Nostalgia & History > UP 9026 with Derelict Aardvark

Not a great photo, but I figured with the right subject title, hey-  it might have legs...
SR

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I believe that's the area that Hill wanted me to go and do a service call one day, something about fixing
a mobile target, I was relieved to find out that they were kidding.

Out

Is this nostalgic?
If so please enlighten me.
Thanks.
TAH

Is this at Battle Mountain Internatinal Airport in central Nevada?

James Nelson
Thornton, CO
www.flickr.com/mojaveflyer

That would appear to be the tower for the short track off to the right.

Out

90mac Wrote:
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> Is this nostalgic?
> If so please enlighten me.
> Thanks.
> TAH

F-111's haven't flown since the early 90's. That's over 20 years. That makes it nostalgic!

Obviously (well, to me anyway) I posted this to get a laugh.  And, true, you'd maybe have to be of a certain age to get the joke (F-111's were called aardvarks for some reason).
But I posted it here because anyone who follows my ramblings might know I'm out on a road trip and  would figure this probably figures in (I shot this this morning).
SR

Yes, I took this in Battle Mountain, NV.  Their airport has an intact Airway Beacon Tower from the 1920's and I stopped to shoot it.  I revealed my interest in the subject the other day and it triggered 2 pages- surprised me!

They still fly fire fighting airplanes out of there. The wonders at Hill AFB were trying to convince me one day that BM was
at the far end of their practice range and that the portable target (popup) had hydraulic problems, sheesh! Ah Battle Mountain,
the Owl had great narrow gauge pictures on the way into lunch, my former employer once had a branch there, and if I-80
didn't curve around it you'd miss it. As for the plane, always thought it was a B70, F111s still fly.

Out

I had a pet aardvark once. It ate my cat.

Railfan Bob

Ed,

Behave.

John

(Wink)

Posted from iPhone

Earlier today...
SR

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The XB-70 was a larger, experimental bomber from the 1960s that never went into service (both planes were painted white). This is a F-111. The last of which were retired in the mid 1990s. Although Australia retired theirs more recently.

I hear that Muammar Gaddafi had a serious dislike for the Aardvark......

Here's the XB-70 (I took this in '76 when I was in Dayton with the AFT) and I agree it was somewhat larger than an F-111.  Only one of the two built survives, but if the other had not been (very tragically) lost- it would have probably somehow ended up in Battle Mountain, don't you think?
SR

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Don't know why I disremembered the 117 as the 111 but after a couple of cups of coffee the difference has been discovered!
I'm surprised the XB70 didn't end with all the other weird stuff at Hill. but regardless of that, driving past BM International (named
after the big letters up on the hill) was always a treat (right after passing the narrow gauge ROW crossing).

Out

You can die of lung cancer at the Owl if you stay long enough

Great photos - both of them!

Battle Mountain brings back lots of memories. For a number of years there was a C-119G "Flying Boxcar," fire-fighting air tanker on display next to the F-111, along with an F4 "Phantom" and a T-33 jet trainer. (The C-119's were grounded after a structural failure crash near Yreka, CA in I believe 1991...) The F-111 was a common sight in the skies all across northern Nevada, but they were not based at Hill AFB near Ogden, UT but rather at Mountain Home AFB to the north in southwestern Idaho. USAF pilots absolutely LOVE to fly across Nevada very low and VERY FAST, particularly if there is a law enforcement vehicle on a road they can buzz! I had that experience with a B-1B bomber on US 50 west of Delta, Utah one time a few years back... (Most people have never seen a supersonic strategic bomber in their rear view mirror!)

As for the "Owl," I stopped there for lunch on July 6, 1972 while driving home to the Bay Area from the midwest on old US 40 (today's I-80). I parked across the main street along the tracks, and when I walked across at the four-way flashing stoplight to the Casino the asphalt on the road was bubbling and sticking to my shoes it was so hot! The lunch was perfect for a hot day, a very large Chef's Salad, and while I ate a westbound SP empty PFE reefer block came blasting through "downtown." I had been leap-frogging with this train ever since Moor Summit east of Well, NV, and would end-up catching it again at Winnemucca. The train was powered by an all-SP lash-up of typical-for-the-period Overland Route motive power, an SD40 leading a pair of SD45's. At 154 cars in length, this was not only the longest train I ever saw on the SP Overland Route, but the longest train period I had seen until into the 1990's. Late that night from my trackside motel in Reno, this train finally headed west over The Hill with an additional pair of SP SD45's as mid-train helpers. My, but I certainly do miss those PFE reefer blocks on the SP and UP - somehow my N-scale PFE train is just not the same...

Battle Mountain is once of a number of "distinctive" communities along I-80 and the UP (today) across the Great Basin. All you need to look for is that long, rounded brown hill west of town with the large "BM" painted on it and you know you have arrived! Oh, and by the way, while the F-111's are long since retired, the Air Force still flys low and fast out across the Great Basin, so don't just watch the roadway and the rails when your travels brings you out this way...

Thanks for sharing, both photos and stories!

ShastaDaylight

 

The Boxcar is still there across from the F-111.  If the others were around they've been moved inside- I didn't see them. 
I was there to "collect" a shot of the old 1920's Airway Beacon, the 2 airplanes were a nice bonus.  I know the F-111's were controversial, but I always liked them- my Dad was a Convair employee for a while,  (involved in the CV 880 & 990 program)  so I always favored the home team.
SR

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LOL!


oldbleu Wrote:
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> I hear that Muammar Gaddafi had a serious dislike
> for the Aardvark......

James Nelson
Thornton, CO
www.flickr.com/mojaveflyer

The F-117s have also been retired. If I remember correctly, they are somewhat maintained so they can be returned to service if necessary.