Day 569: Discovering Military Aircraft Crash Site

Posted on February 27, 2015 by Ben

This morning I got up before dawn and managed to take off at sunrise on flight #38:

I flew roughly 4 miles west to Ogilby Campground where Greg was camped. The camping area is on the edge of the dune field:

Greg took off and joined me:

Greg and I both use helmet video cameras, and Greg got some shots of me flying:

The dune field extends for miles in every direction, dwarfing our paragliders:

At one point we both flew low over the dunes, following the contours of the dunes. Greg is in front of me here:

At one point, Greg radioed to me that we had flown over a crash site. I flew over a few times, and could clearly see the military insignia on the largest piece of debris:

After a while I said goodbye to Greg and flew home. At 56 minutes, this was the longest flight I’ve flown so far:

After breakfast, we all drove over to meet Greg. We decided to take a closer look at the crash site. Since we don’t have a permit for the dunes, we parked about half a mile from the edge of the dune field on private land:

M rode with Greg in his RZR:

Trish and B and I walked to the crash site. Using the GPS track from the flight, I was able to lead us to the crash location:

After a half a mile of traversing the dunes, we arrived at the crash site:

Even at a distance, I began to find fragments:

This largest piece was quite large:

We briefly lifted it to see if there were any markings on the underside:

This fellow was hiding under there:

I found an edge-on plate that identified the fragment as coming from an F-4 Phantom II. I realized that it was one of the wingtips, which were hinged:

Here’s the wingtip:

It’s the most brightly lit portion of the wing, top-most in this photograph:

We thought this might be the end of the hook used for carrier landings:

This looks like landing gear:

After looking around the crash site for a while, Greg got out his R/C truck. It was impressive!

On the way back, we found adjacent areas in the dune field that had smaller debris. The impact must have spread debris over a large area, as I think some of these fragments were too heavy to have been blown here:

Greg gave M a turn at driving. Look at that smile:

We also watched Greg fly his R/C plane:

The ladies took a turn in the RZR:

Greg and I had a great flight this morning, and this was the second time we’ve flown together, the first time being at Salton Sea a few weeks ago. We said goodbye to Greg and hiked the half mile back to the truck:

The wind really picked up towards sunset, filling the air with dust and reducing visibility:

Good Shabbos from Ogilby Road!

Day 568: Another Day in Ogilby

Posted on February 26, 2015 by Ben

This morning I got in a flight, but it was sufficiently turbulent that after trying in vain to find an altitude with stable air, I came back and landed:

My parents had purchased this Gumby-esque phone holder for us a while back, and Trish found a use for him holding the radio while the I have the other one in the air:

After a full day of homeschool, M and B built a jump for their bikes:

My PPG buddy Greg called to let me know he had arrived at the Ogilby Campground adjacent to the dunes, about 4 miles from here, but winds were gusty so we decided not to fly. We had an amazing sunset:

Tomorrow morning I hope to fly over to meet Greg, and we will fly the dunes together.

Day 567: Flying, Biking, and Homeschool

Posted on February 25, 2015 by Ben

This morning the winds that we’ve had for the last four days have gone, so I went for a morning flight:

Flight #36 takeoff:

It was a bit bumpy, so I decided to just fly over the area and look at all of the tiny RVs below:

In homeschool today, M did an experiment involving igniting gases liberated by mixing hydrogen peroxide with water:

B built a project involving two ICs that plays a game. When light 4 lights, the two players each try to touch their wires together first. If the left player wins by touching the wires together first, light 3 turns off and light 2 turns on. If the right player wins, light 5 turns off and light 6 turns on. If either player touches their wires together before light 4 turns on (signaling “go”), the LED segment display indicates a foul with the letter “F”. Here, the right player has fouled, so F is indicated and the right players light 5 has transitioned to light 6 to indicate that the right player was the one that fouled:

This afternoon I rode north on Ogilby Road, it being the only paved road here. At mile 11 or so I passed the ruins of an old structure:

Tonight we had a campfire and roasted marshmallows. We burned the stump of one of the dead ocotillos we had harvested:

Day 566: Investigating Ogilby Campground

Posted on February 24, 2015 by Ben

I found out today that my PPG buddy Greg is coming out to the area for the weekend. Greg likes to camp near the dunes so he can drive around in his RZR. I offered to check out Ogilby campground, which is the dune field campground nearest to where we are camping. Perhaps calling it a “campground” is a bit generous, but at least there’s plenty of room to take off:

The dunes start about 100 yards beyond the campground:

Down here, all of the BLM land on the West side of Ogilby Road is in the BLM’s use fee area for the dunes. Once a vehicle is parked, it can be ticketed if it doesn’t have a $35 per week or $150 per year pass. For the first mile or so along the access road on the way to the campground, there are a few private inholdings. One of them has a mobile home on site, and there’s a sign welcoming folks to “Geezertown”. For a donation of one’s choosing, an RV can be parked here on the 160 acre private parcel, which avoids both the BLM fee and the two week camping limit on BLM land. The land owner, who lives in the mobile home, also operates a mobile RV sewage and fresh water service. He also fills propane canisters. Clever!

Today was very windy and also cool, with highs in the low 70s. Towards sunset the shadows lengthened: