SUMMARY: This Vultee BT-13 Valiant was a World War II training aircraft that was saved from being scrapped at the end of the war when the USAAF sold some of their surplus aircraft to civilians. Many of these aircraft were bought by farmers and modified to serve as early crop-dusting planes. The pilot of this plane, Alexander Brown, had been a WWII vet and worked for a cloud-seeding company after the war (cloud seeding is an attempt to increase the amount of rain or snow that falls by releasing substances into the clouds).

Brown departed Payson on November 23rd, 1951, for the rugged Mazatzal Mountains Wilderness Area. He was last seen flying towards a  snow storm when he disappeared. Due to the rugged terrain and heavy brush, his plane was not found until February 6, 1952, when the Civil Air Patrol was searching for another missing plane. The plane impacted at the top of a rock outcropping and wreckage fell onto the steep mountainside below. The dispersal of wreckage suggests that the aircraft hit in a near vertical path, rather than horizontal flight, which may indicate the pilot suffered vertigo while in a cloud bank and accidentally stalled or spun the aircraft.

Of the 400 crash sites I have been to, this plane is definitely one of the more difficult ones to reach. This long hike has over 4,000 feet in elevation change each direction, and has that challenge compounded with steep slopes, loose rocks and lots of manzanita.