Early Aviation in the San Simon Valley

Early aviation routes frequently followed the iron compass (railroads) insuring visible landmarks all along the route. The location of the Rodeo Intermediate field with it's big red directional arrow is a good example. The San Diego (and Los Angeles) to El Paso air route followed the old El Paso and Southwestern rail line from Douglas AZ through the San Simon Valley and on to El Paso and many other intermediate fields can be found associated with railroads. So while the San Simon Valley has an established history of aviation, this history can be traced back even further than the early commercial air routes and air fields. The first transcontinental flight in US history also passed across the San Simon Valley in it's journey from Lordsburg to Wilcox on the way to the west coast.

The aircraft was a Wright Brothers modified model B biplane (known as the EX model) named after the soda Vin Fiz, Armour's newest grape soda, and was piloted by C. P. Rodgers. After 90 minutes of flight training then solo Rodgers purchased a Wright Flyer, then persuaded the Armour company to provide sponsorship. The company provided a complete support crew and and a 3 car train for the trip which would accompany Rodgers along the iron compass across the US.

The trips route (see map below) started on September 17, 1911, in New York city, then to Chicago. The route turned southwest across the heartland of the US and into Texas. A westerly course was re-established after reaching San Antonio. The route went through El Paso and into New Mexico. At one point less than 20 miles into New Mexico Rodgers spent several days stuck in the sand at the El Paso and Southwestern siding town of Mastodon (1). He used a hand car as a catapult for takeoff, crashing the hand car into an oncoming train. His route then went northwest to Lordsburg, through the San Simon Valley east to west, and then on to Wilcox. Rodgers reached the Pasadena California 49 days later. But suffered another mishap while making the hops to the coast. After 3 weeks recovery, on December 10th he landed on the beach of the Pacific Ocean completing the first trans continental flight.

References:
Back to Basics in the Vin Fiz Flyer
The Epic Flight of the Vin Fiz Flyer
The Vin Fiz - The First U.S. Transcontinental Flight
Vin Fiz Flyer

Civil Aeronautics Authority field 57A, Rodeo Intermediate field

The Rodeo Intermediate field (Civil Aeronautics Authority field 57A) was the first airfield in the San Simon Valley. Built by the Department of Commerce it served as a turn point on the route from California to El Paso. The field was used as an auxiliary field during WWII and was eventually shut down in the early 1950's. The buildings from the site were not torn down but moved. The radio building now sits in the town of Rodeo, New Mexico's most western town and is part of Rodeo Cottages. Below are photographs of the roof of the old radio building where the air route designation can still be read. On the back roof it reads "SD-EP 26A" and underneath the other designation 57A can still be seen.


Front roof of Rodeo Cottages showing "Rodeo"

Back roof of Rodeo Cottages showing "SD-EP 26A"

Sixty Five Years ago Yesterday

August 21, 1945, a Grumman Hellcat F6F and a B-25 managed to intersect in the skies 5 miles north of Rodeo. The mid-air collision sent the Hellcat to the ground but the B-25 managed to make it to Douglas and land. Don't know where the specific crash site is located but it should be somewhere around Amigos del Cielo airpark. The details can be found here.

A total of 8 aircraft accidents are reported from Rodeo New Mexico in the Air Force accident database during WWII.

Sky Gypsies Geoglyph

Like the Nazca lines in Peru, certain terrain features can only be appreciated from the air. In many cases these are man made features although nature creates many beautiful and elegant images. One of these man made creations is now visible on Google Earth. The Sky Gypsy logo created by New York artist Ben Sargent during the "Art Race" now shows up on Google Earth. The satellite image is of lower quality than that shown on the main page, but if the viewer goes to the image captured on Aug, 14 2009 the completed Sky Gypsy complex is visible as well as the geoglyph. Below is a screen capture of the satellite image from that date and below that is a low level aerial photo of the geoglyph for comparison.

Click each to open in a larger window.


Other photos of the geoglyph may be found at the Brooklyn Chowder Surfer.

Even Google is Getting into Low Level Aerial Photography

Google hosts the Sky Gypsies blog and Goggle Earth is the repository for many of the low level aerial images of New Mexico's bootheel created from weight shift control light sport aircraft. In fact Google Earth is routinely used to design low level aerial photographs using the tilt down feature. I have written several postings about the utility of Google Earth and how to create low level aerial photographs to enhance the viewers experience. It appears that now the Google folks are getting into the idea themselves. In this article and this article, Google is reportedly testing a small aerial drone with photographic capabilities. The article suggests that the inclusion of low level aerial images would complement the satellite images and street views available on Google Earth and Google maps. I fully agree and I went so far as to submit a proposal to them, see text below. It was also partial impetus for the creation of the bootheel photodocumentation project, which brings together a number of the aerial images from the multi-image aerial panoramas (big picture) to the low level pictures of erosion features (the little picture) in a demonstration of what can be achieved with weight shift control light sport aircraft.

While the battery powered quadcopter can stay up for an hour gathering data I would like to point out that only a pilot with a photographers eye can find the great shot and then place the aircraft in a position to get the picture. That takes planning but also a good deal of moving the aircraft around while looking at the scene from a number of different angles to get the right view. While 2 people (a pilot and a photographer) may be able to coordinate their activities a single person can do the job faster, easier, and get the aircraft into areas ground based personnel can not reach. Finally, a word of advice, the coolest aerial photographs are those taken either looking out or looking up at ground based features.

Draft of proposal submitted
Creating meaningful images takes time, patience, and skill, and the submitted results visible on Google Earth attest to the creativity of various photographers. But as human beings we are limited to the creating photographs within about 6 feet of the ground and generally within walking distance of our car. We circumvent this limitation by climbing buildings or any structure to get a better view, or by driving till the road ends then hiking up mountains, standing on cliff edges, or hanging off ropes, all in an effort to capture a unique image. But there are severe limitations in accessing many areas of the country. Land ownership prevents many from going where photographic opportunities exist. Landowners, especially in the west, jealously guard access to their property even if the photographer is only crossing to access public lands. But while the land maybe owned by an individual, the airspace is not. Rather it is regulated by the Federal Government and belongs to no individual and best of all starts just above the dirt.

Using open cockpit weight shift control light sport aircraft, affectionately known as trikes, a photographer can place the camera anywhere from 6 feet on up. In addition by flying low (within the regulations) they can place the camera view on any spot not accessible to the ground based photographer creating either landscape photographs or up close shots of specific subjects without trespassing and becoming the immediate recipient of a landowners wrath.

So how does Google Earth fit in with this “extremely low flying aircraft as a tripod” approach to photography? Well, it can be stated in a single word, composition. Flying around looking for the right scene rapidly becomes time and cost prohibitive, but with Google Earth and high resolution satellite imagery it is possible to design a landscape photograph before every going outside. Time spent working with Google Earth and the tilt down feature allows the photographer to test different camera placements from the flats of the valley to inaccessible hilltops and get an idea if there is a hidden photograph waiting to be captured from that vantage point. If so, it then becomes a matter of flying to the spot and placing the aircraft at the altitude of the hilltop or close to the ground and then capturing the image. That is not to say it is an easy task using a light sport aircraft as a tripod. There are still all the usual photographic considerations such as lighting which must be accounted for. In addition, piloting an aircraft and taking photographs takes some expertise especially in tight quarters. Weather also plays a major factor, winds can move the aerial tripod in different directions ruining a shot. But the amount of time and energy saved in preplanning photographs using Google Earth is well worth the effort.

This is not aerial photography in its strict sense. The idea here is to place the aircraft in a spot normally inaccessible to ground based photographers and capture an intriguing image with the goal of creating images that could have been taken from a particular spot in a conventional manner but weren’t. For example, this photograph was taken from a height of about 75 feet, well below the surrounding hilltops, and captures Granite Peak from an unusual angle. It is 1 of 3 photographs made of Granite Gap and accepted at Google Earth. Or this photograph of Animas New Mexico was taken from the top of a local hill.

So by first using Google Earth to compose photographs then placing an aerial tripod in remote or inaccessible places it is possible to create scenic landscape photographs that have a much higher probability of success.