Message posted by Rcteller on December 17, 2009 at 22:13:43 PST:
My job has me looking out of airplane windows a lot during travel, and I have noticed two things here folks might be interested in, or have comments on. The first concerns our "favorite" airstrip in central Nevada. On a flight that passed by the nothern limits of the restricted areas during daylight hours, I was able to see the base. While the distance (and airliner window) limited any detailed observations, there was one thing of note. The "old" runway, which is thought to be no longer used in any fashion, seemed to have it's extended centerline very, very visible out onto the lakebed. The extended centerline markings were in fact probably the most visible feature of the runways themselves. Has anybody else noticed this or have any idea why any effort might be made to improve/restore the "west" runway? I am familiar with the historical looks of the centerline and the "rollout loop" to accomodate aircraft with braking difficulties and this was certainly more than just a little improvement. The second is really no great mystery, just a little interesting to the Google Earth enthusiast. I saw an airstrip today from an airliner in west Texas, that looked not really civilian or military, and just didn't look right, even from 39,000'. I managed to find it on GE, and my guess is it's a military training target field. It seems to be littered with at least replica (or real?!) F-4s, F-15s, F-16s, sams, Scuds, and maybe even a Mig-29 on the runway. What do you think? Cheers! RcTeller
Replies: