Trip Report Douglas AD-4L Skyraider (San Diego, CA)

[beldridg]

It has been a while since the last post. I got my MOD3 at Eagles Nest and then had some family related issues come up so I've been out of the So Cal ocean for a couple months.

But, @California Diver and I are back at it.

@California Diver has been working a long time on finding the Skyraider that Dennis Burns located and identified back in 2014. Captain Lora got a new sonar/nav system for the Marissa and Tyler went to work with her to find the Skyraider. They located it and confirmed it a couple weeks ago. I dove it this past week to take some photos and to document the current condition. It has a lot of sand and, given the current conditions, the visibility wasn't great and the water was very green.

We put together a post about the Skyraider and some photos from the dive.

Douglas AD-4L Skyraider (San Diego — XX fsw)

We have a few other targets lined up and will hopefully find some new So Cal wreck sites soon. Sonar image and a pic of the 20mm cannons are below. More details and photos are in the post.

 

[SoCalRich]

How deep?

 

[beldridg]

Recreational

 

[Searcaigh]

I've dived a Skyraider in Subic Bay in the Philippines, not sure what model it is but it was not a single seater.

Depth 35m

@beldridg if you are interested in aviation wrecks I can send you some more images.

 

[beldridg]

Very cool, thanks for the photos. Looks like it is in pretty good shape.

The Subic bay plane, from what I have read, was a AD-5N night-attack four seater variant. There were a lot of variants of the Skyraider including some with two seats (AD-5), three seats (AD-3), etc.

- brett