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Glider Pilot lands on Nevada Test Site's Yucca Dry Lake

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posted on Jul, 5 2014 @ 03:05 PM
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The ASRS (Aviation Safety Reporting System) database is for pilots to self-report incidents. I suppose landing on the dry lake of a nuclear test site is an incident. You can't really link to the database reports, so I have provided a link to the database query and then the results of the search.

It is hard to tell from the report, but it looks as if he flew over the NTTR, approaching on the eastern side of the range. This would have put the pilot close to Groom Lake, and in fact the airspace violation is R4808N.

In the report, the pilot mentions N38 W116, which is a dry lake just east of the ET Highway, as the point where orientation is lost. From that point, the pilot reached Yucca Dry Lake. A straight route would have put the pilot about 11 miles west of Groom Dry Lake.

The date format is YYYY MM, which would put this event in August of 1991. The exact day isn't logged.

My educated (ha) guess is the pilot probably saw Groom Lake and Yucca Dry Lake, and decided that Yucca Dry Lake was a far easier place to land. Landing on Groom Lake heading west isn't easy due to nearby mountain.

Look for ACN 186275



Time / Day

Date : 199108
Local Time Of Day : 1801-2400

Place

Locale Reference.Airport : INS
State Reference : NV
Altitude.AGL.Single Value : 0


Aircraft

Aircraft Operator : Personal
Make Model Name : Sail Plane
Crew Size.Number Of Crew : 1
Flight Plan : VFR
Mission : Personal
Flight Phase : Landing
Flight Phase : Landing
Airspace.Special Use : R4808N


I WAS ON A SOARING FLT FROM PARAWAN, UT, TO TONOPAH, NV. THIS WAS AN ORGANIZED SAFARI INVOLVING 13 OTHER GLIDER PLTS. THIS WAS MY NINTH XCOUNTRY SOARING FLT WITHIN THE PAST 12 DAYS ON MY SOARING SAFARI VACATION. MY APPROX 116 DEG 00 MIN AND 38 DEG 00 MIN PROBABLY DUE TO DECLINING SOARING CONDITIONS AND PROBABLY HYPOXIA AND FATIGUE (AVERAGE SOARING ALT BTWN 11000-14000 FT MSL). I BECAME TOTALLY DISORIENTED AND CONTINUED ON A MORE SOUTHERLY DIRECTION. HOWEVER, I THOUGHT THAT I WAS CONTINUING IN A WESTERLY DIRECTION. AFTER ON HR, REALIZING THAT I COULD NOT IDENT MY LOCATION I MADE THE FOLLOWING DECISIONS: I DECLARED AM EMER AND I SEARCHED FOR A SAFE LNDG SITE. I LANDED ON A DRY LAKE WITHIN 30 YDS OF A PAVED HIGHWAY. HE LNDG WAS CONDUCTED SAFE WITH NO HARM TO MYSELF, MY GLIDER OR ANY PROPERTY. I WAS INFORMED BY MIL PERSONNEL THAT I HAD ENTERED AND LANDED IN A RESTR AREA R4808 N ON A DRY LAKE CALLED YUCCA LAKE. I WAS PROPERLY SEARCHED AND TEMPORARILY DETAINED. AFTER SIGNING NECESSARY PAPERS I WAS RELEASED AND RECEIVED PERMISSION TO REENTER THE AREA BY CAR, BUT ESCORTED IN ORDER TO RETRIEVE THE GLIDER BY TRAILER THE NEXT MORNING. I REGRET THIS INTRUSION INTO A RESTR AREA AND I APOLOGIZE TO ALL PEOPLE WHO WERE INCONVENIENCED AND/OR SHOWED CONCERN FOR MY SAFETY. THIS WAS MY FIRST EXPERIENCE OF THIS TYPE IN OVER 30 YRS OF SOARING.




posted on Sep, 16 2014 @ 04:26 AM
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That's an interesting find, but I guess it would be impossible to track this man down after almost 25 years in order to
question hi about any more details. But it also shows that (at least back then) entering the area and coming out in one piece wasn't that difficult, or that he just got lucky.



 
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