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From: brent@poseidon.UUCP (Brent P. Callaghan)
Newsgroups: net.aviation
Subject: Re: Strange Airports (Marana)
Message-ID: <1303@poseidon.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 11-Oct-85 09:45:51 EDT
Article-I.D.: poseidon.1303
Posted: Fri Oct 11 09:45:51 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 12-Oct-85 18:33:09 EDT
References: <124@ulose.UUCP> <5300005@ccvaxa> <779@terak.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Information Systems, Lincroft NJ
Lines: 33

I agree with Doug Pardee - Marana is spooky ? My wife and
I drove through there about 6 years ago.  From a distance
it looks like you're approaching a major airport.  You can
see the fins of dozens of large airliners.  

At the gate we were greeted by a guard who asked what our business
was and let us through the barrier.  The jetliners there are
surplus to requirements and are kept there cos tiedowns are
cheap, security is good, and the dry desert air doesn't
corrode the aluminium.
We didn't go near the jetliners on the tarmac.  A sentry
was taking two fierce dogs for a walk in the vicinity.

There is at least one legit operation there: a skydiving
operation.  They train quite a few student skydivers there
from the Phoenix area.  They seemed to be quite a professional,
polished operation.  They didn't have a very good relationship
with another bunch of skydivers at Coolidge about
40 miles northeast who were banished there some years ago
from another DZ nicknamed "The Gulch" after too many landed
without their parachutes open.

Coolidge is in the middle of nowhere.  It is an ex WW2
military airfield.  First impressions were that of a ghost
town. The wind was blowing dust and tumbleweeds all over.
It too has a nickname: "Ghoulidge".
Anybody had occasion to pass through Coolidge AZ ?
-- 
				
Made in New Zealand -->		Brent Callaghan
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