Groom Lake October 2013

Zaphod58
reply to post by AFewGoodWomen

 

The plane was out of Minot, it was at Nellis.

Oh...than this whole thing may make sense after all...
Perhaps I was actually somewhere in betwixt the two...

It would seem, if I can remember correctly...Groom Dry Lake Bed was past that range...one more range and there was the lake bed...this according to the topographical map in the S-4 admin field office (the other field admin office was S-3...)

I'm sure that it took a lot longer than 45 minutes to get to the Groom Lake area,(I needed to retrieve a much needed hi-pri item and it was the closest place) my memory isn't as sharp, but it did seem like a day trip...we never traveled any major highways for more than a few miles, the whole trip was mostly back dirt roads that were very well maintained and traveled on regularly.

To be honest, I had no idea where I had even been to until about two days later. It just seemed like a distant supply warehouse with a few more office/supply areas...my unit's Lt. told me that I had gone to Area 51 and didn't even know it...then he added, while chuckling of course, that I didn't need to know where I was going. I felt like an a$$...and pissed at the same time for not paying better attention and not being able to fully appreciate that awesome opportunity. He and I were the only ones with higher clearance to begin with, it was temporarily bumped up to a level I still don't know for a period of 72 hrs. Of course, if I may add...when he said Area 51...he still used finger quotes and winked. It was just a part run for me...a boring, dusty, mundane part run, if I had only known.

Our CAX was referred to as the Death Valley 3 day war.
We were playing with some new toys for desert warfare, this wasn't long after the end of Desert Storm, from March till the end of August 1994, I was there for three months during the climax...
All that crap for a three day war??
I say beta test, but we solved some operational problems during that stint.
All in all, it was a blast.
I never saw infantry however...my camp was with support, Admin, and special forces, engineers, ordinance maintenance and armory. We camped with the officers and pilots...the Canadians stayed to themselves, but in our area Not once did I see any infantry...they were somewhere else. We had our own corpsmen and tent.
I know and remember this much...after it got out that we weren't far from Groom Lake, we had a few idiots think that they could hump their way to area 51 during a three day liberty...they didn't get far without needing rescue...
This is stumping me...the numbers just don't add up.
29 palms is extremely far from groom lake...it doesn't make any sense. It seemed that our camp was about 4 hrs north from the Joshua Tree Memorial...we were pissed about how it was taking so long to get to camp after going through the 29 Palms front gate...

reply to post by AFewGoodWomen

Lol, what are you talking about? And may I have some of what you're smoking?

Meanwhile, back to Groom Lake imagery, here is another set. Same day, just a bit later. The medium size one is good enough IMHO.

Remember to do a "save as" since these images will crash most browsers. The small jpg works on my PC with Firefox, but your mileage may vary. Irfanview and the GIMP can read all the files.

Groom Lake Oct 2013 small jpg

Groom Lake Oct 2013 medium jpg

The large one is uploading at the moment. If it isn't found, try again later.

Groom Lake Oct 2013 large jpg

I am not sure why I am replying to this, but I am pretty sure you are talking about the Range West of Yuma, AZ. It is one of the only live fire ranges troops from 29 Palms would use. I was in the USMC and stationed at MCAS Yuma in the 90's and we practiced there all time. You were no where near Area 51. You definitely didn't make a "parts run" to Area 51. Great photos Gariac. Any more thoughts on the weather station at Tikaboo? Does it seem completely legit? Next time you are on the Pahrump side of the Range, we need to meet up again!

reply to post by DesertShadow


Funny you should mention the weather station. Here is a photo of the new fixed camera. [Fixed camera as opposed to the pan/tilt/zoom that was already there.] It points in the direction of both the camp on the false summit and the roads approaching the staging area. Hard to tell which area they are snooping on.

fixed camera

An additional antenna showed up.
Digital Antenna

It is suspected to be a wifi antenna. I didn't look for wifi when on the Tikaboo. [What was I thinking. Starbucks...Tikaboo...same thing.] But the antenna could be used for any transmitter in the 2.4GHz ISM band. The Nellis range is really a RF desert by urban standards. Someone could possibly sniff this antenna from the ground, though I'm not taking bets on that. The antenna could be related to the camera or not. Sometimes at these remote facilities they install wifi to monitor instruments when on site.

I should point out the installation of the fixed camera is not professional. Lots of electrical tape used that will never ever stand up to the conditions on the tower. In fact, some tape was already coming loose.

I feel a bit like Snowden, leaking this stuff out slowly. But doing those panoramic images takes a lot of time.

I have a few miscellaneous shots not related to the bases but probably of interest. I took a few shots of the Crescent Dunes solar project. Your tax dollars hard at work. Well actually just loan guarantees. This is just north of Tonopah and can be seen while flying over the area in commercial flights to the bay area. And of course on Google Earth at 38°14'21.44"N 117°21'42.87"W.
Crescent Dunes Solar 1
Crescent Dunes Solar 2
Crescent Dunes Solar 3
The USAF approved this project. Hey, if it pokes out of the ground, they are interested in it. The tower has a strobe on it. Given the terrain and the location to commercial (civil) aviation, I don't think the USAF does much in that part of town anyway.

On the weekend when nothing was happening (oh wait, thanks to the shutdown, nothing was happening during the week either) I went out to the dark skies east of Base Camp and tried some star trails. This isn't exactly what I expected, but OK I guess for a first attempt.
Easy Chair crater with star trails
It is really dark out by route 6. Out by Area 51, there is still a lot of light from Vegas. You can still see the Milky Way, but it is nothing like being out by route 6 beyond Tonopah.

This guy has done some of the best time lapse out there. Something else I want to learn how to do.

reply to post by gariac

Wow!! Loving it, Gariac!

Phenomenal job as always, sir!

You never cease to amaze any of us

Here is a shot of the triangular tower taken in July 2010 and October 2013. This photo shows that the tower does rotate, something that has been noticed on Google Earth.
triangular tower rotated

But looking though the various images captured by Google Earth, I think one side of the tower is "special". The white band at the middle appears to be only on one side. And one side has white stripes running vertically. So maybe one side of the tower is the business end, and the rest is for structural support.

weavty1
reply to post by AFewGoodWomen

 

Lol, what are you talking about? And may I have some of what you're smoking?

I made the mistake trying to authenticate an unlikely F-35 sighting the poster in question made awhile back.

Wish I had read about the "parts run" to Groom before wasting my time...


Back on topic, excellent contributions as usual Gariac.

Right about the time I swear to never visit this goofy site again something like this is posted and draws me right back.

Nice work!

gariac
reply to post by weavty1

 

The tank itself must be welded since it is water tight. So I am presuming they had to go at it with cutting torches or saws. This just doesn't seem trivial to me, though I have no first hand knowledge of such work. But I know that any tower work is a specialty. For one thing, public safety (basically rescue) isn't qualified for tower work. At least in radio towers, the crew provides its own rescue.

New water towers are not welded anymore, not in the way you are thinking. They bolt together water tight. If they are their stupid lol.

I am more interested in underground work, any evidence of that....

The Bot

reply to post by dlbott


I'm pretty sure the Area 51 museum is underneath one of the hangars, look up Dysons Dock.

reply to post by dlbott



I've been researching this and only find welded towers. Is this some sort of water tower with a plastic liner? If I knew the tower specs, I may be able to find a quote on fbo.gov. The TTR got a similar tower a few years ago.

God I love the Government. Duct tape and all. Gotta believe it is just to snoop on campers and photographers. Did you get any photos out at Indian Springs. They are really building out there. I still take the long way home once in a while and sit out there and watch the drones. They have been sending base security out behind the casino to check on me. They seem to be getting a touch more aggressive.

DesertShadow
God I love the Government. Duct tape and all. Gotta believe it is just to snoop on campers and photographers. Did you get any photos out at Indian Springs. They are really building out there. I still take the long way home once in a while and sit out there and watch the drones. They have been sending base security out behind the casino to check on me. They seem to be getting a touch more aggressive.

Duct tape would be an improvement over what these guys used. Note the PTZ camera was down all weekend. I checked the battery voltage (hey, they report it) and it seemed fine. It was running by Monday, so maybe they sent someone out to fix it.

Indian Springs has never liked people watching from the casino. As far as I know, the DoD bought all the private land on that side of the highway, but I noticed the casino was still open on my last trip. I think I mentioned once I had security roll code 3 at me with lights a blazing while I was videotaping the Thunderbirds. They asked me to go to the other side of the highway. I rolled my eyes, made some remark like "It's only the Thunderbirds", shrugged, then went to the other side of the highway.

Now in general, security at both Nellis and Creech seem to be OK with the highway between them and you. I've seen security visit anyone parked by the fence at Nellis and move them out. Nellis security no longer investigates me when I park by the Speedway. Not for about 3 to 4 years. I never had a uniformed investigation, but I can spot plainclothes investigators. One was the guy trying to discretely record my license plate with a camcorder. Sure, lots of people go walking with a camcorder on their hip. The other was the good looking blond in those biker pants. Yeah, random women often want to see my SBS-1 receiver. "Oh, you have radar." I tried not to laugh. Yeah, I had a mode-s receiver and a few radios running. A good thing I didn't have a scanner on security blasting away.

I didn't shoot at Creech. I saw one Reaper and one Predator. Nothing particularly interesting, and the light was kind of poor so the photos wouldn't be very good.

gariac
In one of the photos I shot later in the day, there is a thing in front of one of the hangars.
blurry thing
I'm not sure I would declare it is an airplane. The resolution is pretty poor. It does appear to be something with a tail, but it is quite small. Maybe 15ft long.

I thought I noticed that in the big photo but was waiting until you brought it up. Def looks like a business jet or something.

reply to post by boomer135


Since they parked it right in front of the old (or maybe present day) F-117A hangars, you can measure the plane by first measuring the size of the door. I'm going to say the door is 65ft wide, and the blurry thing length is 1/5th the size of the width of the door. That makes it about 13ft long. I originally thought it was a plane, but you will note I called it "blurry thing" since it is too short to be much of a plane. At least not a manned plane.

There is a photo on my website which in which is looks like there is a F-117A in the hangar. That plane has a 43ft wing span, and it nearly fills up the hangar.
Possilby a F-117 in a hangar at Groom
F-117 on the Groom runway on the same day

Note these photos were taken before the F-117A was retired. While there is video evidence of the F-117A still flying recently, nobody has determined where they are based nor has anyone noted a tail number.

The F-117A was practicing SFO that day based on tower audio. It was a proficiency exercise and not a test. Given that the F-117A was not a secret and it was only training, I presume that was why the base allowed me to photograph the aircraft.

reply to post by gariac


Do you think the F117a that has been seen and taped recently has to do with maybe some type of unmanned training??? Could they have converted it over or at least some of the technology so that it could be flown remotely??? Just thinking about the one recently seen and taped. Why is it still in use out on the Range?

DesertShadow
reply to post by gariac

 

Do you think the F117a that has been seen and taped recently has to do with maybe some type of unmanned training??? Could they have converted it over or at least some of the technology so that it could be flown remotely??? Just thinking about the one recently seen and taped. Why is it still in use out on the Range?

My guess would be they are trying different coatings. Since the F117 must have a ridiculous amount of archived data on the RAM effectiveness, it would be a nice platform to investigate updates. Even some non-stealth planes have been receiving RAM to some degree through Have Glass. F-16 Wild Weasel as far as I know, but I haven't checked into this very much.

Stealth is tricky. [Yeah, no fecal matter Sherlock!] The F-16 canopy is made a bit reflective, which sounds like a bad idea, but better to reflect off the curve canopy than have the glass be clear to radar and reflect off the inside of the cockpit.

The F-22 and F-35 has an anti-IR coating in addition to RAM. But this coating is also on other aircraft.

I don't think they are making the F117 into a UAV, but who knows. Anyone who posts that the have the inside track on these programs is full of fecal material. I just ignore that kind of stuff.

FWIW, there is a water tower replacement project going on at Nellis.
water tank solicitation

If it falls off the fbo search engine, do an internet search on FA4861-13-R-A008.

reply to post by gariac


Where at Nellis is this tower located?