Mojave Air and Space Port - Feb. 2009

Over Superbowl weekend I decided that I would go and watch it with my brother in Loma Linda, California. We have had a high pressure over the state for about a week and the weather could not be better for flying.

Non-stop the trip from Salt Lake City (KBTF) to Redlands, CA (KREI) took 2 hours 56 minutes. By the way, I was playing around with my DVD player on the way down and found a dimmer setting that I had not adjusted in the past and now my DVD player in the panel can be seen very easily in the daylight even if the sun is shining on it. I was really about that.

On Sunday morning my brother and I decided to have breakfast up at Mojave. It was a great flight up there and we took some pictures of Edwards Air Force Base as we flew by. It is amazing how much history there was in all that airspace. The winds were picking up when we landed so we landed on Runway 8.

Edwards Air Force Base


Mojave Airport


The Voyager restaurant had a few people in it but no one was there in their planes, we were the only one. We took the first spot next to the restaurant.
The waitress was nice, the food was great and they had speakers that you can turn on at your table to listen to the COM. They have tons of pictures around the restaurant.
Definitely a top $100 hamburger stop.

After breakfast we walked outside and found this new park they had added. The Rotary Rocket prototype is located there.
Here is a Youtube video of a Roton test flight. http://youtube.com/watch?v=YimESTSeKR4
Here is more information on it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_Rocket









View of tower and Voyager restaurant from the park.


The park even had horseshoes where my brother whipped up on me.

Before we left we parked in front of Scaled Composites for some pictures.
Like many of you, I have followed Burt Rutan and Scaled Composites for many years. From the Voyager to SpaceShipOne, they have done some amazing stuff.





Windmills near Mojave


Before leaving I wanted to do a touch and go on runway 30 where SpaceShipOne landed many times. We departed runway 8 and the winds were a direct crosswind for 30 but the RV handled it great. It was another very memorable runway that N104XP has been to. I noticed that they had lengthened the runway since SpaceShipOne. It use to start at the concrete and they have added more asphalt.





David and I had a great time together. It is nice that I can run down for the night and visit my brother in 3 hours rather than a 10-12 hour drive.


Here is a fun video we threw together while watching the game.

By the way?

By the way, on our flight there we flew over this airport. It is not listed on my databases. I'm sure someone has the story on this airport. It looks like a nice runway.

Great pics as usual... thanks for sharing..

PS.. that looks like Grey Butte in that last photo...

Best guess?

ScottSchmidt said:

By the way, on our flight there we flew over this airport. It is not listed on my databases. I'm sure someone has the story on this airport. It looks like a nice runway.

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Scott if this is the airfield I think it is, its a little north of Victorville and old George AFB. I actually interviewed for a job there. Its the home field of General Atomics Predator drone program.

Gray Butte

This was a McDonnell Douglas test facility in the 80s and 90s. Part of the division called MDTI (McDonnell Douglas Technologies Incorperated) located in Rancho Bernardo just north of San Deigo. In the late 90s the group was moved to Mesa AZ to consolidate facilities. Both sites (Gray Butte and Rancho Bernardo) where sold to General Atomics. Peditors are made at the Rancho Bernardo site and tested at Gray Butte, although I think they have flight test in Victorville as well.

I remember Grey Butte...

plehrke said:

This was a McDonnell Douglas test facility in the 80s and 90s. Part of the division called MDTI (McDonnell Douglas Technologies Incorperated) located in Rancho Bernardo just north of San Deigo. In the late 90s the group was moved to Mesa AZ to consolidate facilities. Both sites (Gray Butte and Rancho Bernardo) where sold to General Atomics. Peditors are made at the Rancho Bernardo site and tested at Gray Butte, although I think they have flight test in Victorville as well.

Click to expand...

We used to test RCS signatures there in the 80's and 90's, when it was owned by McDonnell Douglas. I remember spending many a long night there testing. One cool thing they had there was the Kranco building. It was located at the left end of the taxiway in Scott's photo, on the concrete pad with two narrow strips of concrete connecting it to the rest of the taxiway. A 50' tall pylon was located at the RH end of the strips where you can see a diamond-shaped pad in the taxiway. The Kranco was parked on the concrete pad on the left. The Kranco was a 100'x100'x100' cube of a building that rolled on 8' tall tractor tires powered by 300 HP diesel generators. It had roll-up doors on each end and a crane in the top of the building. We'd bring the model to be tested inside the Kranco, lift it by the crane, and then drive the building over the pylon that was used to support the test models, lower the model by crane onto the pylon and then drive the Kranco back to the pad on the left. The model would get illuminated with radar dishes that were on the RH end of the taxiway where the buildings are now. Whenever a spy satellite came into view (we had a chart that listed them), we'd drive the Kranco back over the model to hide it. To see a 100' tall building drive itself was quite a sight to behold. Wish I had some photos of that thing.

Heinrich Gerhardt