Groom Lake to TTR flight 8/3/2010

Not unheard of, but they run a Janet 737 from Groom to the TTR today.

www205

If you select the display on Google Earth feature, you can see tracking started about 9 miles from Groom Lake, presumably when the flight went from military to civilian callsign. Usually tracking doesn't go this deep into the Nellis range these days.

Here is the flight route:

BTY060030 LAS290052 BTY115018 BTY J92 LIDAT TPH206010 TPH

One assumes the fixes prior to BTY correspond to the reserved fixes like ABBIE, etc.

reply to post by gariac


Interesting - this is all new to me, and I didn't know you could track those flights.... I was looking at the origin code (KTKM) and clicked on it and get a message saying it doesn't exist. Do a little Googling and found THIS PAGE. Which describes the Janet flight procedures.

By comparing flight plans filed with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to actual flight-data from commercial vendors, we see from time to time that flights to Area 51 file flight plans to something called TKM. So what is TKM? There is no published ICAO code called KTM or KTKM (which would be the international version). Is TKM the actual “real” FAA designation for Groom Lake? The short answer is no. Although TKM looks like an airport code and appears from time to time in flight plans, it doesn’t correspond to any published ICAO codes in Federal Aviation Administration databases. Except one. In FAA database 7350.7W: “Location Identifiers,” the listing for the Tonopah Test Range has TKM listed as a “tie-in” facility to TNX. What is a “tie-in facility”? The FAA’s answer is that “’FAA TIE-IN FACILITY’ is the telecommunications facility that handles flight plan messages for the listed landing facility or navigational aid.” This doesn’t help clear things up. Under the FAA’s stated rules, the “tie-in” facility TKM should be in charge of communications for TNX, but we know that this is not the case. Furthermore, we cannot find any other references to TKM in Federal Aviation Administration records. So, we know that TKM is often used to designate flights to Groom Lake and that it’s somehow attached to TNX, but we know little else.

I have something similar.
tnx tkm etc

TKM used to show up on fligtaware as "TKM,", where the comma is literally part of the data. I think the software considered it a VOR since it could not find an airport KTKM.

Groom uses MCY as the Morse code for its VOR, hoping the casual observer will think it is related to KDRA, which uses a NDB called MCY.

The TTR uses TQQ on its VOR for unknown reasons.

Your website and coverage of these topics are second to none, great work.. felt compelled to log in to my old account to thank you.