I was fortunate enough to use the airmail beacon system to navigate a flight between Helena and Missoula, MT several years ago. I did my initial flight training

I was fortunate enough to use the airmail beacon system to navigate a flight between Helena and Missoula, MT several years ago. I did my initial flight training in Missoula and didn’t quite realize how rare the air beacon system really was. One night I did a training flight between the two cities using primarily the beacons and it was like that scene in Lord of the Rings. There is very little light pollution at night out there in the mountains, and the beacons were clearly visible on top of several peaks, like a breadcrumb trail leading me along. It’s still one of my favorite aviation memories. Sadly, some years ago Montana Aeronautics announced that they won’t be repairing broken beacons anymore. I think there’s only a few remaining, not enough to navigate by.