Area 51

[Colin Payette]

When I first installed FSX (before I knew I'd really learn to fly) I loved the missions, and one of my favorites was always the one where you fly Area 51 employees to Groom Lake. I still fly it more than I care to admit

This morning I started wondering about mimicking this flight on PilotEdge, and whether or not it'd work? From my understanding, it should up to the point where I'm supposed to talk to the tower (since military fields are uncontrolled). Here is the text from the mission describing the route:

Your planned route takes you from McCarran International Airport (KLAS) in Las Vegas, direct to the Mercury NDB (MCY 326) at Desert Rock, then north up the Emigrant Valley to "Pyramid" waypoint, then to Groom Lake.

Expect your initial clearance out of Las Vegas to include a climb to 4,500 feet on runway heading (010 degrees). Once you're north of the city, expect a clearance to climb to your flight-planned altitude of 14,000 feet, and to resume your own navigation.

If this can be done on the network, how would I handle the restricted area and say that I have permission to go into it?

[Nicholas Cavacini]

It is possible. I've recreated them before.

When you leave Station 3, you depart uncontrolled. Once you exit "the box", you turn on your Mode 3/A transponder and call up Nellis Approach. They will handle you and hand you off to LAS.

When you leave LAS for Station 3, you will request a VFR climb (controllers don't want to be responsible for you climbing over those mountains) and proceed on your route. Once you are near "the box" you simply request a frequency change from Nellis. You then change your transponder to S. IRL, this is where Nellis would tell you freq change approved, the pilots then turn off their mode 3/A transponder (civilian, the transponder, ie the four digit codes) and "Control" will use the aircraft's Mode 2 or 4 transponder (they use one of the two, military transponder, Transponder - Wikipedia).

Two websites that will give you a lot of information will be listed below.

Schedule: http://www.dreamlandresort.com/info/janet_schedule.html (Janet ICAO code is WWW)
Routes: http://www.dreamlandresort.com/info/janet_routes.html (The navigation fixes are located at the bottom of the page. Also, KEYHOLE/REDFLAG meanings are listed.)

If you need any more information, let me know. (I have never flown for the real Janet Airlines obviously but I have read into it a lot.)

[Colin Payette]

That's awesome, thanks! I just listened to Janet 586 takeoff This gives me a good idea of how to execute the flight. I can't wait to try it out.

[Keith Smith]

Colin,

I'm not sure how many of our controllers are familiar with the coded destination names, so you may have to be happy with simply filing to TNX, then cancelling over Desert Rock. You can still request the VFR climb to 14,000 to get the early turn, though, if you like.

This isn't an aspect of flight operations where we strive to hit it out of the park, so as long as you're aware of that...knock yourself out.

[Keith Smith]

Oh, and standard ops at LAS are departures on from 19/25's. From the Janet terminal, plan for 19R. Whoever wrote that mission text wasn't too familiar with the standard configuration at LAS

[Colin Payette]

Yeah I understand, and I wouldn't want to strive to make it perfect if I were you either. I don't think PE's goal is helping pilots navigate to groom lake! I just like to mix in a little fun here and there. My plan is simply to get VFR clearance to Desert Rock and cancel flight following there.