Message posted by Gregos on February 16, 2006 at 11:17:34 PST:
Part 3: We drove up to Rachel on Tuesday, and arrived at Coyote Summit around 10:00am. There was a Roland Radar site set up in the parking area with the dish spinning. Not sure if we were going to get “zapped” we hesitated for a bit. Then we noticed other people around the site and no flashing lights, so we figured we would be all right. Got a nice little work out climbing the hill and it was worth it. The view of the Tikaboo Valley is gorgeous! I tuned the scanner to AWACS “Chalice” (308.60). Lots of cool call signs like: “Evil one one”, “Arson” and “Nightmare.” Soon after getting to the top (4) F-117 Nighthawks flew over in single file skimming the restricted airspace of Groom Lake (R-4808N). Most of the aircraft were high up but a few passed on the deck in the valley below – way cool! The first was a Tornado going East to West low in the Valley. Then a F-15 banked hard right in front of us giving a good shot of his belly. F-111s passed several times. On one pass this guy rolled in right over the Roland Radar site actually below us on the hill. I’m glad that picture came out as it was worth the long drive right there!!! Does anyone know if that was possibly his “target?” He was definitely on the deck and flying nap of the Earth and didn’t pop up to “drop a bomb.” Then a little higher up, two F-15 were being “shot at” by someone and they popped a half dozen flares. It started to quite down around 12:00pm so we decided to start the climb down. When we reached the bottom of the hill the Roland was already gone. We then decided to go to the Back Gate for a quick looksie. We passed another Roland about half way there on the Back Gate Road. Snapped a nice picture of the gate - no “cammo dudes” in sight! Then off for a short stop at the A'Le'Inn. When we pulled up there were (3) Roland Radar trucks in the parking lot (maybe having lunch)? It’s was a very cool trip. On the way home I decided to stop by the airport to burn my last two pictures on the Janets. I got a shot from the top level of Long Term Parking. The first 15 minutes is free – LoL! My pictures do not do the trip justice. I used a 35mm Minolta with a 70-210mm lens. Looks like I need to save up for something more powerful! I have most of March off and I’m thinking of a climb up to Tikaboo Peak. I need to see the base with my own two eyes. I have a Meade ETX-90 Telescope, I just need to get the camera mount. I hope my post was helpful.
In Reply to: Re: Red Flag posted by Joerg (Webmaster) on February 14, 2006 at 8:38:40 PST:
Replies: