Aztec, Cibola, Zuni, Estevan Quivara and related gold-like conjecture

[Springfield]

... Edit: It does nag at my curiosity enough so's yesterday I started searching the web to find out what's been going on in recent years with ultra-light, short-take-off and landing aircraft. Probably not one of the options because I hate to contemplate what kinds of freakish winds a person might encounter in a place of that sort. It would take an extremely 'clean' exterior design so's to be less vulnerable to chance winds dragging a dirty craft into unexpected and unwanted places, a lot of surplus power available, an extremely low stall speed, and more luck than I like to depend on.

But the technology is actually getting there.

Jack

Looks like it'd better be a real short take-off/landing craft in that terrain, unless there's a nice big soft meadow just off camera. Those ultra-lights make me nervous to begin with, let alone in the mountains. Lots of rocks and trees up there that could ruin your day.

 

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[Highmountain]

... Edit: It does nag at my curiosity enough so's yesterday I started searching the web to find out what's been going on in recent years with ultra-light, short-take-off and landing aircraft. Probably not one of the options because I hate to contemplate what kinds of freakish winds a person might encounter in a place of that sort. It would take an extremely 'clean' exterior design so's to be less vulnerable to chance winds dragging a dirty craft into unexpected and unwanted places, a lot of surplus power available, an extremely low stall speed, and more luck than I like to depend on.

But the technology is actually getting there.

Jack

Looks like it'd better be a real short take-off/landing craft in that terrain, unless there's a nice big soft meadow just off camera. Those ultra-lights make me nervous to begin with, let alone in the mountains. Lots of rocks and trees up there that could ruin your day.

Springfield: Yeah, but it beats having to get killed going into some stupid cave [chuckling].

I agree with all you've said and there's no meadow.

Jack

 

[Springfield]

Springfield: Yeah, but it beats having to get killed going into some stupid cave [chuckling].

I agree with all you've said and there's no meadow.

Jack

Geez ... OK, I'll do it for you. I love being underground (even worked in a hardrock mine once out of Ouray, CO), although I do sometimes shudder remembering some of the old mines I've explored in my careless youth. Yeah, sunshine still wins.

 

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

Ohio Peeps:

Regarding ultralite aircraft, check on the Murphy Maverick, made in Canada--->

Full three axis control, two place, stall with power around 29 mph, TO at sea level with two about 80 ft, landing around 200 ft, but if you are into short field work you can trim that by a large margin.

http://www.murphyair.com/murphyair/Aircraft/Maverick/Maverick.html

Need instructions? I am at your service heheehe

 

[Cynangyl]

If I ever get enough money to have one I will be sure to look you up for instructions! I looked through the site you linked and dear goodness it would be cool to have one!

 

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

HIO CYN LUV: I am about get one myself, I desperately need one.

Take you for a ride to dance in the clouds to the strains of a nice Viennese waltz? We will explore deep canyons, tunnels, caves, rivers of white in the clouds, we can go where no-one has ever been before to the strains a beautiful waltz. sigh.

 

[Cynangyl]

Sounds like a dream! Every time I get a chance to see my uncle and he is anywhere near one of his planes I beg a ride...unfortunately I do not see him often. lol I love to fly so if you plan on bringing that new baby out this direction make sure and let me know! Of course I do hope we would land the thing before exploring any caves! rofl

 

[Highmountain]

Springfield: Yeah, but it beats having to get killed going into some stupid cave [chuckling].

I agree with all you've said and there's no meadow.

Jack

Geez ... OK, I'll do it for you. I love being underground (even worked in a hardrock mine once out of Ouray, CO), although I do sometimes shudder remembering some of the old mines I've explored in my careless youth. Yeah, sunshine still wins.

Springfield: Thanks for the offer. I'll put it into the hopper when I start doing my heavy thinking about that dome.

Gracias,
Jack

 

[Highmountain]

Ohio Peeps:

Regarding ultralite aircraft, check on the Murphy Maverick, made in Canada--->

Full three axis control, two place, stall with power around 29 mph, TO at sea level with two about 80 ft, landing around 200 ft, but if you are into short field work you can trim that by a large margin.

http://www.murphyair.com/murphyair/Aircraft/Maverick/Maverick.html

Need instructions? I am at your service heheehe

Jose: Nice little bird. The undercarriage looks tougher than the Challenger I'd been looking at. A pair of larger landing gear of the bush sort would make it nicer, but the 200 foot landing roll [same for the Challenger] might be the problem. I'd guess a person could stop it shorter than 200 feet if there was a large object at 100 feet, but that mightn't solve anything.

Really nice, though my impractical self would prefer the Moose in a lot of ways for other purposes.

I'd been trying to think of a way a person might modify the Challenger with a stronger undercarriage and a pair of barn-door flaps but it probably wouldn't be a good idea.

Anyway, we ain't talking sea-level. 8000 msl might need a freezing daybreak to match sea-level specs.

I'd like to shake hands with the Maverick sometime.

Gracias,
Jack

 

[somehiker]

Other ultralight alternatives
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powered_parachute
---or you could go with the version where you strap the motor to your back.I've seen where that can be landed at near walking pace.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sabre+trike&search_type=
Lots of videos of Sabre Trikes,made in Buckeye,AZ. here.
Both para-lites and trikes would be the ideal accessory for any backcountry treasure hunter and can be hauled in any pickup or light trailer,where the road or trail that you drove in on can be your runway as well.In France and Switzerland they fly trikes over the Alps to 12-13000 ft.
Regards:SH

 

[somehiker]

The "Me and Bob go flying" video on U-tube is pretty good and shows both types in action....SH

 

[Highmountain]

Other ultralight alternatives
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powered_parachute
---or you could go with the version where you strap the motor to your back.I've seen where that can be landed at near walking pace.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sabre+trike&search_type=
Lots of videos of Sabre Trikes,made in Buckeye,AZ. here.
Both para-lites and trikes would be the ideal accessory for any backcountry treasure hunter and can be hauled in any pickup or light trailer,where the road or trail that you drove in on can be your runway as well.In France and Switzerland they fly trikes over the Alps to 12-13000 ft.
Regards:SH

Nice little option in some ways for people with still days. Here's the part that would make it not an option for this particular use:

The main hazards one faces while flying a powered parachute are associated with wind and obstacles. Flight should not be attempted in winds exceeding 10-15 mph or in gusty conditions. Wind hazards include terrain-induced air disturbances called rotors (it is advisable to stay upwind of trees, mountains, and other obstacles that disturb the flow of the wind).

I don't know what the winds aloft would be like but everything I know about wind and terrain tells me it would be a booger-bear package of everything that para doesn't like.

I've watched those things flying around the desert though a few times and thought it ought to be me up there instead of the less deserving thems that were flying those chutes. No justice in the world.

Gracias,
Jack

Edit: Thankee, but my connection's too slow to let me do UTube etc.

 

[somehiker]

I'm going strictly on memory here,but I have had less than five days out of about fifty in the superstitions where the wind,if any at all,exceeded five knots.You simply check the the forecasts and pireps if any,for the area and plan accordingly.Time of day makes a big difference out there.Also you want to takeoff and land somewhere on the flats and stay out of the canyons that are too narrow.These aircraft are flown safely in mountain ranges throughout the world.I do believe,however that it is illegal to do so in wilderness areas like the Sups.But then again,so is digging gold.Another feature is that if you were to be forced to land away from your vehicle or camp due to bad weather/wind,you can stow the wing or chute and drive back...SH.

 

[Highmountain]

I'm going strictly on memory here,but I have had less than five days out of about fifty in the superstitions where the wind,if any at all,exceeded five knots.You simply check the the forecasts and pireps if any,for the area and plan accordingly.Time of day makes a big difference out there.Also you want to takeoff and land somewhere on the flats and stay out of the canyons that are too narrow.These aircraft are flown safely in mountain ranges throughout the world.I do believe,however that it is illegal to do so in wilderness areas like the Sups.But then again,so is digging gold.Another feature is that if you were to be forced to land away from your vehicle or camp due to bad weather/wind,you can stow the wing or chute and drive back...SH.

Thanks somehiker. Good info. I was too young when I lived near the Superstitions to recall a lot about it, but I think we're talking a different order of magnitude insofar as slope, terrain, winds aloft etc. That dome's high up in the maze of deep barrancas that cut into the Continental Divide where it drops off nearly enough vertical to satisfy most normal purposes.

That feature to the right of it runs upslope at a vicious angle and doesn't have any right to be there, and that's squared and cubed by the 'half-arrowhead' at the bottom. Even though it's half a mile away from the camera I can get enough detail to have the impression it was once more-or-less free of debris, but that now it's littered with boulders top-to-bottom.

Probably no significance, but it sort of resembles the way the footprints run in part of the codex.

Thanks for the info and observations.

Jack

Edit: About midway between the dome and the weirdness to the right appears to be what was once something similar, though badly eroded and cluttered now. There's a deeply eroded 'trail' running distinctly from the bottom of the middle feature across to and below the lower end of the dome. [#5 and #6]

Heck, maybe the ancients used it for downhill ski racing. No way of knowing without a closer look.

My thinking is there's a keyhole-shaped cave entrance on this end of the dome, but it might well be trees. [#8]

 

[Highmountain]

HIO CYN LUV: I am about get one myself, I desperately need one.

Take you for a ride to dance in the clouds to the strains of a nice Viennese waltz? We will explore deep canyons, tunnels, caves, rivers of white in the clouds, we can go where no-one has ever been before to the strains a beautiful waltz. sigh.

Here we go. Best of all possible worlds except for the takeoff and landing rolls.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com:80/id/24617833?GT1=43001
http://snipurl.com/29ppv [www_msnbc_msn_com]


updated 11:42 a.m. MT, Wed., May. 14, 2008
BEX, Switzerland - Some people go fishing on their day off. Yves Rossy likes to jump out of a small plane with a pair of jet-powered wings and perform figure eights above the Swiss Alps.

Rossy, 48, made his first public flight with his self-made flying contraption in front of the world press Wednesday, after five years of training and many more years of dreaming.

"This flight was absolutely excellent," the former fighter pilot and extreme sports enthusiast said after touching down on an airfield near the eastern shore of Lake Geneva.

 

[Highmountain]

Seems to me with a little more wing, a weed-eater strapped to your chest, a pair of swimming fins, and a fuselage made of plastic garbage bags sort of coffin-shaped enclosing you a person might be able to jump off a cliff and reach the ground somewhere different than he might have expected.

 

[Highmountain]

Anyway, it's a weird little piece of nature.

 

[Cynangyl]

wooohoooo can you just imagine how much fun that would be? And quite frankly if I could get one and get close to that dome I would be all over it about now.....you keep posting these pictures and I am getting so curious I can barely stand it! lol I wanna seeeee it! I wanna know what is inside...wanna look all around outside...wanna try and figure out when and how it got there.......uhh yeah, my nickname used to be Cat...not JUST because of how curious I am but also because it was my initials at one point in my life. lol

 

[Highmountain]

wooohoooo can you just imagine how much fun that would be? And quite frankly if I could get one and get close to that dome I would be all over it about now.....you keep posting these pictures and I am getting so curious I can barely stand it! lol I wanna seeeee it! I wanna know what is inside...wanna look all around outside...wanna try and figure out when and how it got there.......uhh yeah, my nickname used to be Cat...not JUST because of how curious I am but also because it was my initials at one point in my life. lol

Cynagyl: Thanks for the reply. After seeing the pic of the Swiss gent I'm wondering whether all it might take is a superman suit and a weed-eater with a propeller and a bicycle seat bolted to it.

Definite curious piece of real estate. Maybe the easiest way to get to it would be to put one's self in a box and see if FedEx or UPS would deliver it.

Jack

 

[Cynangyl]

Oh no!! I have seen how those boxes show up that get shipped UPS and Fed ex!!! I think I would be safer in the superman suit!! rofl