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BxR2: Fly Me to the Moon Traditional Cache

Hidden : 1/25/2007
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1 out of 5

Size: Size:   small (small)

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Geocache Description:

This is a small cache at the former site of the Washington Virginia airport at Baileys Crossroads.

The coordinates take you to a space now filled with tall buildings. Look carefully on the roof of the small building beside you, and you will see two sets of dual lights on top of short poles. Those small red marker lights were some of the landing beacons for the Washington Virginia Airport that used to be here, and if you could travel in time you would be standing near the end of one of the airport's two runways.

In 1946 J. D. Benn & Charles Benn submitted an application to build and operate Bailey’s Crossroads Airport. The airport was operating by 1947, with the flight school training ex-GIs who wanted to become pilots and join the flying world. The Benn brothers ran Bailey’s Crossroads for two decades. Two runways were built first with gravel, and by 1962 both runways were paved.

Power lines & encroaching buildings led to substandard approaches, with one runway facing the drive-in movie screen located across Route 7. One plane accidentally hit the top of the screen with its landing gear one day, leaving two tire marks. On the bottling plant at the other end there were big X's painted on top of it after a small plane mistakenly landed on the building roof. Another time, a plane with engine trouble on takeoff crashed in the Toys-R-Us parking lot.

Nonetheless, the small airport's incredibly convenient location kept it as one of the most active airports in the DC area. The Washington-Virginia Airport closed over 40 years ago on October 18, 1970, and never experienced a fatal crash during its 25 years of operation

The original cache contained some laminated photographs of the airport, but that container was muggled after a couple of years and the replacement container is too small. I will send an email with some links to some articles and pictures about the airport to cachers that log the find.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Cbfgrq ohg abg fvtarq.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)