,
sought to acquire the aircraft for display, which was accomplished with it
arriving on April 7, 2006. Note the steps by the door which are used for school tours, etc that come out to see
133090. Although currently the windows are covered with newspaper to keep the sun
out of the flight deck, a boy scout has a project of making the window
coverings out of another material which will soon be installed. I wish to
thank Airport Director and Manager Jim Thomas in assisting me in obtaining these
photos. Old Tanker 76 is on the other side of an active runway from the
airport operations so Jim was gracious enough to escort me to the aircraft and
also explain its history to me.

133179: Mid America
Aviation Museum, Liberal, KS May 15, 2009
One has to really want to visit this museum with over 100 aircraft and the
Tracker as it is not close to any of the interstate highways. Actually, it
is in the middle of nowhere. However, the museum personnel are very
friendly and there are many nice aircraft on display besides the S2F. The
left main tire is flat in the photos, and even though the gear is supported with
brackets the airplane still leans to the left.

133190: Canadian Bush Plane
Museum in Sault St. Marie, Ontario, Canada
This Tracker is actually a composite of several aircraft but as seen below
133190 is what the Museum is claiming as a base airframe. Our records shows
this was former CDF fire bomber 77, N423DF. Photos taken July 2007.

Below is some excellent information on the
Tracker as a fire bomber in Canada. The information was enclosed in clear
plastic folders for protection so there are some reflections from the overhead
lighting on several pages.
133204: Cal Fire Maintenance Facility at
McClellan Airport, Sacramento, CA May 2010 - This was being prepared
for flight to Carson City, NV and the Rick Clemons collection.


Cal Fire Maintenance Facility at
McClellan Airport, Sacramento, CA May 2009


133224: Pacific Coast Air Museum at the
Sonoma County Airport, Santa Rosa, CA May 2010




133242: Collings Foundation at Ellington
Field, Houston, TX October 2009 - Photos taken during the Houston Air Show
where 133242 was on display for the weekend. To my knowledge these are the
only photos available on the internet of 133242 besides the one small photo the
Collings Group has of it on its web page. Corrosion was discovered in the
elevators so they are off the aircraft for repair.

I didn't realize the Blues were in the background
until I got home and was editing the photos.
133251: California Aerospace Museum at
McClellan Airport, Sacramento, CA May 2009

136398: Mojave Airport, Mojave CA
May 2009


136421: Sequoia Airport in Visilia, CA -
Originally a S2F-1, 136421 was converted to the US-2A configuration.
It is now awaiting pickup and transport to the Milestones of Flight Museum in
Lancaster, CA. However, the Museum to date as not been out to do the tear
down and take the Tracker off the field. This could be detrimental to the
survivability of 136421 as the airport may scrap it out, which would be very
unfortunate. I want to thank
Frederick Wester
of TBM, Inc at the Visilia, CA Airport for providing the following photos.
The photos were taken at sunrise to capture the Tracker in the foreground with
the sun rising to the east. I have modified several of the photos by
brightening the images so that the aircraft details are more visible. See
one of his unmodified photos on my Home Page.

136431: Cavanaugh Flight Museum, Addison,
TX -
Tracker 136431 was being used to transport Museum volunteers to airshows.
It is now been relegated to an outside display site after being replaced by a
DC-3 for that function.
Photos in this set were taken as I returned in late
October, 2009. The Tracker was still outside but has been moved to a
corner next to the museum entrance. The sun was out for this photo shoot.

These photos were taken in March, 2009 on a dreary,
drizzly day.

136433: Valiant Air Command, Titusville, FL
Below are photos taken at the Valiant Air Command Air Show in March of 2006.
Included are shots of the weapons bay, flight deck and original radios.

Below are photos taken at the Valiant Air Command
Museum in 2001. Included are the wing fold, engine bay and gear wells.
136468: Pima Air and Space Museum,
Tucson, AZ May 2009

136475: AMARC, Tucson, AZ May 2009
These photos were taken from inside the Pima Air Museum tour bus that runs for
an hour and a half visit of "The Boneyard". The Tracker is located on the
left side of the bus during the tour as it proceeds down Celebrity Row.

136486: Combat Air Museum,
Topeka, KS May 23, 2009 This Tracker last served as a
maintenance trainer at NAS Olathe, KS before coming to the Combat Air Museum
(CAM) in Topeka, KS. One of the things that happed to 136486 at Olathe was
that the gasoline was drained from the tanks and replaced with water to prevent
fire. Once acquiring the Tracker the CAM spent six months at NAS Olathe
preparing the aircraft for flight, including draining the water from the fuel
cells, which was a very tedious task. On or about takeoff the left engine
failed and to be replaced, which was provided by the Navy. The CAM flew
the aircraft for several years before it grounded all of its aircraft due to
liability issues.
136486 sits in the farthest corner
away from the front entrance at the museum in the #2 hangar. In order to
get photos I had to move other items out of the way to get as good as photos as
possible Aircraft specific history is provided in the photos below.

136464: MAPS Museum at the
Akron-Canton, OH Airport January 2008
The Tracker below is currently on display the
the MAPS Museum at the Akron-Canton, OH Airport. The following gallery
photos were taken at the MAPS Aviation Museum in January or 2008. Note the
documentation in the co-pilot's window indicating damage to the bottom of the
right horizontal stabilizer trim tab and the associated photos of the damage.
This aircraft does not belong to MAPS, but to Phil Bamberger in the St. Louis,
MO area. He has it registered under Aviation Business Corporation.

The
photo below shows 136464 taxiing up to her parking spot at the 2001 Indianapolis
Air Show.

Included in the next series of photos we have shots of
the interior, which in this aircraft includes the remains of the number 3 and
number 4 stations. From the left the first photo is of the Number 3
Station, then the number 4, a shot between them into the flight deck, and then
looking straight into the aircraft through the door.
136508: At the Carson City Airport in May
2010 after being flown out of McClellan Airport since May of 2009. - It is
now owned by Specline of Carson City which is Rick Clemons company.
Apparently from the photos 136508 will be getting a brand new paint job.




At the Cal Fire
Maintenance Facility at McClellan Airport, Sacramento, CA May 2010 - The
aircraft was at this time being prepared for flight to Carson City, NV.

136534: Kissimmee, FL
Airport - On the ramp of the Kissimmee Air Museum July 2010



136540: American Wings
Aviation Museum, Blaine, MN
136560: Southern Museum of Flight,
Birmingham, AL
This is located at the Southern Museum of Flight on the SE corner of the
Birmingham, Alabama Airport in an airpark two blocks west of the actual Museum
building. The Executive Director of the Museum stated there was a plan to
re-fence the airpark so that all of the aircraft would be accessible to the
public. Currently, as can be seen, the Tracker and other aircraft are
behind the fence.
The museum, along with the airpark, will take about
two hours to view. For myself this also included a five minute drive
around the east side of the Birmingham airport to view the Alabama Air National
Guard Base Airpark on the north side. The Museum and airport are just off
of I-20/59 and ten minutes east of I-65. It will be well worth one's time.
These photos were taken in November of 2008.
This time I made arrangements to get inside the fence.

These photos were taken in November of 2006 and
larger views can be seen by clicking on the photos..



136636:
Nut Tree Airport , Vacaville, CA May 2010
This is currently owned by Duncan Miller although he told me he would be
putting it up for sale in the near future.






136691:
USS Hornet Museum, Alameda, CA May 2010
This presented some problems photographing as it was at the back of the
hangar deck in a very poorly lit area.






136745: Cal Fire Attack Base, Hemet-Ryan Airport, Hemet, CA May 2009
This Tracker never served as an air tanker after returning from Japan.
The Air Attack Base at this location has a nice viewers area. The staff
was most gracious in giving me a tour of the facility.

144721: Selfridge Air
Museum, Mt. Clemens, MI October 2009 - This finished up as a US-2A.


136508: Cal Fire
Maintenance Facility at McClellan Airport, Sacramento, CA

148730:
NAS Jacksonville Heritage Park October 2008
The first two large photos and the first six in the gallery were shot very
early in the morning and the remainder were shot very late in the afternoon.
These taken going into the Naval Air Station for an air show and then on the way
out in the evening.



151647:
National Naval Aviation Museum
November 2006
Note the Hurricane damage to the rudder.

CS2F-2 #1600 : Toronto
Aerospace Museum July 2007
This was the last license built DeHavilland Tracker constructed at the
current location of the museum.
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