The Final Four F117as return to the Tonopah Test Range
Date: April 22, 2008
Location: Mount Diablo, a molehill about 7 miles from the Tonopah Test Range
Scene: KLAS TV and a few desert rats gather to watch the final four
F117a aircraft return to the Tonopah Test Range to have their wings
clipped and put in storage.
Scanner audio from the event:
Ogg format audio; 3.8Mbytes; This audio is of the F117a aircraft landing.
Ogg format audio; 6.3Mbytes;
This audio is of air traffic around the range. The Janet callsign is
for the 737s that originate from McCarran (KLAS). PINKY01 is a
helicopter. The GRIFFEN callsign was not identified.
Ogg format audio can be played with:
http://www.videolan.org/
http://www.irfanview.com/
http://www.winamp.com/
If you wonder why the color is
out of control, take a look at the haze I had to shoot through. You can
barely see the base. To drive up Mount Diablo, you turn left at the
parking lot, follow the fence until you reach the "catch basin" (shown
in the just to the right of the center). Drive around the catch basin,
the follow the road until it heads up the hill. If you do it correctly,
you don't need a SUV.
You can just barely see the US flag painted on the bottom of the lead aircraft. These planes were about 10 miles away.
The F117a with the flag paint scheme.
F117a about to land. The parking area in the foreground is where they sometimes park the MI-24 Hind helicopter..
Note the three CV-22 Osprey parked near the rightmost hangar. One is in front, and two are on the side.
A Janet 737 (white plane with red stripe) is at the left side. The
control tower is at the right. Oh, and the speck in the middle is the
F117a.
Now the F117a is high over the base. There was a photographer on the ground, so this may be for a photo-op.
Here one of the F117as is on the ground just in front of the VOR (bowling pin shaped object).
F117a on ground with drogue chute open.
This is the Defense Mapping Agency marker for Mount Diablo:
While we were on the hill
photographing the F117a landings, an antenna crew for the JEFX was on
the hill as well. You can see their gear here.