California SR 127 – A Tour Through Mojave History

Categories: Tales of Long Ago

Of the nearly 400,000 miles of road in California, the lightly traveled State Route 127 between Baker and the Nevada State Line is mostly an afterthought, yet it holds within its modest 90 miles of length the entire history of California’s Mojave Desert. It’s a story of rapacious plunder, Robber Barons, and those who followed in their wake after the mines played out.

KC-10s Prepare to Leave Travis AFB

Categories: Aviation

It’s the end of an era. I never really worked on 10s, other than occasionally blocking one in at Yokota and being around them at Travis, but they were great to fly on and everyone I talked to who worked them seemed to like the plane (unlike a certain airframe whose nickname rhymes with dread).

Shoot Drone, Get Free Package

Categories: Aviation

This isn’t an entirely new phenomenon — yokels have been shooting at planes for a long time. When I was stationed at Dover AFB, we’d occasionally find a bullet hole in the empennage, presumably fired by someone who didn’t know how to lead an aircraft, even one as large as a C-5, on approach.