Re: Possible Pyramid location (and maybe PYR too)


Message posted by Ron on December 28, 2005 at 22:03:43 PST:

Pyramid could be at the outer marker beacon of runway 32. And yes you are right most of these guys are going for the visual approach runway 32 up there.
Pyramid could also be right near the Yucca airstrip. This is only about 14 miles south and slightly west of Groom Lake. Now if Pyramid is in this spot. Then if you fly direct to Pyramid and then make a right turn to the east. This would put you on a base leg for runway 32. Now all you would need is the tower to tell give you vectors to make a left turn heading 320 or whatever and clear you to land runway 32. So having Pyramid in this location would be ideal for the pilots. This would tell them on the way up if I’m landing on 32. Then I need to first fly to Pyramid. And at Pyramid I need to be at for example 10,000 Feet. Then from Pyramid you would fly heading 040 for about 10NM either on your own or tower will give you vectors from Pyramid. At this point when you have flown 10 miles on 040 from Pyramid you would get your radar vectors from tower to make a left turn and land. This Pyramid beacon I think could be a NDB located at or very close to this position N37°01.31 W115°50.43. PLANET could be the BTY060030 fix. Also when Janet lands on runway 14 they make left turns also on the approach. This would mean as Salty said they would have to be east of the field to be making left turns to land on 14.

Now PLANET could be the VOR at Groom Lake. Now if you go on that theory that PLAENT is the Groom Lake VOR. Then if you are coming from the south into the box you would get clearance to fly direct Pyramid then direct PLANET. They might have you descend over PLANET to say 12.000 feet. And when at PLANET you would leave the PLANET VOR (Groom Lake VOR) fly out on a heading of about 040 for about 10 miles. Then make a left turn to about 300 and fly that heading for about another 10 miles. Now at this point you turn again to left at start a decent about to about 8,000 feet. Now if you decent at about 1800 to 2000 feet per minute and fly at or about 180 knots. This would put you in the valley North of Groom Lake. Also at the time you reach 8,000 feet you make a left turn to about a heading of 126. Now this sets you up for nice 12 to 15 mile final for runway 14. All these turns can be directed by the tower or the approach controller. These headings at distances are approximately where you would want to be turning at. Now all these heading turn points you can have names of them. Like ABBEY so you could for example make TEDDY be the final approach fix out about 12 miles or so from runway 14. That way then you could say something like Sting52 descend to 8000 and report gear down over TEDDY. Now when you know he reports three green on the gear and is at 8000. You would say Sting52 turn left to heading 126. And as he turns onto runway heading you would have him contact the tower. He would come up on tower frequency with something like this. Tower Sting52 is on about a 15 mile final to land runway 14. And they would respond with something like. Sting52 cleared to land winds 215 at 9 for example cleared to land runway 14.
Have you noticed when Janet flights depart runway 14 right after takeoff they get vectors to make a right turn and fly heading 230 or 240 and report when receiving Pyramid. This comes not long after take off maybe when they are still within about 5 miles of the field. Well if you turn on that heading that heads you in the direction of the Pyramid I mentioned that is by Yucca airstrip. Then when they get over Pyramid they are cleared as field. And that pretty much means just a keep on flying south tell you are out of the box somewhere between Indian Springs and DRA.

Also just throw this in here. Most standard traffic patterns at airports are left handed patterns. Also the captain sits on the left side of the plane and can see get a better feel for left turns. This is not to say there are no right handed patterns and that pilots can’t fly right handed ones. This left handed pattern is just the norm for flying the landing pattern. So up at Groom Lake this may be why they fly left turns and it could also be because certain parts of the ranges are hot. Now of course if you don’t hear them give them any turns. And just say something like Traps21 make strait in for the visual runway 32. This would mean he is already aligned up with the runway heading. Maybe he just flew right over Indian Springs kept flying north. Tell he was near Groom Lake then he just made the small heading changes to line up with 32.



In Reply to: Re: Possible Pyramid location (and maybe PYR too) posted by lone wolf on December 28, 2005 at 19:26:11 PST:

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