Message posted by Jeff on June 28, 2004 at 19:02:08 PST:
Finally flew from DFW to Oakland. Kept my eyes peeled once we crossed into Utah then Nev. Once over Nevada I saw the dry lake beds and mountains. Dumb me, did not take any maps or pictures. I did not see A51 but believe I saw the tip of it's long runway running through Groom lake, (Based on pics I have seen and trying to plot all the dry lake beds in my mind). Question, I did see one base. We flew north of it just a tad. It was set off all by itself with no noticible large roads into or out of it. It was not next to any mountain and it looked to be very active with lots of planes and hangers. No city was anywhere near the base. By my estimates we were north of A51 and just a bit south of Tonopah. I looked on my map once back home but there were no bases identified. What base is it? Also west past that base a number of minutes and to the south of our plane were large ponds of bright green and yellow liquid. Anyone know what these were, old mines or dumps? Anyone else fly the route? For that matter is there a route you can see A51 from, i.e. into LA from Den? Just a few notes, very nice scenery for the flight, Shiprock, Lake Mead, Monument Valley, Grand Canyon, Yosemtie lots of eye candy. Definately summer over the desert, there was no green anywhere! Also in between the base and Yosemite I saw two F15s fly beneath us probably around 2000 - 5000 feet below, very cool.
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