[NA?] Hays, Kansas - What is it?

GRG55

GRG55

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This may sound a dumb question to anyone who might know the answer...but I am curious.

I was inbound to Hays, Kansas from the west on the I-70 last night about 10 pm local (don't ask the obvious pilot question :( ). Just north of the interstate immediately west of the town is a large array of what appear to be red clearance lights. Must be more than a 100 of them in a line maybe a mile or two long. Quite low to the ground, well below normal antenna tower height. They are all synchronized to flash at the same time, and it is easily visible from at least 15 miles back. Never seen anything like it. I am guessing a large antenna array? But that's a lot of red lights to define something like that.

Do any of you Kansans like Ted, or anyone else know what this is? Interstate driving not conducive to taking photographs, and it was too dark to see anything else.
 
The lights are sync'd to help identify the structures are part of large group. Dunno if it is significant...maybe it is in a low vis situation.
 
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ktup-flyer said:
Wind farm
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Thank you.
Makes sense, especially given there appears to be nothing here to stop it (the wind I mean). The lights were not at the same elevation, but terrain changes along the line could account for that, or lights are mounted at different points on the masts. In the hill country where I live the wind farms are on the ridges and each one has its own strobe, always at the top of the mast, nothing synced.
 
Yep, wind farm is my guess.
 
Yeah, between Salina and Hays you'll run across a large wind farm. Pretty cool to see at night and pretty creepy to see on a foggy day.

Some of those windmills are very close to the highway. When it's really foggy you'll drive along and then a slowly turning windmill will emerge like something out of a sci fi invasion movie.
 
Wind farm. The first time I saw one I was driving, it was at night, the clouds were almost to the ground and visibility was about 1/4 mile. I really did not see the lights, but the bottoms of the clouds would glow red, the dark, red, then dark.....Talk about spooky....
 
Wind farm. I've seen many that have lights that are synced, but usually there's a couple lights out of phase. If it's one thing Kansas has a lot of, it's wind.
 
GRG55 said:
This may sound a dumb question to anyone who might know the answer...but I am curious.

I was inbound to Hays, Kansas from the west on the I-70 last night about 10 pm local (don't ask the obvious pilot question :( ). Just north of the interstate immediately west of the town is a large array of what appear to be red clearance lights. Must be more than a 100 of them in a line maybe a mile or two long. Quite low to the ground, well below normal antenna tower height. They are all synchronized to flash at the same time, and it is easily visible from at least 15 miles back. Never seen anything like it. I am guessing a large antenna array? But that's a lot of red lights to define something like that.

Do any of you Kansans like Ted, or anyone else know what this is? Interstate driving not conducive to taking photographs, and it was too dark to see anything else.
Click to expand...

Did you intend to say 'the 70?'
 
It's a wind farm. There is also one SW of KOWI (Ottawa) around Waverly and one 3 - 4 nm south of Beaumont Hotel (07S) on the ridge.
 

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Matthew said:
Some of those windmills are very close to the highway. When it's really foggy you'll drive along and then a slowly turning windmill will emerge like something out of a sci fi invasion movie
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Same thing going along I35 near the Arbuckle Mountain area. Fun to see as you're driving along, and really creepy to see them emerge out of fog.
 
gkainz said:
Only in California are interstates, freeways and highways granted a definitive article "the" ...
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But if your a CA native, your allowed to still use the as the article for any numbered or named highway, freeway, road, trail, navigable waterway or checkout lane in any city, county, state or sovereign Indian nation.
 
ChemGuy said:
But if your a CA native, your allowed to still use the as the article for any numbered or named highway, freeway, road, trail, navigable waterway or checkout lane in any city, county, state or sovereign Indian nation.
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It's actually encouraged so that we can tell the Californicans from the rest of us.
 
We shouldn't have to worry to much about many more of them thar wind farm thangs poppin up. Things are in the process to do something about all that pesky alternative energy stuff competing with good ol' oil n coal.
 
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gkainz said:
Only in California are interstates, freeways and highways granted a definitive article "the" ...
Click to expand...

Correction...only in SOUTHERN California. We know how to speak in NorCal!

...well, most of the time.
 
SoonerAviator said:
Wind farm. I've seen many that have lights that are synced, but usually there's a couple lights out of phase. If it's one thing Kansas has a lot of, it's wind.
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Do you know why the wind always blows in Kansas?
 
luvflyin said:
We shouldn't have to worry to much about many more of them thar wind farm thanks poppin up. Things are in the process to do something about all that pesky alternative energy stuff competing with good ol' oil n coal.
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They must be coal powered. It would cost too much to have solar panels driving those giant wind generating fans.
 
luvflyin said:
Yup. Not every one in the group is lit. Don't fly between the lights
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It can vary from wind farm to wind farm. It's been a couple years since I looked it up but at that time there were no nationwide regulatory standards, only recommendations.
 
Clark1961 said:
It can vary from wind farm to wind farm. It's been a couple years since I looked it up but at that time there were no nationwide regulatory standards, only recommendations.
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These particular wind farms - the one in the OP and the larger one east of there all appear to have every windmill lit with a single red light on top. But I wouldn't trust that all of those beacons are working properly.
 
Driving across Kansas twice every winter to/from Steamboat Springs on I-70, it seems wind farms are the only thing between Topeka and Denver:cool: (besides Ft. Riley)

Cheers
 
Clark1961 said:
Naw, the wind is outa the southwest always. Nebraska sucks and Oklahoma blows
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So, really the last line in the chain is Texas sucking. I'm okay with that! Sh-it runs downhill and ends up in TX, too, lol.


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Sac Arrow said:
Did you intend to say 'the 70?'
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No.
Everyone I know always refers to the interstates with the letter "I" in front of the number..."I'm taking the eye-five to Portland".
 
gkainz said:
Only in California are interstates, freeways and highways granted a definitive article "the" ...
Click to expand...

Only in Southern California. In the rest of the state we don't have that cultural oddity....


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gkainz said:
Only in California are interstates, freeways and highways granted a definitive article "the" ...
Click to expand...
Only in SOUTHERN California.

It stems from the fact that (a) there are a hell of a lot of them down there, and (b) they were all named when built, excepting a few of the very newest, and people actually used the names (e.g., it's the Harbor Fwy or Pomona Fwy, not 110 or 60 -- up north, NO ONE will ever use the Nimitz name; they will call it 880).
 
Clark1961 said:
The lights are sync'd to help identify the structures are part of large group. Dunno if it is significant...maybe it is in a low vis situation.
Click to expand...

SoonerAviator said:
Wind farm. I've seen many that have lights that are synced, but usually there's a couple lights out of phase. If it's one thing Kansas has a lot of, it's wind.
Click to expand...

Many farms have the lighting drop out of sync on the towers where turbines that have tripped offline for whatever reason... maintenance shutdown, bearing overheat, whatever.

Supposedly makes it easier for the techs to find the dead one or some such silliness. Of course, they're rarely working on them at night, so it's just some electrical engineer who thought he'd be nerdy.

But anyway, the ones flashing out of sequence are tripped offline usually, and they're pulling power from the grid instead of having synced up the genset and producing power. Usually you'll see them braked, and not turning, but that depends on the failure mode and wind strength.

My favorite videos are the brake failures and the bearings catching fire. Wheeee. Wouldn't want to be anywhere close if one of the big ones decides to start shedding blades. Think a farm in Europe did that last year and launched half a blade a couple of miles where it lawn darted in a residential area. Can't find the links now.
 
Yeah, those turbine blades are pretty common sights behind semi trucks on the highway. Truly massive, and don't fit on a normal 40' flat bed trailer.


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