Van's Air Force
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"Camp Chino" at El Mirage Dry Lakebed
- Thread starter dan
- Start date
az_gila
Well Known Member
Dirt bikers
Dan,
You didn't use to have to take your own booze....
The few times I landed my sailplane on the lake, dirt bikers always appeared with a cold brewski...
They always seemed well supplied...
Has that tradition gone?
gil in Tucson
Added ... actually, it worked for just about every dry lake in the Mojave Desert...
Dan,
You didn't use to have to take your own booze....
The few times I landed my sailplane on the lake, dirt bikers always appeared with a cold brewski...
They always seemed well supplied...
Has that tradition gone?
gil in Tucson
Added ... actually, it worked for just about every dry lake in the Mojave Desert...
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erich weaver
Well Known Member
Uhhhhh....
Where's the potty? Nary a bush to squat behind out there.
erich weaver
Where's the potty? Nary a bush to squat behind out there.
erich weaver
dan
Well Known Member
Not pictured is the outhouse about 50 yards away. Also not pictured are the pyro photos with a caption of "Stupid 100LL Tricks."erich weaver said:
Gil, where's all these dudes with brewskis? Must be a sailplane thing. 8 hours, bottle to dive brakes? Doesn't roll off the tongue as easily...
Walter, definitely will let you know next time.
AX-O & G-force, you guys ever ride down there? We'll see you 2 flying in with your 8s before too long!
az_gila
Well Known Member
Cold ones...
Dan... no 8 hours involved....
Once the sailplane has landed it's a wait in the hot desert for your spouse and the trailer... hopefully she's not too many hours away....
It was funny though, you could land in the middle of absolutely nowhere, and a dirt biker(s) would always show up with a cold Coors... I was working though, so it was always on a weekend...
A beer might not be the best thing for you when it's 105+ F, but it sure went down nicely...
We always used to joke that drinking and driving in the Mojave desert must have been legal... we just looked at all of the empty cans alongside the road...
gil in Tucson
dan said:
Dan... no 8 hours involved....
Once the sailplane has landed it's a wait in the hot desert for your spouse and the trailer... hopefully she's not too many hours away....
It was funny though, you could land in the middle of absolutely nowhere, and a dirt biker(s) would always show up with a cold Coors... I was working though, so it was always on a weekend...
A beer might not be the best thing for you when it's 105+ F, but it sure went down nicely...
We always used to joke that drinking and driving in the Mojave desert must have been legal... we just looked at all of the empty cans alongside the road...
gil in Tucson
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kbonline1968
I'm New Here
Rude awakening...
Dan,
What happens when the shuttle driver decides to divert his landing to CA...you guys are in for a rude wake up call.
Kevin
Dan,
What happens when the shuttle driver decides to divert his landing to CA...you guys are in for a rude wake up call.
Kevin
az_gila
Well Known Member
Different lake
Different dry lake, and El Mirage is outside the Edwards restricted area...
However the sonic boom may wake you up.... it shook our trailer at Crystal Airport, 20 - 30 miles South of El Mirage dry lake...
I believe they keep the restricted area (R-2515) hot when the shuttle is up... I've had T-38 escorts to my sailplane skirting the area the the West... I've also flown over Edwards when the area has been open.... is that a long runway!! 15,000 ft of pavement... and the runway marked on the dry lake is even longer...
gil in Tucson
kbonline1968 said:Dan,
What happens when the shuttle driver decides to divert his landing to CA...you guys are in for a rude wake up call.
Kevin
Different dry lake, and El Mirage is outside the Edwards restricted area...
However the sonic boom may wake you up.... it shook our trailer at Crystal Airport, 20 - 30 miles South of El Mirage dry lake...
I believe they keep the restricted area (R-2515) hot when the shuttle is up... I've had T-38 escorts to my sailplane skirting the area the the West... I've also flown over Edwards when the area has been open.... is that a long runway!! 15,000 ft of pavement... and the runway marked on the dry lake is even longer...
gil in Tucson
az_gila said:
I dunno Gil, 15,000' goes by pretty fast when you cross the fence at 265 knots.....
But try shooting an approach to one of our 15,000 x 300 runways in a light plane, and I bet you flare about 100 feet in the air - I did, until I got myself calibrated!
I landed to the east at EDW for the Open House 9 years ago. I got close to the runway at 60 KIAS and flew down it at less than ten feet. It felt like forever till I got to the turn off where I chopped power, set it down then taxied about a mile to the hangar they had for the display aircraft.Ironflight said:I dunno Gil, 15,000' goes by pretty fast when you cross the fence at 265 knots.....
But try shooting an approach to one of our 15,000 x 300 runways in a light plane, and I bet you flare about 100 feet in the air - I did, until I got myself calibrated!
