2 weeks, 5000 miles, and 3 States, (Hey, they were Western States!)

[PHXtaco]

This is a trip report from an aviation archaeology Passport in Time project I participated in a few weeks back.
Between 1923 and 1933, approximately 1,500 airway beacons - early night navigation systems consisting of lighted towers and concrete arrows designed to guide airplanes - were constructed across the U.S. They were spaced approximately 10 miles apart and spanned 18,000 miles. Each beacon featured a 610 mm parabolic mirror and a 1000 watt lamp, and in clear weather they could be seen from distances of up to 40 miles. The Low Frequency Radio Range system began to replace this visual system in 1929, and beacons soon became obsolete; the last in N.M. was shut down for official use in 1973. During a week-long Passport in Time project in June 2010, Cibola National Forest staff and volunteers hiked into the Zuni Mountains to document the remains of several of these beacons in order to develop a plan to stabilize and interpret the sites. Additionally, the project recorded a Budd RB-1 Conestoga cargo plane crash that occurred in 1945 as well as a crash site of a 1948 Porterfield two-seat civil aircraft.
Full picture album at:
http://aair.smugmug.com/Aviation-Archaeology-1/NM-PIT-2010/12950007_2cbD7#936386646_tgEN2
but the highlights follow, with an emphasis on the driving picts.

This is a drawing of a typical airway beacon of the type this project documented

Pictured here is a model of an airway beacon, including course arrow and generator shed. Steve Owen made this model from scratch. It is currently on display at the NWNM Visitors Center in Grants, NM, along with a display on airway beacons.

Splitting up the crew into three groups to record Beacon 62. One group to record the beacon at the top of the mesa, a second to record the generator shed at the bottom, and a third that would follow the trail/power line from the generator shed to the beacon at the top.

At the beacon site on top of the mesa.

This intact light bulb was found over the side of a cliff where it had been thrown after it had burned out many years ago.

Recording the site.

From here you can see the crew below recording the generator shed and the end of the old powerline path.

Zoomed in on the crew below recording the generator shed.

All that was left of the generator shed was the foundations and scattered artifacts.

 

[PHXtaco]

Next we moved to the Budd RB-1 Conestoga crash site. The RB-1 was a very unique airplane in that it was made from stainless steel and spot welded together. Details at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budd_RB_Conestoga. The only surviving (partial) example is at Pima Air & Space Museum.

Sadly, all that remains is a burn area and a few other pieces.

Discussing the accident. Apparently the crew had fallen asleep and woke up with the plane in a steep dive. They almost pulled the plane out of the dive, but it clipped the top of this mesa. All three crewmembers were thrown out and one of them miraculously survived and managed to hike out to safety.

Hiking back out.

Came across a bear track.

Made it back to the truck-- and more importantly, the cooler with ice cold beverages!

 

[PHXtaco]

One of the reasons I wanted to drive out this year was that last year I flew out and had to depend on other people for transportation to the sites. When we scouted this site, no one wanted to drive their vehicles up (what I consider) a mild 4X4 road. It was not that it was a long distance, it was more the vertical elevation gain, so driving the gear to the top made life a lot easier and gave us more time at the site.

Great scenery on the way out.

 

[PHXtaco]

The next day found us recording Beacon 60. The generator building foundation is in the foreground on the right. The beacon was located on the promontory jutting out of the top of the mesa. This was on private property rather than Forest Service land, but permission had been secured before the project to visit these sites.

A fallen power pole from the line to the beacon.

The base legs for the beacon were all that remained.

We had a great view of El Morro National Monument.

Not far from the beacon site was an old Forest Service lookout tower. Since we had permission to be on the private land, and a large number of volunteers, the Forest Service archaeologist wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to record some key features of the lookout.

View from the lookout.

 

[PHXtaco]

Next stop—lunch. If you are ever going to El Morro National Monument, I highly recommend the Ancient Way Cafe. Good fresh healthy food. There is also a great curio shop right next door.

After lunch we headed to Beacon 59B, again on private land. Steve had done a great job securing all the permissions needed, way in advance of the project.

Loading up to head out to Beacon 59B.

This beacon had a cement pad at the base-- which is actually the norm, but...

…what was different was that the course arrow was raised off the ground and covered with some sort of material (canvas???) rather than being a cement arrow in the ground.

And what really made this site interesting was that the beacon number, 59B, was also raised off the ground. Usually the beacon number is painted on the roof of the generator shed rather than made out of sheet metal. Here the 5 (upside down) has come off the raised mounting brackets and is intertwined with the B.

 

[PHXtaco]

The next morning we headed off to record the Porterfield crash site.

Again, no one wanted to drive this mild 4X4 road. As a matter of fact, no one wanted to ride with me up it! As the route to the site followed the road for several miles and it had almost 1000 foot elevation gain, I was more than willing to volunteer hauling the bulk of the gear up to the top in the back of the truck.

Map check. We were given verbal directions and a hand drawn map.

The directions included, "Follow this fence until you hit a beer can, then..."

The tube frame of the plane.

Reconstructing the cowling to get a better idea of the foces of impact.

Part of the wooden wing.

 

[PHXtaco]

We came across this old barbed wire roll on the way out.

Interestingly, compared to the drive up, I had a full load of people and equipment for the dive down.

A few shots the passenger took.

 

[PHXtaco]

On the last day we visited an OA-10 (PBY) crash on land administered by the National Park Service. This is a very interesting crash. This crash needs an entire book to tell the story and could use a detailed survey. To summarize, the original accident report stated “The aircraft burned to an extent that investigation was impossible.” The report also stated “It is not definite, but believed he had one engine feathered and was turning back to Albuquerque to land.” However still today there is evidence that the plane had an in-flight fire and the one intact engine at the site had cracked a cylinder head prior to the crash. Currently at the site there is only one intact engine and one intact wing. We had postulated that the in-flight fire might have caused a wing and/or engine to fall off. We wanted to determine if both wings and both engines had indeed made it to the scene of the crash (it turns out they did) and to determine the exact direction of impact (determined).

I thought I would be smart and wear my old boots to the crash site rather than tear up my new boots on the lava--- but the old boots' soles came off just before I reached the crash site. Using survey flagging and a roll of medical tape I strapped the soles back on.

This is not good, now the outer and inner sole have come off and all I am left with is the inner padding and I am out of tape!

 

[PHXtaco]

After the Passport in Time project was over, I visited a friend in Albuquerque and we went looking for a B-29 crash site. We didn't find the site, but had a good day exploring.

Pictured here is an old adobe that had been used and modified over the years.

The back side of the adobe had a "modern" addition.

It blends in with the hill in the background, but there is an old church straight ahead.

View of the church from the front.

 

[PHXtaco]

From NM I headed to Phoenix to work on a rental house-- I will spare you the photos of that.

From Phoenix, on the way back home to CA, I detoured through Prescott for 3 reasons: first, to visit an old college friend; second, to find a WWII B-25 crash; and third, to look for an airway beacon.

On to the search for the B-25-- a friend had been contacted by a geo-cacher about finding aircraft Plexiglas in the area this crash was supposed to have happened. Now all I had to do was line up this original accident report photo. When I got to the area of the Plexiglas I spent an hour or two searching and could not line up the photo, but…

…on the drive out, several miles away, I spotted a ridge that looked promising. I set out for a hike and got to a spot where the ridges looked like they lined up pretty good…

…started looking around and found this piece. It could be aircraft, but it also could just as easily be something else.

Confirmed-- 62- is the correct part prefix for a B-25!

The fuel tank bladder ended up being the largest piece found.

I miss the monsoon weather in Prescott!

 

[PHXtaco]

Next, the 1930s airway beacon. The beacon is located on the right side of the mesa in front of Granite Mountain.

Zoomed in.

The "modern" airway navigation aid. Though the VOR is now secondary to the GPS.

Looking from the same spot near the VOR to the mesa with the airway beacon, the 1930s airway navigation aid.

The last little bit will be on foot.

Looking into Chino Valley from the road up to the beacon.

Typical of so many of my trips, ended up getting there right at sunset. At least it made for some good views!

Looking down at where I had parked.

Looking toward Prescott.

 

[PHXtaco]

Made it back to town in time for dinner at the Prescott Brewing Company and…

…and then off to Jason’s to spend the night.

Jason still uses his Cruiser daily, though it will eventually get a V-8 transplant.

Headed home!

 

[HMR]

Very, very cool! Amazing history. Thanks for sharing!

 

[TangoBlue]

Thanks for chronicling your trip. Learned a lot, too!

 

[7wt]

Fantastic!