Janet Aircraft clearly going to Groom Lake instead TNX

Check ithis out. If you select the Sectional Chart instead, you can clearly see the purple line path headed straight for Groom Lake instead of TNX.
flightaware.com...

files.abovetopsecret.com...


KPMD Origin Airport 34.6293889 -118.0845528
DAG227047 VOR-TAC (NAVAID) 34.5573147 -117.3913844
DAG VOR-TAC (NAVAID) 34.9625000 -116.5780556
CLARR Reporting Point 35.6756806 -115.6797528
JAYSN Waypoint (RNAV) 36.5737444 -116.0407278
EXITT MIL-REP-PT 36.9201639 -116.1426278
KTNX Destination Airport 37.7946597 -116.7786747

Sooooo.....what is your problem with this? It's not like it's not known that flights arrive at groom lake daily.

What's your point here?

I know, but before Flightaware data had the path going straight to TNX instead of it showing it headed straight for Groom Lake.

Before which is my guess, that the FAA data tracking feed, would not even show the path line headed for Groom.

That was just my point.

It is strange considering its a military bass and not a commercial place which is probably the only tracking data FAA can get.

Nothing remotely interesting here -- we've always known that Area 51 employees fly to Groom Lake on a daily basis

Darpa999 is correct that this is unusual. Generally the tracking quits at the edge of the military restricted airspace or a bit beyond, which I presume is done with a software "filter." This track went very close to Groom. I'm guessing they landed towards the south. That is the plane, for lack of a better description, made a U-turn then landed. The track shown is far off the runway.

The filtering could also be done by squawk code. If you listen to Janet radio traffic, the planes maintain the Janet callsign until they switch from Nellis control to Groom approach. At that point, the plane drops Janet and goes to the callsign of the month. The number associated with the plane changes too. Anyway if the filtering is done by squawk code, then the plane forgot to change the squawk.

Aircraft landing at Groom use a squawk code of the format 33x, where X is a digit.

Aircraft landing at the TTR maintain the Janet callsign.

Originally posted by gariac
At that point, the plane drops Janet and goes to the callsign of the month.

How do you get the callsign of the month ? by monitoring the tower frequency's or are there other ways ?

reply to post by Deltalabs


www.lazygranch.com...

Listen to some Janet audio. The same pilot's voice uses two different callsigns.

If you are a Janet driver, they give you the callsign of the month. For the rest of us, we get the callsign of the month over the scanner.

Judging by that flight path on the aviation sectional chart, the passengers sitting on the starboard side of the Janet get a great view of the AOF at Yucca Lake and the Device Assembly Facility.

Wow, thats pretty cool, if you look on the side of that page, it has the speed, altitude, and who the Owner of the Aircraft is, Its posted as an Unkown Owner. gotta be Janet Airlines

Originally posted by jimbib
Judging by that flight path on the aviation sectional chart, the passengers sitting on the starboard side of the Janet get a great view of the AOF at Yucca Lake and the Device Assembly Facility.

The Device Assembly Facility is called the "daff", as in Daffy Duck. It is used as a visual marker for aircraft flying to Groom Lake. They are told "not to fly over the DAF."

You can see the DAF from the distance when you tour the NTS, so I assume Janet aircraft are routed differently on days when the NTS has tours. I've never seen any aircraft flying during the NTS tours I have been on.

This flight really go to Groom instead TTR? Look the purple colour line, anyway; what's the difference between red dashed line and purple's? All flights that target Groom Lake, once they enter into the military restricted airspace, such tracking or monitoring is not included in FlightAware?,ie;flight tracking lines never target to Groom Lake?. regards from spain.

es.flightaware.com... arrivaltime=1399057200

originally posted by: markel
This flight really go to Groom instead TTR? Look the purple colour line, anyway; what's the difference between red dashed line and purple's? All flights that target Groom Lake, once they enter into the military restricted airspace, such tracking or monitoring is not included in FlightAware?,ie;flight tracking lines never target to Groom Lake?. regards from spain.

es.flightaware.com... arrivaltime=1399057200

I don't see a red dashed line. Note you need to look at the archived image, not the link to the current flightaware website.

To get any tracking at all, the aircraft has to file for IFR (instrument flight rules). Aircraft such as the Beech Janets often file VFR (visual flight rules) and do not show up on the internet flight tracking websites.

Now looking at your link, there is a blue dashed line and a solid green line (not primary color green, but greenish). What flightaware attempts to do is create a dashed line that represents the flight plan. The solid line is the actual flight, to the degree of accuracy given by the FAA feed.

In your link, you can see the plane veering to the south. That is, the plane is not following the flight plan. That is because the plane is not going to the Tonopah Test Range. Rather it is going to Groom Lake.

Janet aircraft generally treat the TTR, which uses ICAO code TNX, and Groom Lake (which has no ICAO code) as the same location when they file flight plans. They can't file a flight plan to a place that doesn't exist.

The airspace around the NTTR (Nevada Test and Training Range, which contains the TTR) is under Nellis control. In fact, you literally do contant "Nellis control". So if the pilot lies on the flight plan, it isn't a big deal since somehow Nellis control is informed regarding the real destination of the aircraft.

Occasionally there are flights between Groom Lake and the TTR. They will show up as flights between TNX and TNX, which is what they call a "round robin". Sometimes they will call Groom Lake TKM. There is no TKM ICAO code in the United States.

More on TNX and TKM

On occasion, the FAA screws up and the flight tracking will go directly to Groom Lake.

a reply to: Glassbender777

FAA database lists the USAF as owner of the aircraft.

a reply to: rockflier

The previous aircraft were "owned" by EG&G, after they retired the 737-200s and went to newer aircraft they show the Air Force as the owners, but as far as I know they're still operated by URS, which used to be EG&G.

a reply to: Zaphod58

That is correct. Even the -200 were shown as USAF on the FAA database. EG&G operations became URS. They also have several Beech 1900 and several helicopters, mostly Bell, as well. All N numbers that I have seen show USAF as owner. A former employee now flies both the 1900 and 412 for them.

originally posted by: MidnightToker
Nothing remotely interesting here -- we've always known that Area 51 employees fly to Groom Lake on a daily basis

.... with Janet airlines..

a reply to: zatara

There is a frequent poster on ATS that has a web site lazygranch.com that has many photos and N number research for the Janet callsign aircraft. I am sure you have seen many of his posts here. Not only on Area 51 related threads but also on Bundy related, etc. threads.

Here is more about that web site.
LAZYGRANCH DOMAIN NAME

originally posted by: rockflier
a reply to: Zaphod58

That is correct. Even the -200 were shown as USAF on the FAA database. EG&G operations became URS. They also have several Beech 1900 and several helicopters, mostly Bell, as well. All N numbers that I have seen show USAF as owner. A former employee now flies both the 1900 and 412 for them.

The current 737s were outfitted for the domestic Chinese market. Apparently the seating is a bit cramped.

Registration documents for the old aircraft can be found here.
FAA registration data on some interesting aircraft

a reply to: gariac

Thanks for the info.