Ok, who knows, is Texas east or west of New Mexico? Well it is generally east but from where I live there is a heap of Texas, and it may be the best part, that is west of me. There are many interesting things out there to keep track of, and I missed one of the big ones today, the 1,000 year clock, which is in the Sierra Diablo Range. I need to take a look out there soon.
I have been keeping an eye on Jeff Bezos and his space flight ambitions at his Blue Origin facility north of Van Horn, so I have been thinking about the recent destruction of the vehicle before the completion of the planned mission, that happened on August 24th. The event reportedly happened at about 45,000 feet at mach 1.2. I have been wondering where the remains of that vehicle ended up and if it might be possible to find that spot.
Then I got a visitor to the office this week. I had heard of ag pilot Bud, but had never met him. Apparently he had seem some of the stuff I have posted on my website about the West Texas stuff. He had noticed something interesting near Cornudas, Texas (population 10?) and thought I should check it out.
So that is two things to check on and I haven't been by the secret Salt Flat Airport for a while, so that is three. Time to saddle up the RV-6.
The course out takes me over the two National Parks of the Guadalupe Mountains, and I can live with that. I was surprised to see the Fall color change starting in the relatively low elevation of Double Canyon, in Carlsbad Caverns National Park, although the higher country, including the famous McKittrick Canyon, of Guadalupe Mountains National Park, was showing no Fall colors at all.
Past the Guadalupe Mountains, I could look back at them over the Gypsum Dunes that are part of the National Park.
Then over the dry lake of Salt Flat, Texas
From here I flew along the El Paso Highway past many eccentric structures until I reached the most eccentric one of all.
This X shaped structure is down in a hollow of a hill. The hill is probably geologically one of the Cornudas Mountains, which are generally considered to be magmatic intrusions, but it actually looks like a small caldera.
I am very surprised I had never noticed this structure, because it is in my normal patrol area. I am also surprised I had never heard of it or the artist. After a little research, I have concluded this guy is one of the more intelligent and interesting nuts around. James Magee has spent about the last 35 years working on this meticulous and beautiful artwork, that was pretty much made for his own satisfaction. He has also worked as a roughneck, taxi driver and lawyer.
This interior photo is from
http://artandseek.net/2010/09/03/art...-and-the-hill/
Okay, I know what that is now, respect it and have ordered a book on the work. Now on to the Secret Salt Flat Airport. Turns out there are no apparent big changes there.
Number three is to find the crash site of Mr. Bezos' rocket.
I didn't have much hope here. The Blue Origin site is huge. But I started thinking. There is a highway just to the west and a town to the south and a mountain range to the east and another highway to the north. Jeff would get very bad publicity if one of his vehicles fell on a bus full of retirees, so maybe they took pains to make sure it would end up near the launch site.
Turns out I didn't even get very close before I found a burn area. When I flew over the burn scar I didn't see any debris or craters though.
What I did see were additional smaller burn scars nearby and all the scars had tracks through them.
I look at a lot of burned areas and have never seen anything like this before. There is one large burn area and about four more smaller ones within 200 yards or so. Yep, I think this is the place (31º 23.202', -104º 47.714'). It is about 2 miles west of the main part of the launch facility.
Judging by official photos on the web I think this is the particular pad used for this last launch but it appears that the elaborate hold down structure was not used but rather the the plain concrete pad was the launch point.
I passed by the desolate Delaware Mountain wind turbine farm on the way home to one of those, oh so satisfying, landings.
What an amazing privilege to be able to fly ones own airplane. Not only that, but to be able to fly anywhere in unrestricted airspace, and look at whatever one wants to look at in that kind of airspace.
So much to keep track of -- So little time
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