Drunken Buddha
Active member
The Sinaloan Air Force - 1985
We once were expecting a load from Mexico, 500 kilos that took up so much room in a white, stretch panel van that we ended up with 3 of the 20 lb bundles up front in the passenger side covered with a few jackets and towels. You could smell the van 50 feet away, we discovered, when we got it to Phoenix later and parked on the street, awaiting a friend to arrive.
Paranoia strikes deep.....
Anyway......we had a remote airstrip in Northern Arizona that was outside of a small town. The 10 mile dirt road that went past the airport and on to other private ranches and cabins further out was unpredictable when it came to traffic. Some days only 5 vehicles might pass that way; other days only 2 early in the morning; and on vacation weekends it could see 20 campers or hunters going past at odd times.
We rented a 2 ton flatbed truck from U-Haul and drove it 200 miles to the remote airstrip area. One of my guys camped in it overnight since we were expecting the load at 8am precisely. The airstrip was above the passing road which passed by through a dry riverbed gully about 40 feet below the strip area. We had the truck parked in the middle of the road pretending that it was broken down. This would make any vehicles coming from the town direction stop well out of sight from the airstrip above. My friend stood next to the truck, ready, just in case any vehicles came along the road so he could quickly lie under the truck and play the role. He had disconnected a wire to the strarter so that it truly couldn't move.
Good thing he did so and that we went that far like Mission Impossible. Two rancher-type vehicles arrived at 10 minutes to 8am and were blocked by Jon at the flat bed. It was in a perfect spot so no one could drive around it on the basically one-lane wide dirt track. One rancher got extra-helpful and climbed into our flatbed to "help" start it. It turned over and over with no start, just the solenoid trying its best. While this drama was playing out below us, the Sinaloan Air Force Cessna did an immediate landing without even a one-time fly-by as a safety check (for rocks or animals on the runway) and began kicking out 20 pound, cellophane-wrapped bales of primo mountain sinsemilla.
Our panel van was at the loading end so they just taxied up nearby to begin the unloading process. The pilot and his helper finished in what seemed like a mere 3 minutes, gunned their motor, and blew off the runway and back to Old Mexico. Their job in all of this was finished far before our two guys could load the panel van so there was this big pile of bales lying on the open runway. Good thing we blocked the road because it was very obvious what the airplane noise was connected to. If someone had driven by it would have been a mess. It was pre-cell phone days back then in 1982 but many ranchers had CBs (Citizen Band radios) or even a few had wireless FM radios to connect to their ranch's telephone land line.
Hard to imagine how the Sinaloan Air Force could be on time coming from 500+ miles away in a twin Cessna tail-dragger, but they were within 3 minutes of the exact hour. They would cross the border flying 200 feet above the ground surface balls-to-the-wall. No GPS back then and these guys had never even visited our strip. We showed them on a map a month before and they used the current aviation maps, the most accurate for pilots back then, to pinpoint where it was.
Our boys finally got all the bales into the van and drove down into the gully and stopped when they came to the "broken down" flatbed truck. This signaled Jon to quickly re-attach the starter cable and ask the rancher to give it another try. It started immediately, of course, and the flatbed moved toward the wide space in the road where there was room to get past the van and continue on. The two ranch trucks also passed our Sinsemilla van, waved thanks, and disappeared. The van moved on down the road, taking a back way to the main paved highway that then carried it on down to the Phoenix valley. The rest is history as this fine herb made its way to its final destination in New York city and Brooklyn.
We once were expecting a load from Mexico, 500 kilos that took up so much room in a white, stretch panel van that we ended up with 3 of the 20 lb bundles up front in the passenger side covered with a few jackets and towels. You could smell the van 50 feet away, we discovered, when we got it to Phoenix later and parked on the street, awaiting a friend to arrive.
Paranoia strikes deep.....
Anyway......we had a remote airstrip in Northern Arizona that was outside of a small town. The 10 mile dirt road that went past the airport and on to other private ranches and cabins further out was unpredictable when it came to traffic. Some days only 5 vehicles might pass that way; other days only 2 early in the morning; and on vacation weekends it could see 20 campers or hunters going past at odd times.
We rented a 2 ton flatbed truck from U-Haul and drove it 200 miles to the remote airstrip area. One of my guys camped in it overnight since we were expecting the load at 8am precisely. The airstrip was above the passing road which passed by through a dry riverbed gully about 40 feet below the strip area. We had the truck parked in the middle of the road pretending that it was broken down. This would make any vehicles coming from the town direction stop well out of sight from the airstrip above. My friend stood next to the truck, ready, just in case any vehicles came along the road so he could quickly lie under the truck and play the role. He had disconnected a wire to the strarter so that it truly couldn't move.
Good thing he did so and that we went that far like Mission Impossible. Two rancher-type vehicles arrived at 10 minutes to 8am and were blocked by Jon at the flat bed. It was in a perfect spot so no one could drive around it on the basically one-lane wide dirt track. One rancher got extra-helpful and climbed into our flatbed to "help" start it. It turned over and over with no start, just the solenoid trying its best. While this drama was playing out below us, the Sinaloan Air Force Cessna did an immediate landing without even a one-time fly-by as a safety check (for rocks or animals on the runway) and began kicking out 20 pound, cellophane-wrapped bales of primo mountain sinsemilla.
Our panel van was at the loading end so they just taxied up nearby to begin the unloading process. The pilot and his helper finished in what seemed like a mere 3 minutes, gunned their motor, and blew off the runway and back to Old Mexico. Their job in all of this was finished far before our two guys could load the panel van so there was this big pile of bales lying on the open runway. Good thing we blocked the road because it was very obvious what the airplane noise was connected to. If someone had driven by it would have been a mess. It was pre-cell phone days back then in 1982 but many ranchers had CBs (Citizen Band radios) or even a few had wireless FM radios to connect to their ranch's telephone land line.
Hard to imagine how the Sinaloan Air Force could be on time coming from 500+ miles away in a twin Cessna tail-dragger, but they were within 3 minutes of the exact hour. They would cross the border flying 200 feet above the ground surface balls-to-the-wall. No GPS back then and these guys had never even visited our strip. We showed them on a map a month before and they used the current aviation maps, the most accurate for pilots back then, to pinpoint where it was.
Our boys finally got all the bales into the van and drove down into the gully and stopped when they came to the "broken down" flatbed truck. This signaled Jon to quickly re-attach the starter cable and ask the rancher to give it another try. It started immediately, of course, and the flatbed moved toward the wide space in the road where there was room to get past the van and continue on. The two ranch trucks also passed our Sinsemilla van, waved thanks, and disappeared. The van moved on down the road, taking a back way to the main paved highway that then carried it on down to the Phoenix valley. The rest is history as this fine herb made its way to its final destination in New York city and Brooklyn.
