My wife and I drove up to the Wenas beacon site yesterday. WENAS AIRWAY BEACON Y 1
Coordinates: 46.84020665, -120.5281213

DESCRIBED BY COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY 1941 (JCS)
SB1114'STATION IS A STANDARD RED AND WHITE STRIPED, ROTATING TYPE, AIRWAY
SB1114'BEACON WITH A CONTROL AND FUEL HOUSE AT ITS BASE. BEING LOCATED ON
SB1114'A PROMINENT HILL, IT MAKES AN EXCELLENT LANDMARK FOR 20 OR 30 MILES
SB1114'AWAY. SEE DESCRIPTION OF TRIANGULATION STATION WENAS.
SB1114'
SB1114'THIS IS AN INTERSECTION STATION.

http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/ds_mark ... Box=SB1114






Edit: These footings are not part of the old Beacon facility.

Does anyone have a official diagram on the dimensions of these arrows? Should the head of the arrow be a Equilateral, a Isosceles, or an Isosceles right ( 90 degree point ). Easy to tell in some pics, but others are distorted from the angle the cell phone was held at. Knowing how the government works, I'd expect that they would all be very similar. ( gen shed on one end, tower in the middle, arrow head on other end.) Of course, some would have a bend after the tower pad, while others might be straight, yes, I get that. Mostly just the length, wide of arrow shaft, head dimensions is what I'm after. Anybody live close to one?

tcj wrote:My wife and I drove up to the Wenas beacon site yesterday. WENAS AIRWAY BEACON Y 1
Coordinates: 46.84020665, -120.5281213


http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/ds_mark ... Box=SB1114

Too bad the shack is in ruins. It might have made a nice pilots lounge for some of these mountain toppers around here.

For the record I have edited my post above to clarify that the footings in this photo are not part of the Wenas Beacon facility. They are adjacent to it next to and across the road to the south. They are not there in an old aerial photo taken August 1954. The beacon facility is the white dots you can see right in the center of the old aerial photo at the end of the short spur road..



Old aerial photo taken 8-7-54

Mister701 said:

Too bad the shack is in ruins. It might have made a nice pilots lounge for some of these mountain toppers around here.

When I'm wandering around the hills around here I often think the same thing. Courrierguy would would be in 7th Hog Heaven.

On Feb 22, 2014, ( page 5 ) I made a comment in this thread that I had a old pic of the airway marker painted on a building in Shed Oregon on old hwy 99E ( between Eugene and Albany ) Never found the picture, but while driving a few days ago to Eugene I decided to take the old way and enjoy the view. I almost drove off the road when I came through Tangent Oregon ( just 5 miles North of Shed Oregon ) and found the old airway marker on the roof of the building. I had been thinking of the wrong town.

It was like seeing an old friend. I can't believe its still there since I first laid eyes on it in 1985. I figured it would have been painted over with that "snow roof" sealant stuff by now or weathered away completely. Notice that the creek runs under the building. I'm guessing it was an old feed mill originally.

If let's say..., the letters were last painted as part of regular FAA maintenance in the 1940's ( a guess ), that's would be some real good paint. The arrow points to the Albany Oregon Airport. The distance of "7" is in statue miles, not nautical miles. I have no info on the other set of numbers, but I'm sure that they correspond to a maps of the day.

For your reference, the building is on the East side on hwy 99E and north of Birdfoot. It is located near present day V23 to the Northwest of SHEDD intersection. Tangent is South of Albany, North of Eugene of East of Corvallis Oregon.

So did anybody here with a shop or barn even think about painting something similar that points to a nearby airport just for the fun of it? As a way to keep the tradition alive and have bragging rights? Could be a cool project with lots of BBQ, and potato salad. I'd sure help.

Blade Runner wrote:

I have no info on the other set of numbers, but I'm sure that they correspond to a maps of the day.

The other numbers 44 32, -123 07 are the Lat and Long. Copy and paste them in the search box on google maps and tangent Oregon with that building right in the middle of town will come up.

The other numbers 44 32, -123 07 are the Lat and Long. Copy and paste them in the search box on google maps and tangent Oregon with that building right in the middle of town will come up.

embarrassed. It was really right there in front of me the entire time TCJ? Oh, man

The tire shop is now closed. I see some of the old tires are still on the South side.

Does anyone else know of a building with a marker on it like this anywhere?

I was returning from CA the other day which took me right over Buffalo Valley so I decided to land.

http://www.airfields-freeman.com/NV/Airfields_NV_NE.htm

After circling for a long time, trying to determine the best spot, I decided just to land in front of what was the former building.



There is a lot of old debris and junk laying around so it was interesting to walk around and look at the remnants in what is a pretty remote place.







Despite this being a former airfield, there really aren't many suitable places to land. If you try it be prepared for short, although an excursion into the sagebrush could extend the roll out a little. Much beyond that and the surface has quite a few rills in it if you wind up long it could be a bouncy ride.




An aerial view on departure:

BladeRunner wrote:....For your reference, the building is on the East side on hwy 99E and north of Birdfoot. It is located near present day V23 to the Northwest of SHEDD intersection. Tangent is South of Albany, North of Eugene of East of Corvallis Oregon......

This building is also visible in this page
http://www.satelliteviews.net/cgi-bin/g ... pe=airport
just scroll south from Albany airport.
I use this website a lot to investigate stuff I see from the air, nice because I can reference location with regards to the nearest airport.

Thanks for posting this. I enjoy seeing these old town name markings more than old arrows.
I'd like to say "remember when they always used to paint the name of the town on the water tower?" but that was a little before my time.
A friend of mine is a painter, and a pilot, I'm always telling him he should do a painting of Barker airstrip near Conway WA (one of his favorite reporting points) with a buncha Stearman cropdusters parked on the ground and his C140A going by overhead. With CONWAY painted on the roof of the old hangar, of course.

BladeRunner wrote:

The other numbers 44 32, -123 07 are the Lat and Long. Copy and paste them in the search box on google maps and tangent Oregon with that building right in the middle of town will come up.

embarrassed. It was really right there in front of me the entire time TCJ? Oh, man

The tire shop is now closed. I see some of the old tires are still on the South side.

Does anyone else know of a building with a marker on it like this anywhere?

Link to an article about the history of roof top markings wnd who put them there. http://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-f ... 95/?no-ist

This is little Bald Mountain Lookout on the Naches Ranger District in 1972.

The arrow outside of Lovelock is still there but someone gave it a fresh coat of paint.