February 12, 2003

An Interesting Geocache

A lot of geocaches are corny -- too easy to find, stupid items in the cache. Some virtual caches are interesting to find, but they just end up with 'scenic vistas'. I stumbled onto an interesting target for a geocache hunt -- a map of some United States military aerial refueling routes.

It's not clear if these are always used, or just used during Nellis AFB's annual 'Red Flag' training exercise. But if you were lucky to find the route at the right time you'd see any number of planes cited as participating in the exercises:

    A typical Red Flag exercise involves a variety of attack, fighter and bomber aircraft (F-15Es, A-10s, B-1s, etc.), reconnaissance aircraft (UAV -Predator), electronic countermeasures suppression aircraft (EC-130s, EA-6Bs and F-16s), air superiority aircraft (F15s, F-16s, etc), airlift support (C-130s, C-141s), search and rescue aircraft (HH-53s, HC-130s), and aerial refueling aircraft (KC-130s, KC-135s). The E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft plays a significant role in the training by using its unique radar capability to monitor and support many aspects of the "Blue" force effort.

Since I built my new computer, and my shitty Garmin GPS is being repaired, I haven't bothered to install Mapsource on my pc, so I don't know exactly where the GPS Waypoints sit in Nevada. But there are particular parts of the route that might be more or less interesting. This page explains the components of the refueling route and provides a diagram title "Anchor Pattern" at the bottom of the page. There are locations like 'Tanker Orbit', 'Receiver Holding Pt' and 'Outbound Course.' Some of those may be more or less likely to have something interesting to see. These legs are supposed to be at least 50NM long.

This could be an amusing weekend's project and a fun Geocache writeup.

Posted by Nils Blutig at February 12, 2003 05:53 PM | TrackBack