PDA

View Full Version : What is "high desert"?



Pages : [1] 2

potzbie
12-02-2006, 11:11 AM
You've been to DCA and know the intended geographic area the designers want the visitor to "feel."
I agree that the "feel" of the SOARIN' OVER CALIFORNIA area of the "Golden State" section of DCA has a "high desert" feel.

My question is, "Which PART of the high desert do you think of, when you see the air hanger, or the airplane, or the billboard?

Barstow?
Mojave?
China Lake?
Calico?

I think of the drive to Las Vegas, when I pass Phelan, or later at Zzyx Road.
Dry. Sandy. No humidity. Hot.

Do you have a city or area in mind, when you walk by those props, or when you remember those images?

Eigenbreakfast
12-02-2006, 12:07 PM
A fictionalized version of that great Edwards in the sky where Howard Hughes is drinking milk waiting for Bert Rutan and Chuck Yeager.

charpaul
12-02-2006, 02:00 PM
It reminds me of my drive to work every morning. My school is geographically right between Edwards Airforce Base and Phelan in the High Desert. Just like home;)

disney jones
12-02-2006, 02:35 PM
i don't think its high desert at all, i think its Anza Borrego State park.

Tinkermommy
12-02-2006, 05:27 PM
I live in the High Desert (Victorville), and it doesn't look anything like my desert!

Then again, the High Desert is pretty darned big, and I'm sure there is a lot of it I haven't seen!

raych30
12-02-2006, 07:59 PM
I live in Apple Valley and work in Victorville. It's funny, I never really payed attention to the "high desert" part of the scenery. It sure doesn't look like home to me.

Shootingstaar
12-02-2006, 07:59 PM
I live in Victorville too! What a very small world!

darph nader
12-02-2006, 08:21 PM
I thought this was going to be about southern Ariz. during the 60s and 70s.;)
Sorry.:rolleyes:

TikiGeek
12-03-2006, 08:11 AM
It's intended to be Edwards Air Base - Mojave. Have you seen the movie The Right Stuff? That was the incentive - they were trying to recreate that. ;)

disneyhound
12-03-2006, 06:47 PM
I'm reminded of "Upper Mesopotamia" or maybe "Lower Mesopotamia"

lauramaynot
12-04-2006, 08:55 AM
I am from Barstow and I don't think that the high desert is really represented in any part of DCA, that said however I do think that the Condor Flats area looks like the Daggett airport. Built in 1933 the Daggett Airport is the oldest airport in SBC. Condor Flats feels like that time period and the architecture of the hangars and the crumbley looking runways are similar to Daggett. Here are some pics of the Daggett Airport...

http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?_adv_prop=images&imgsz=all&imgc=&vf=all&va=daggett+airport&fr=yfp-t-501&ei=UTF-8

potzbie
12-04-2006, 11:36 AM
Condor Flats feels like that time period and the architecture of the hangars and the crumbley looking runways are similar to Daggett.


It looks like DAGGETT is a blend of the Marine base at Twenty-nine Palms, and March Field in Perris, CA.
That's pretty darn close, in my opinion, to what DCA's "Condor Flats" is suppose to suggest.

I'll buy it! -- Daggett, it is! :) :) :)

disney jones
12-04-2006, 12:45 PM
i'm sticking to my theory of Anza-Borrego. it's mentioned in the pre-show specifically.

Crazydave
12-04-2006, 01:10 PM
It's intended to be Edwards Air Base - Mojave. Have you seen the movie The Right Stuff? That was the incentive - they were trying to recreate that. ;)

from the right stuff (my favorite monologue from a movie):

“There was a demon that lived in the air. They said whoever challenged him would die. His controls would freeze up, his plane would buffet wildly, and he would disintegrate. The demon lived at Mach 1 on the meter, seven hundred and fifty miles an hour, where the air could no longer move out of the way. He lived behind a barrier through which they said no man would ever pass. They called it the sound barrier.”

"Then they built a small plane, the X-1, to try and break the sound barrier. Men came to the high-desert of California to ride it. They were called test pilots, and no one knew their names."



I think high desert refers any desert enviroment at a higher altitude.
For example the desert out in yuma az would not be high desert as its around 180 feet. If think edwards is at around 2200 feet to 2800 feet above sea level.

TikiGeek
12-04-2006, 01:38 PM
from the right stuff ..."Then they built a small plane, the X-1, to try and break the sound barrier. Men came to the high-desert of California to ride it. They were called test pilots, and no one knew their names."That's it! You've got it! ;) That's a replica of the X-1 bursting out of the top of Taste Pilots Grill. Much of the music that's played as area music in Condor Flats is from The Right Stuff.

BTW - "Who's the best pilot that you've ever seen?";)

Bolivar
12-04-2006, 02:04 PM
I was just going to post two annoyingly picky corrections to information posted here and find that I am wrong about one of them:

I thought the plane was XS-1 and not the X-1, but I find it was originally the XS-1, but was renamed the X-1 before it passed the sound barrier.

My other annoying correction is to point out that at the time that Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier it wasn't Edward's Airforce Base, it was Muroc Army Air Field.

Crazydave
12-04-2006, 02:26 PM
That's it! You've got it! ;) That's a replica of the X-1 bursting out of the top of Taste Pilots Grill. Much of the music that's played as area music in Condor Flats is from The Right Stuff.

BTW - "Who's the best pilot that you've ever seen?";)


"You're looking at him!" :)

Crazydave
12-04-2006, 02:31 PM
if you wanna check out the vegetation... check it out
Edwards AFB (aka muroc army air base) (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=edwards+AFB&ie=UTF8&z=13&t=h&om=1)

CariBelle
12-04-2006, 03:03 PM
It makes me think of EAB too!

Bolivar
12-04-2006, 03:22 PM
Back in 1982 or 1983 I covered the first landing of the space shuttle. I arrived at Edwards the day before it landed and parked at the landing field on the dry lakebed. A lot of press arrived the day before and there were no facilities for us at all, in fact I slept in my car. One team brought softball gear and we got up a softball game there on the dry lakebed. If the ball got by you it just rolled, and rolled, and rolled, and rolled...

The television networks didn't arrive until the morning of the landing. They acted all high and mighty and told all us small time press folks to move so they could get their behemoth news RVs up front. Not one of us moved. They tried to raise a stink and get us moved, but in the end, they were parked behind us. They set up their cameras on top of their RVs anyway, so being 10-15 feet back really didn't make any difference to them.

PKile
12-13-2006, 06:17 AM
Condor Flats is my favorite part of DCA, but for another reason. The whole place reminds me of where I work - Aerojet in Sacramento. The liquid rocket engine with the water mist "plume" could be a cold flow test on our old G-Zone titan engine test stand. The old equipment scattered about is very reminiscent of some of our inactive areas. I commend the Disney imagineers for duplicating the "feel" of an aerospace test facility.

My only regret is that the food in the Taste Pilot's grill is so awful. I like spending time in there just looking at the photos and engineering drawings on the walls.

Cheers,
Paul Kile

danyoung
12-13-2006, 03:29 PM
i'm sticking to my theory of Anza-Borrego. it's mentioned in the pre-show specifically.

The shot in Soarin of the cowboys riding through the rough country, and then the jets come screaming through, is indeed Anza Borrego. I think what the OP was talking about was the theming of the area in DCA.

hbquikcomjamesl
12-13-2006, 04:30 PM
Taste Pilot's grill is so awful.Indeed. Waste of a good building, you ask me. Just looking at the menu convinced me it wasn't worth a try.

Although I don't suppose it could possibly be as bad as that food court in Hollywood Backlot was (I had the misfortune of eating there exactly once)?!?

mulansgirl
12-13-2006, 06:05 PM
I just moved back to phelan. I did not know there were so many DL fans in the area. I dont get out much so I dont really know the scenery well but my husband always says something about our area when we go on the ride. But he has lived in phelan for 24 years so he would know better than me. I never remember what part he mentions it though. I think in the line and maybe points something out in the ride but less sure on that one. The High Desert is pretty big. Phelan is mostly a gas station on the way to Las Vegas though.

SoCalSteven
12-14-2006, 03:31 PM
My aircraft fiend friend says it is China Lake on Soarin'.

Another Victorville resident checking in.