Message posted by werD on December 30, 2008 at 15:06:51 PST:
This was a USAIR flight (Airbus 300 series something). No, it was definitely not announced. I've driven through Rachel a few times, have spent large amounts of time on the East edge of Yosemite and in Mono lake, and am a west-coast native-- so I knew to start looking as soon as we passed the last of the Sierra (not long of a wait after that). The first time I noticed I was in the right place and had seen the base was actually the last time I flew, but I didn't have my camera with me (and the lens I had then wouldn't have been worth trying). I was able to confirm that the dry lakebed with a runway I was looking at was groom when, just as the lakebed left my view, the northwest edge of Las Vegas came into view-- and shortly thereafter I recognized the Nellis runways. Basically, too much time on google earth and some knowledge of local geography allowed me to find it. Without that knowledge, there's pretty much no way anyone else on the plane knew what was out there. It's boring looking desert terrain, and the only thing that makes Groom Lake stand out is some thick straight lines that you can see from where I was flying. The lens was a Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8, Image Stabilized w/ Ultrasonic Motor. To give you an idea of how much glass that is, the filter ring size is 77mm, and there's only a few millimeters of a margin between the frame of the lens and the glass. My current camera body is the Canon EOS Rebel XT, but I'm hoping upgrade to a 40D as soon as my wallet allows (may be a while yet).
In Reply to: Re: Dreamland from 30,000 feet posted by OhioTraveler on December 30, 2008 at 6:58:31 PST:
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