Re: Where is a good place...


Message posted by gordy on April 02, 2010 at 19:56:14 PST:

OK, here goes.
Two stories so please bear with me.

1. I was flying near a slightly sensitive radar installation in the extreme NW of Washington State. I knew one of the radar technicians and was surprised to hear her ask me if I had the "traffic" at my 11:00 and low. I didn't see an aircraft, but soon, heading up to me were two mylar balloons, tied together. Surely some kids had lost them during a birthday party. She asked me to verify the altitude of the "flight of two". Wow.

2. I was flying a patient to Las Vegas one day when somewhere alongside Tonopah, we heard center trying to contact a plane the was lost. He was apparently in a canyon and his radio couldn't get out. We were happy to relay transmissions and helped both the pilot and center out of a heap of trouble. On landing in LAS we were asked to call center, and they couldn't thank us enough for our assistance. They asked when we were heading back and I told them late evening. As we were flying back along the radials of Victor 135, with restricted airspace 4808 to our right and the Shoshone and Saline MOAs to our left, we were treated to the most awesome lightshow I have seen in my life (and I'm a licensed pyrotechnician). Laser designators lit up targets and all sorts of airborne and ground based hell were released on both sides of us almost to the Coaldale VOR. When we got home, tower asked us to call Nellis approach and gave us a number. We thought we did something wrong. The controller on the other end asked us how we liked the show. Seems they appreciated our professionalism and actually called in a few favors from a Lieutenant Colonel on the ground to show their gratitude.

What's the point? Well, if you do go and rent a plane to fly around the Desert MOA and you are VFR, you don't have to talk to anyone, that is true. Not smart, but true. Sorry, but you won't see anything you aren't intended to see. With their radar, they will see every time you twitch. Chances are you will just force them to change someone's flight plans, if they are worried about it, and that can make them grumpy. However, if you do let them know that you are sightseeing and were hoping for some action, and let them know your intentions, you might be in for quite a show.

Just MHO.


In Reply to: Re: Where is a good place... posted by Joerg (Webmaster) on April 01, 2010 at 12:43:53 PST:

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