On Mon, 14 Feb 2005 18:58:00 GMT, "Allen"
wrote:

Go to www.cannon.af.mil . There is a 421 page .pdf of the proposed areas.
The proposal creates a new MOA on the flight path. I lived in Roswell for
10 years. MOA's and Restricted areas pretty much encircle it. Try getting out
west bound, you have to fly to Albuquerque or El Paso before you can go on
to say, Phoenix. Roswell (Walker AFB) used to be a SAC base until the
Johnson years, when it was closed down. It is kind of neat flying eastbound
in the springtime. You can see outlines of ships and swastikas that have
been graded into the dirt for targets. Watch out for the 5,000' towers
though .

A lot would depend upon when the ten years were. Roswell airport used
to be Walker AFB a long time ago. Dunno if they still do it, but after
Walker was closed and it became the Roswell industrial air park, they
did 747 training there for a number airlines.

You're right about airpace restrictions to the west, but most of that
is Holloman AFB space, not Cannon. Cannon stuff is almost all to the
N. The MOAs for Holloman don't start until about thirty miles W. of
Roswell or about thirty miles S. They have fairly high floors so VFR
traffic can transit quite comfortably (and the do, particularly
enroute to and from Ruidoso.)

W. of US highway 54, N. of Alamogordo you get into the White Sands
Missile Range which is restricted, not MOA. That goes from surface to
the moon, but transit is often allowed on weekends when it isn't in
use. S. of Alamogordo on both sides of US 54 from Alamogordo to El
Paso is restricted airspace, but used by the missile range, not by
flying operations. A block down along I-10 from ELP to Las Cruces is
used by the air defense training at Ft. Bliss.

There were a number of low level routes, fewer since Walker and Biggs
closed, since SAC operations were reduced, and fewer again since
Cannon converted from F-111s. But, they are warning not restricted.

The targets you mentions seeing aren't for live weapons delivery
unless you really penetrated some restricted airspace like Oscura
range. They probably date back to WW II.

Dunno I ever saw a 5,000' tower anywhere while flying in that country.
Since the surface elevation is over 4,000, you might be reading the
MSL of the tower--look in the parentheses to see the actual tower
height. Get much above 1200 feet and you've got a pretty significant
tower.

Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
www.thunderchief.org
www.thundertales.blogspot.com