On Aug 29, 12:41 am, "Lumpy" <lu...@digitalcartography.com> wrote:

m...@sushi.com wrote:

I saw a helicopter land on the Badger
Moutain facility twice...
The use of a jet ranger can mean a few things. One, Nellis either owns
one or contracts the use of one to reach these mountain top
facilities. Two, the base contracts out the maintenance work itself,
and that company uses a jet ranger. Three, perhaps some gear is
maintained by contractors, and other gear is maintained by the USAF,
and I just happened to see the civilians.

I thought Badger was no longer functioning?
Last photos I saw showed cables cut, housings empty.
Not vandalized, but removed from service.
Have they re-installed equipment and got
the site up and running again?

Craig 'Lumpy' Lemke

www.n0eq.com

All I can verify is the chopper made two visits that day. I suppose I
can do the hike sometime. It looks like two times a Tikaboo, but then
again I wouldn't be carrying a tripod, telescope, tent, etc. Carrying
all that gear makes a big difference. Carrying only water to drop off
along the trail, I did the Tikaboo round trip in around 3 hours, and
that was in August heat. [I don't park at the trail head.]

I got an email regarding Sundance Helicopters, which does government
work.
http://www.helicoptour.com/charters.html
<http://www.usaspending.gov/fpds/fpds.php?
reptype=r&detail=-1&sortby=f&state=NV&datype=T&reptype=r&database=fpds&database=fpds&parent_id=184344&fiscal_year=2006&record_num=f500>

They mostly use Eurocopters, not Bell Jet Rangers, though they do own
one. I could see the larger Eurocopters being just for tours and the
smaller jet ranger for mountaintop trips. Then again, since I viewed
the chopper with my naked eye over some distance, they could have been
flying a Eurocopter. I'm reasonably sure they were not using the
larger HH-60.