LOG SW USA Trip day 4 (17-10-2022)

[patrick dirksen]

Hi all,

Today was going to be a new experience for me: visiting a low flying area! Something we never take the time for, however this time it was on the schedule of the organised trip. But first we checked out the aircraft at the new museum near the gate of China Lake.

China Lake museum, Ridgecrest

138647 F11F-1F pr, General Electric mks
160775/1 YF-18A pr, no mks
150992/393 T-39D pr, VX-31 mks

Hopefully the other aircraft of the museum will move here as well, as it is not allowed to visit the main location on base. However I don’t think there is enough space here for all of them.

NAS China Lake

124587 XF4D-1 pr, General Electric badge
151473/1473 YF-4J pr, NWC China Lake mks

These are just outside the main gate, looking very good.

Inyokern

05-03752/82 MH-47G no mks (3-160 SOAR)
09-03786/83 MH-47G no mks (3-160 SOAR)

Yesterday evening we already passed Inyokern, but it was too dark to really see something so we didn’t stop. But as we (or at least a few of us) knew there are sometimes special ops Chinooks here, we had a quick look. And as you can see we were not disappointed. We were even able to photograph one of them quite nicely.
And then it was on to the low flying area. We were told we were going to have to hike a rather steep path in the mountains, which itself already made it nice (at least for me). And it turned out to be a nice but heavy hike.

Paddlesack Trail, Kern River

168884/NE-207 F/A-18E VFA-113
169975/XE-444 F/A-18F VX-9
164549/DD-81 AV-8B+ VX-31
165002/DD-82 AV-8B+ VX-31
N133TH UH-60A (ex 81-23616)

Not a great score, two single ships and a Harrier duo, but indeed very spectaculair to see. You have to stay alert and be ready all the time though, so quite tiring. The UH-60 crossed overhead and was (just) readable on the photos luckily.

Edwards AFB

52-0008/008 NB-52B pr, NASA and USAF markings

Yesterday for the airshow we entered and also left Edwards via the West gate, so we never got this Buff that is preserved at the North gate. But as it was only going to be a 15 minute detour today I insisted on going here
This looks very nice and as it is outside the gate we were allowed to photograph it, as long as we didn’t take pictures in the direction of the base. The great evening light topped it off.

Boron Aerospace Museum, Boron

66-7716/ED NF-4D pr wh/or c/s (6512 TS)
AT-153 TF-35 pr, also marked N167TP, “Scooby Doo!”

Another short detour yielded these two aircraft that are preserved outside in front of the museum and can be photographed as well.
We made our last stop at Victorville, but by now it was totally dark again and as we would be staying nearby we decided to come back tomorrow.

As always, additions, corrections and comments are welcome.

That’s all folks!

Patrick Dirksen
Tristar Aviation

[SBGrad]

Ahhh, the good stuff.

China Lake has one of the F-111Bs and it kills me that you can't get to it--it's one of the few boneyard planes that interests me. The maid of honor at my wedding has worked at China Lake for just about 30 years and SHE can't get me to the Boneyard. With any luck that is one of the planes that get restored and moved to a place where civilians can see her.

One time I did chase after old aircraft on the ground at Edwards, and that was the planes on the photo recon course at the south end of the lake bed. Derelicts all, but if you like gate guards, these are worth going after.

THANK YOU for listing the trail. As I said, I've heard people talk about shooting jets on the river, but nobody was willing to give details. This gives me something to work on.

4 jets and 1 helicopter in one day is actually not bad for Sidewinder. In 5 trips, maybe 12 days shooting at Jedi I averaged about 1 jet per hour watching time. I don't know how long the hike was, but I'd take 5 passes low level any day.

[patrick dirksen]

It was four passes, the chopper came overhead high, but I get your point
As said in the topic of yesterday, everybody has his (or her) own preferences. Although I do like real action shots, I definately prefer boneyards and that kind of stuff, climbing over wrecks, nice Are the ones you mention near Edwards available for inspection then?
And I do agree about the collection of China Lake. They have a lot of interesting aircraft there, hopefully they will make them available for the public one day (like is going to happen to the Edwards collection as well).