SNV-2 VALIANT

The BT-13 SNV-2 Vultee Valiant was a 2 person fighter trainer that was ditched in Lake Washington in February 1944.  Both pilots (instructor and student) survived the crash.

On Memorial Day Weekend Jeanna, Brian, Matt, Joe and Richard decided it was a fitting weekend to scooter to the Valiant which lays upside down in 115' in Lake Washington.

We had 2 groups.  Group one was Brian, Richard and Matt with Brian leading and Matt calling deco.  Team two was Jeanna and Joe following team 1.

The surface was like glass and vis was excellent, approaching 15-20', which is epic for lake vis.

We made it to the wreck faster than anticipated, giving us plenty of time to spend on the wreck.  

It's an extremely fragile wreck, made mostly out of paper and canvas.  However, for sitting on the bottom of the lake for the past 66 years, it's still an amazing sight to see.  Though obviously damaged from careless fins, hands, anchors, etc you can still see "NAVY" printed on the wings and the engine and props still lie at the nose, waiting to be started again.  Its landing gear is still intact, reaching toward the surface, almost as if it's still doing an upside down fly by.  You can't help but think about the day the instructor and trainee had to ditch the plane.

Mattley led us out, calling deco on the fly along the way and did a great job.

This is an extremely fragile wreck, made from, as mentioned above, wood and canvas.  Please be extremely careful with fins/kicks, when dropping anchors or shot lines and please DO NOT TOUCH the wreck.  It shows obvious damage from just a couple of years ago.