Death Valley Planes

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jackiemac

jackiemac

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Some of you may be interested in this you tube video.  Lots of different aircraft flying through "Star Wars Canyon" in Death Valley....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiAW6u4Yt1w&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR01S6yPwVYu21j6F8e4ieWhLH3kRuP9w3R15675R-Qflb2JiwAItPkcmB0
 
Nice one. Thanks, Jackie. And for those unfamiliar with the sound, what sounds a bit like a machine gun is actually a still camera on rapid repeat, taking a BUNCH of pix in less than a second.
 
I can't wait till we go back to see if we can spot any as we missed out last year. Looks fantastic!
 
Awesome.  We'll be at a campground near Bishop for the whole summer.  Looks like it's only about 110 miles to the Father Crowley overlook from the campground.  I see at least one day trip in our future.
Is there a better time to see the planes, or is it pretty much an all day thing?
 
Old_Crow said:
Awesome.  We'll be at a campground near Bishop for the whole summer.  Looks like it's only about 110 miles to the Father Crowley overlook from the campground.  I see at least one day trip in our future.
Is there a better time to see the planes, or is it pretty much an all day thing?
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The day we went we had met up with another couple we know and it was about 2pm by the time we arrived.  The guy who we chatted to and appeared to be a regular said that they mostly appeared in the morning between 8am and 1pm mostly.  We had missed 12 that day!    I think they guy said he had worked in one of the military places nearby and he had a radio so obviously one of those "in the know"...

 
When we worked at Scotty?s Castle in Death Valley, we used to drive into LA monthly, over Towne Pass and through Trona. We were frequently ?bombed? by fighters in Panamint Valley. They?d come out of nowhere, flying low, and zoom right over our VW. It was wild.
 
Most of the time we have been to Father Crowley?s point there have been enthusiasts with radios who yell ?Incoming!? When they hear on the radio a plane is coming, some days there are only a few. Some day there are literally dozens.
 
There is a VHF aviation band (AM) with communications being from 118.0 to 136.95 MHz. Pretty much all civilian aviation uses this band. The military uses UHF generally in the 200 to 400 MHz band, but I don't know the actual freqs in use. Many scanners you can buy (including some handheld ones) can receive the aviation freqs, and a few will also cover the military bands, or at least part of them.

Some military radios use encryption, sideband, and other modes you may have trouble receiving, but the ones for that canyon area are probably AM, the same modulation type as civvy freqs are.
 
edjunior said:
Go Air Force!  Hey, I noticed at about 3:50, I have my own T-38!
Click to expand...

Heh, I spent a year and a half working on T38's in Arizona before the AF cross-trained me onto F-4's and sent me to lovely Thailand.
 
thanks for sharing that.
...and I felt like I was hot stuff, years ago in a Cessna 152 dropping down below the lines of trees over the marsh at Jamestown island 37.199229, -76.762176
and along the creek across the river from there 37.171549, -76.828194
screaming along at 90 knots!  8)
 
About 35 years ago I wrote the Technical manuals for the F4D Digital Scan conversion  System (terrain following radar). Truly amazing capability, and complexity. Imagine less than 100 feet off the ground at speeds around 400 MPH.

Ernie
 
Ernie n Tara said:
About 35 years ago I wrote the Technical manuals for the F4D Digital Scan conversion  System (terrain following radar). Truly amazing capability, and complexity. Imagine less than 100 feet off the ground at speeds around 400 MPH.

Ernie
Click to expand...

Years ago when I was in Tech school, I remember talk of the TFR on the F-111.  Seems the hard part was getting the pilots to trust the system as the side of the mountain rushed towards them.
 
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