Special Military Activity - grey hatchmark

On the LA Sectional, North and Northeast of Santa Barbara and through
the Gorman pass, there is a grey hatchmarked area and the note "Special
Military Activity - contact Hawthorne FSS on 122.2, 122.3 for activity
status." and similar notes referencing Riverside FSS and Joshua
Approach. Last year (similarly marked) I flew through the area and none
of the FSSs nor Joshua Approach seemed to know anything about it.

Any of you know what's going on, and who really knows, and what I need
to ask to find out whether it is hot or not (and be certain)?

Jose
--
Quantum Mechanics is like this: God =does= play dice with the universe,
except there's no God, and there's no dice. And maybe there's no universe.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

On Sun, 28 Aug 2005 04:40:18 GMT, Jose
wrote:

On the LA Sectional, North and Northeast of Santa Barbara and through
the Gorman pass, there is a grey hatchmarked area and the note "Special
Military Activity - contact Hawthorne FSS on 122.2, 122.3 for activity
status." and similar notes referencing Riverside FSS and Joshua
Approach. Last year (similarly marked) I flew through the area and none
of the FSSs nor Joshua Approach seemed to know anything about it.

Any of you know what's going on, and who really knows, and what I need
to ask to find out whether it is hot or not (and be certain)?

It looks like a UAV corridor. At least on the Montreal sectional, see
the information panel in the white portion in the bottom of the
sectional, "SPECIAL MILITARY ACTIVITY: The chart identifies IFR
Military Training Routes and Military Operations Area within which the
Department of Defense conducts periodic operations involving unmanned
aerospace vehicles." (blah blah blah).

It looks like a UAV corridor. At least on the Montreal sectional, see
the information panel in the white portion in the bottom of the
sectional, "SPECIAL MILITARY ACTIVITY: The chart identifies IFR
Military Training Routes and Military Operations Area within which the
Department of Defense conducts periodic operations involving unmanned
aerospace vehicles." (blah blah blah).

Thanks - found it. (Why didn't I see that before?)

Jose
--
Quantum Mechanics is like this: God =does= play dice with the universe,
except there's no God, and there's no dice. And maybe there's no universe.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

I used to live there - and used to fly across the Santa Ynez mountains
on nearly every flight. Never saw a thing, nor heard of any incidents.
I once came across an explanation that it was a route used for cruise
missiles - launched offshore by ships or aircraft, and destined to
impact at the China Lake NWS. I also read that the missions, by policy,
always occurred at dawn, and that the missiles were required to be
accompanied by a chase aircraft (that presumably had the means to
destroy them if a conflict or other hazardous condition developed).

That route has existed for a long time. It is entirely possible that
the activity it was created for has been long abandoned - but the Navy
neglected to do away with it. It likewise took the government a long
time to do away with the prohibited area over Ronald Reagan's ranch
(also in this area) after he left office.

David Johnson