Pyro demonstration north of Vegas (Ping Fire Pilot)

This is from a NOTAM. I'm not exactly sure how to interpret this one.

!RNO 10/018 MMM AIRSPACE PYROTECHNIC DMSTN 2000/BLW AGL 1NMR MMM295046/13 E L92 AVOIDANCE ADZD WEF 1110052100-1110110300

Pyrotechnic demonstration I get. It will happen 2000ft and below above ground level. MMM is the Mormon Mesa VOR(TAC). MMM295046 means draw a vector from MMM on the 295 magnetic radial for 46 miles. I have no idea what the /13 means. L92 is the Alamo airport. ADZD is advised, i.e. avoidance advised. (Doh!). WEF is "effective from". I don't know how to interpret the dates.

MMM295046 is roughly N37 02 36.3 W115 02 06.0 . This is 2.5 miles to the west of route 93 (on the way from Vegas to Alamo), certainly visible from the highway.

Can I have a pilot do a better translation?

!RNO 10/018 MMM AIRSPACE PYROTECHNIC DMSTN 2000/BLW AGL 1NMR MMM295046/13 E L92 AVOIDANCE ADZD WEF 1110052100-1110110300

YYMMDDHHMM is the format.

2011 October 05 2100- 0300zulu
the magnetic radial references the lat/long given being 46km from the Alamo strip, at 295 degrees
you got everything you posted correct though I dont know what "/13 E" denotes. I only know what Ive picked up working in AF crash/fire depts

It actually says it's from October 5 2011 at 2100 Zulu or utc to October 11 0300. I would imagine that there is an airshow and one performance envolves pyrotechnics. Weird time for the the notam to end in my opinion though.

Ah, they use a 2 digit abbreviation for the year. That is not y2100 compliant. ;-)

The reference point is MMM, not the airport. MMM is one of those VOR(TAC)s you find in remote areas, that is it isn't at an airport.

The location is too remote for a public event. However, people do get BLM permits to do crazy things in Nevada. Usually the insanity (say the private rocket launches) take place towards the east over Delamar dry lake (AKA Texas Lake).

Ah, it just occurred to me I forgot to change my mapping program from True to Magnetic. I need to recalculate the location.

Here is the original notam.

!RNO 10/018 MMM AIRSPACE PYROTECHNIC DMSTN 2000/BLW AGL 1NMR
MMM295046/13 E L92 AVOIDANCE ADZD WEF 1110052100-1110110300

When I set up my electronic map to go to magnetic versus true, I noticed the correction for the general area is 12.7E. I suspect the "/13 E" means the FAA wants you to use 13 degrees of correction. I also used statute miles instead of nautical miles. I computed the locations in both manners.

"12.7" magnetic yields N37 14 10.7 W115 02 16.1
"13E" yields N37 14 25.0 W115 02 01.4
The difference is 0.3 nautical miles.

This is a spot northeast of the lower Pahranganat Lake. Again visible from the highway.

So now the English translation is:

There will be a pyrotechnic demonstration spanning 1 nautical mile over coordinates
N37 14 25.0 W115 02 01.4
at an altitude not to exceed 2000ft above ground level. The event will take place between Oct 5, 20011 at 2100 zulu (October 5th, 2PM local) through October 11th, 2011 at 0300 zulu (October 10th at 8PM). Aircraft are advised to avoid the area.

There is nothing in the Lincoln County Record (local newspaper) about this event.

Originally posted by gariac
Here is the original notam.

!RNO 10/018 MMM AIRSPACE PYROTECHNIC DMSTN 2000/BLW AGL 1NMR
MMM295046/13 E L92 AVOIDANCE ADZD WEF 1110052100-1110110300

When I set up my electronic map to go to magnetic versus true, I noticed the correction for the general area is 12.7E. I suspect the "/13 E" means the FAA wants you to use 13 degrees of correction. I also used statute miles instead of nautical miles. I computed the locations in both manners.

"12.7" magnetic yields N37 14 10.7 W115 02 16.1
"13E" yields N37 14 25.0 W115 02 01.4
The difference is 0.3 nautical miles.

This is a spot northeast of the lower Pahranganat Lake. Again visible from the highway.

So now the English translation is:

There will be a pyrotechnic demonstration spanning 1 nautical mile over coordinates
N37 14 25.0 W115 02 01.4
at an altitude not to exceed 2000ft above ground level. The event will take place between Oct 5, 20011 at 2100 zulu (October 5th, 2PM local) through October 11th, 2011 at 0300 zulu (October 10th at 8PM). Aircraft are advised to avoid the area.

There is nothing in the Lincoln County Record (local newspaper) about this event.

I don't have the knowledge to check your coordinates, however the point you describe is about 7 miles from Delamar. Maybe some modellers are blasting off some BIG rockets.

When they launch from Delamar, they do it from the lake itself. Also the NOTAM will read differently. Generally they get some insane clearance like 100kft. It's on my list to show up some time when these guys are launching rockets. Anyway, here is their schedule:
www.tripolivegas.com...

The Jean dry lake seems like a bad spot to launch a rocket should anything go wrong. It is very close to I-15. I guess they know what they are doing. There are lost rockets near Delamar. Back in the day, they didn't use a homing device. I've met these rocket locating guys at the Space Ship One launches.
www.stratofox.org...

There are also lost rockets east of the TTR. Not home made but real military rockets. The USAF didn't use homing devices either at one time.

The desert terrain is such that stuff can stay lost in the desert for years unless you really work hard at finding it. For instance, cockpit cameras from the A-12 crash east of Groom Lake were never recovered. The canopy was recovered, though if you can find Tom Mahood's old website it says differently. I have the CIA report, which conflicts the LVRJ report regarding what was recovered.