Flying through area 51

About 9 miles North of the airport. Maybe they talked to him, determined he wasn’t a threat, told him turn north and get outta the Restricted area and don’t do it again.

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One of the things that I read was someone heard ATC trying to contact him constantly.

Flightaware doesn't give me sectional charts anymore, but it looks like someone got through to him because once he made that turn north he eventually got outside the restricted airspace. But he still spent a fair amount of time inside two restricted airspaces.
 
1967 M20F out of California
 
I flew SGU to RNO on Saturday. We went through the MOA (cold) under Flight Following. How could you not know about the vast Restricted Areas there?
 
This opens up another question: How reliable is FlightAware in the first place? Below is a photo of my most recent flight on FlightAware. It's completely inaccurate. You see where it says I landed? Well, that's not where I landed. I landed nearly 200 miles west of where FlightAware said I landed. The flight path shown on FlightAware also has me going through (or very close to) a restricted airspace. In reality, I wasn't even close to it. I also know that I would not be able to fly in such a straight line lol. This certainly indicates being a bug on FlightAware, but then, close to the "destination", FlightAware shows me doing some maneuvering to get into the runway? How do they come up with that? I wasn't even near that airport.

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DesertNomad said:
I flew SGU to RNO on Saturday. We went through the MOA (cold) under Flight Following. How could you not know about the vast Restricted Areas there?
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He barely avoided the north edge of the Tonopah restricted areas on the flight out from CCR to CDC last week. The great circle for that flight would have taken them a few miles inside one and cut the corner of another, but he was a few miles clear to the north. That could have also been pure luck due to a northward jog in the flightpath near Yosemite, which could have been to find a lower pass (kind of looks like he was aiming directly for Buckeye Pass at only 9572’), or for sightseeing purposes. From there it seemed to follow the great circle. Regardless of intent, he did miss them on the way out.

The return flight was from SGU (which is farther south than CDC) to CCR, so the great circle went right through the Groom airspace - he basically followed it exactly until that northbound turn.

The last few years visible history for this aircraft is almost entirely in the Bay Area, except for this recent jaunt to the Four Corners region.

Not an excuse at all, but I’m guessing this was an unintentional navigational blunder. That said, how in the world does any pilot not have awareness of that airspace?

Apparently he did get a Brasher when he landed at Concord.
 
Chrisgoesflying said:
This opens up another question: How reliable is FlightAware in the first place? Below is a photo of my most recent flight on FlightAware. It's completely inaccurate. You see where it says I landed? Well, that's not where I landed. I landed nearly 200 miles west of where FlightAware said I landed. The flight path shown on FlightAware also has me going through (or very close to) a restricted airspace. In reality, I wasn't even close to it. I also know that I would not be able to fly in such a straight line lol. This certainly indicates being a bug on FlightAware, but then, close to the "destination", FlightAware shows me doing some maneuvering to get into the runway? How do they come up with that? I wasn't even near that airport.

View attachment 121573
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I’ve found it to be incredibly accurate, except where the ADS-B signal or radar contact is lost, then it gets crazy. It looks like your flight entered a large coverage gap near Stayner. Not sure how it resumed the flight to the east, unless maybe someone else tagged up on your squawk code?
 
I saw the data log and the 'object' was traveling at Mach 7.3 and didn't slow for the vector change.....over Area 51.... Coincidence? I think not!
 
I’ve seen a flight aware track on my plane flying at 700 knots while making a 180 degree turn on a dime and then just vanish. My plane never left the hangar that day
 
Timbeck2 said:
I’ve seen a flight aware track on my plane flying at 700 knots while making a 180 degree turn on a dime and then just vanish. My plane never left the hangar that day
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Are you sure it wasn’t abducted by aliens, and replaced with an alien in an Edgar suit?
 
He was flying a Mooney, he simply outran the intercept
 
It's interesting that the airfield there is not on the sectional chart, although it's visible on Google Maps' satellite view.
 
Doesn’t it just show as a Restricted Area on the sectional, the same as any other RA? They’re not going to mete out any different penalty than if he flew flew one of the others. He’ll probably have to get some training on airspace and charts and that’ll be it.
 
ateamer said:
Doesn’t it just show as a Restricted Area on the sectional, the same as any other RA? They’re not going to mete out any different penalty than if he flew flew one of the others. He’ll probably have to get some training on airspace and charts and that’ll be it.
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That's assuming it's the same "they" for Area 51 as all the other restricted airspace. ;)
 
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