And you just can't make this stuff up...

glassparman

"OK, OK, I'm going as fast as I don't want to go!"
My boss wanted me to take another position up at China Lake . . . Ridgecrest is the armpit of the Mojave desert. Plus it's a 70 minute drive for me when Edwards is only 35. No brainer to stay where I am.
 

glassparman

"OK, OK, I'm going as fast as I don't want to go!"
YES! Earthquakes are fun stuff and always going on! LOL

Been here my whole life. I remember the '71 Sylmar quake. I was only 8 but it left a mark because we were right below the Van Norman Dam in Sepulveda and had to be evacuated.
 

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
Yeah, was a mile from the epicenter of the Sylmar fun and 10 from the one in Northridge. Ridgecrest is the earthquake capital of CA, something like 3,000 a year.
 

glassparman

"OK, OK, I'm going as fast as I don't want to go!"
I was living in the AV (Quartz Hill) when the '94 Northridge hit but working in Northridge . . . . yeah, couldn't get to work for two weeks.
 

RBHarter

West Central AR
Kern county requires you to build a house that will stand 110 mph sustained winds with gusts to 140mph with 8' of snow on the roof A/C that will change 35-40° summer and 75-90° winter , during a 6.8 earth quake .

That's enough cooling to hold it under 80° in the house anywhere in the county most of the time . There are a couple of places where some years the winter heating might be hard pressed to keep a house much above 60° .

China Lake gave us every rocket and projectile named eye or after a snake . If it arrived in service as a 200% overkill solution and had a counter measure and a counter counter measure it came from China Lake .

The 1st generation Sidewinder heat tracking hardware was lab tested using a 1 watt light bulb at 30' but this electrician with a lit cigarette walking by the open lab door kept screwing up the test because it wanted to track the hotter source . At 40+ ft .

They had a laser that they burned holes through 4×4×2 fire bricks circa 1965 . It had heat issues though . 7 min tests were boiling 1000 gal cooling tank and 20 gallons in the lines because the valves couldn't open fast enough ......... Starting with the intakes open and 7psi helped but starting with them all open and 16 psi with an "hourglass" restricter of half the dia was the ticket to run a 10 min fire cycle and only have to wait 4 hours to do another run .

The "daisy cutter" was another of theirs . They used 125 palm trees for proof of concept . The palms were free and LA county delivered them all 2000 .........now you know why there are palms all over RC and the base .
The test reduced to palms, all 125 , to tooth picks from 8" and up .
It's most notable use was to clear landing zones for medivacs in Vietnam . Yeah just like the movies poof 150' circle of jungle is pasture .
 

RicinYakima

High Steppes of Eastern Washington
It's most notable use was to clear landing zones for medivacs in Vietnam . Yeah just like the movies poof 150' circle of jungle is pasture .
Never saw it used for medivacs, since it took to long to get the AF to plan and deliver the mission, but used several times for assaults. I spent six months with the Combat Engineer unit that fly stand-by for when they didn't work. That 15 foot (?) long probe on the nose would sometimes hit high on a mahogany tree and detonate prematurely. Or have to penetrate triple layer jungle and the chute would slow enough in the trees and the probe into mud so it went off too low.
 

462

California's Central Coast Amid The Insanity
Loaded my share of 750-pound "daisy cutters".
3B7D15A5-331B-46A2-855B-E3637323E898.jpeg
China Lake gave us every rocket and projectile named eye or after a snake
Combination of eye and snake -- a 500-pound Snake Eye.
EFBE4DAA-2FA8-4810-9ED6-275AEB701353.jpeg
Only loaded AIM-7 Sidewinders for stateside certification, but it was weird having that eye track me.
 
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RicinYakima

High Steppes of Eastern Washington
Researching these, there appears to have been at least three versions. The early ones were left over "block busters" from WWII refitted with new noses. The one 462 shows is the intermediate ones used up till March 1970 when the BLU-82 was first deployed. Ones I saw used were dropped from a C-130 with a parachute drag. The later ones were dropped from the big "Sky Cranes" by the 1st Air Cav.
 

462

California's Central Coast Amid The Insanity
My tour ended June '69.

Daisy cutter were loaded as part of the daily frag, so they were requested by the Army for a pre-planned helicopter landing zone -- troops, artillery, etc. Daisy cutters were never loaded on our alert aircraft.
 

CZ93X62

Official forum enigma
Kern County is what most of California USED TO BE LIKE. I loved living in Ridgecrest, though I might have felt different if I had to work there.
 

popper

Well-Known Member
Paveway, pavepenny, harpoon, legap, shrike,harm, arm - very familiar names. Weldon Word was in our group.
 

Rockydoc

Well-Known Member
The daisy cutters I remember from my days on the USS Intrepid were depth charges which were shaped like 55 gallon oil drums with the long pole as the nose. They were dropped by A1 Skyraiders or A4 Skyhawks, or both, I don't remember which. That was the only planes we had on board except for 2 F8s, one a photo ship the other a gunship flying shotgun.
 

RBHarter

West Central AR
Never hung a round . I literally have no means at this point to count how many MK 82 , 84 and 750s I loaded over 22 yr .

If you do a search for Minden Louisiana Hazmat storage and find the air video of the improperly stored hazmat , I put about 75% of it in a truck sent there .
 

L Ross

Well-Known Member
Never hung a round . I literally have no means at this point to count how many MK 82 , 84 and 750s I loaded over 22 yr .

If you do a search for Minden Louisiana Hazmat storage and find the air video of the improperly stored hazmat , I put about 75% of it in a truck sent there .
How come they never store Haz-Mat in Lafayette Park in Washington D.C.?
 

JustJim

Well-Known Member
Air conditioning. There needs to be a law that no one in DC can have air conditioning. DC used to be a hardship post, if it became that again, politicians wouldn't want to hang around there. Let's take away the air conditioning in all federal buildings, vehicles, etc.