"Janet Airlines"

[sqwkvfr]

That was the one and only emergency I had. It went by the book.

That is NOT good enough!

 

[FracCapt]

I lived there for a year and it was all over the papers every time they unearthed more leaky drums.

And I don't understand, are you agreeing that it's a mildly secret installation or not?

Wow....a whole year? Why is it that in my nearly 20 years in the Edwards/Palmdale/Lancaster/Rosamond area I never heard of leaky drums of toxic waste being dug up? I'm not saying it's not possible...but I never heard of it. Got any proof to show us?

Regarding Edwards....it has not been any type of a secret installation for many decades. Northtown is a restricted portion of the base, but the type of things they do there is widely known by on base and off base personnel. It's nothing spectacular like so many people seem to think.

 

[Juvat]

Not much to see

I've flown right up to the edge, but never into "the Container" (the Groom Lake box of prohibited airspace) several times during Red Flags, etc. It was always a high interest item for us to stiff-arm that place and avoid it like the plague. It's a bad idea to make navigational errors around there--I think they give you a boot to the head, remove one testicle, and send you home in shame. But that goes for any other prohibited airspace in the country as well. As for what's in the Container, the media has way over-hyped the place. There's nothing to see. It's actually quite the boring little location. The inside of Michael Jackson's home probably has more wacky secrets than Groom Lake.

For the benefit of the environmentalist crowd who seem to be hijacking the heck out of this thread, let me add my two bits: I've flown all over that area, and it's the most desolate, unpopulated hell hole in the continental US. If you'd like to argue the facts with me, please get in an F-16 and fly around a bit there so you can have some credibility first. There's a reason we tested nukes out there. No people, very little vegetation, very far from other population centers, and absolutely no prospects of future human migration into the area. Oh, I almost forgot--no whales to save either.

And to address the original question as to who flies the Janet jets, one of my old ops group commanders flies for them. He is one of the most well-respected, high integrity, rock solid Americans I've met. I can only assume that the other Janet pilots are of the same rare high caliber.

 

[TheRaven]

I've flown right up to the edge, but never into "the Container" (the Groom Lake box of prohibited airspace)

I thought it was RESTRICTED airspace...did they change it to PROHIBITED.

 

[avbug]

I wouldn't say so far from population centers...Las Vegas used to advertise and sell hotel space based on the blasts. It was a regular show. Folks in Fallon, Tonopah and other places would get up early so they could watch the "sunrise." I have a lot of relatives in downwind locations that have died of cancer over the years as a result of the nuclear testing...which is an indisputable fact.

However, as far as desolation out there, it's perhaps the most desolate place in the country short of the Alaskan interior.

I was moving a cancer patient from Reno to Houston in a King Air once during the summer, and passed through that area. A very tall and very threatening line of Tstorms was pushing me farther south, and each time Nellis would tell me I could go another five miles and that was it. Absolutely no more. I kept bumping over until they were more than a little excited absolutely no way, yada, yada. "Unable," wasn't an option, so I simply told them what I was going to do, and did it.

In the end, they were quite workable, nothing came of it, the patient spent his last days with his family...and then they stiffed us for the bill. But the airspace above Groom Lake did provide us safe passage around an otherwise impassable series of radar returns, and for that we were grateful.

At no time when I've relayed my case to Nellis have they denied me passage, when the need was there. I was once routed through on a really critical medical out of Tonopah with the most aircraft on the range I've ever seen in the air at one time. Flares popping in front on all sides of us (quite a show), explosions on the ground, lots of traffic coming along both sides. Range control told us part of a very large Red Flag exercise was in progress, and that we could route through it under their control or go around. We went through, they bent over backward to help us, and we saw quite a bit of a show despite the dark.

My hat's off to those folks. Despite being extremely busy, they still did everything they could for us, and that's all anybody can ask.

 

[TurboS7]

Nice long runway.

 

[Grizz]

Ok, curiosity has got the best of me. Who flies the 737s for the government out of LAS? I know they transport workers to Groom Lake and such but are the pilots civilians, military, or little grey aliens? Seems like it'd be a cool job.

As a former Gator driver from Mather, I had the opportunity to get an interview with the Janet guys when I retired. After talking with one of my buds that was flying for them about what his days were like, I decided to pass. It is a long day with very boring duties. I didn't realize that they had taken over the navigator flying out of Randolph though. That might not be so bad.

 

[WizardPilot]

Quite awhile ago I heard a story of a guy flying west from utah. He stuck is autopilot on and didnt wake up, It took him right through "the container". Story goes is that he got shot down. His family didnt hear from him for months and they couldnt figure out what happened to him, (didn't File FP) then the story goes on to say that his trashed plane ended up on a trailor disassembled with certain parts missing that could yield towards the possiblity of a shoot down. His wallet was on the front seat. I donno if that's true one bit, but its kind of an interesting story.

 

[avbug]

Interesting story? Not even good fiction.

 

[Juvat]

I thought it was RESTRICTED airspace...did they change it to PROHIBITED.

Well, let's just put it this way. It's a box inside a restricted area that nobody is allowed into without permission. Sort of like your girlfriend's...well, nevermind.