Topic: Planning Thread: Jedi Transition, a Plane Spotting Excursion...

[RikRong]

I'm going to post this as preliminary planning thread...

So, I recently shared a video on Facebook that I thought was shot at Rainbow Canyon/Jedi Transition in Panamint Valley.  I later found out it was taped at the Mach Loop in England.  Either way, it sparked some interest on my post, some interest about possibly trying to make a trip up there to photograph/film military aicraft as they hit the transition.  For those that don't know, the Transition is at Father Crawley Lookout, as you climb the hill before Panamint and before you drop down into the valley.  The Transition is the beginning of a military special use airspace complex that leads to a low level flight route in Panamint Valley.

There are a lot of factors in the planning process.  First off, I'm looking to do this during the fall, when it's actually tolerable to sit out all day and watch for aircraft.  Second, I'd like to coordinate this with a Red Flag event.  However, the schedule on Nellis' website only shows Red Flag 18-3 as the last event for this fiscal year.  The new schedule will be posted near the beginning of FY19.  According to my reading, jets fly through the canyon almost daily.  However, Red Flag events increase the activity in the canyon quite a bit.  I'd like to make the trip productive. 

This will be a little different than most SCCX Excursions, as I don't plan on coordinating any off-road activities.  I think we should set up camp in Panamint and then carpool to the Canyon, allowing those with RTTs to keep their camp set up and not have to move their vehicles.  We can also make this an integrated trip.  Those who don't want to plane spot are more than welcome to join us at camp and then venture into DV to go exploring.  There's also the option to turn this into a Death Vally Excursion, after spending a couple of days at the Transition, I'll leave that open as an option.  This trip will also need to occur during the week, as it's pretty rare for us to fly on the weekends.  I know the fact that this will need to fall on weekdays will force many of us to have to take vacation days/leave, that's why I want to start coordinating this early.

I may be "over-planning" this, but I want to make sure it's a productive trip for the photographers amongst the group, as well as making it productive because many of you will have twice the drive I will just to make it to Panamint.



Red Flag Schedules:
http://www.nellis.af.mil/Home/Flying-Operations/

http://www.rkellenaers-photography.nl/RainbowCanyon

Rainbow Canyon Low Level Photography

In this article you will find all useful info's for a visit to the low level transition in the rainbow canyon.

Rainbow Canyon is situated east of Las vegas, in California, USA.  This Canyon is part of the low level corridor "Sidewinder'' and is also known as "Star Wars Canyon" or "Jedi Transition".  This because of some scenes of the famous Star Wars movies were shot in this Canyon.  The official name is Rainbow Canyon, this name is given to the Canyon by locals. If you look to the rocky canyon you can see al kinds of different colors wenn the light changes during the day.

Rainbow Canyon is part of the R2508 Special Use Airspace Complex, in Panamint Valley.  The Canyon is a part of the much larger Sidewinder Low Level route, and is officially called "Jedi Transition".  Rainbow Canyon itself is also known as Star Wars Canyon. It is said that some movie scenes of the Star Wars movies were shot here.

The Jedi Transition starts just west of Owens Lake at 36.403047,-118.01239. From here aircraft hug the desert floor and pull up just before the canyon to clear higher levels. From there they enter the Canyon at Father Crowley Point, and continue through the Valley and exit the valley 3 miles from Father Crowley point. Most aircraft call up at 315.9 Mhz before entering. (only pilot to pilot communication) The direction of flight is published as east-west but we have seen aircraft going the other way.

How to get there?
 
From Las Vegas it's a good 3-4 hour drive to Rainbow Canyon. Look for Father Crowley View point (1). This public parking overlooks the canyon, and it's situated alongside Highway 190 at 36.351858,-117.550664. From the parking there's a dirt road to the east, wich flows alongside the canyon, from here there are 2 spots (2,3), to see the jets. For photography from these points you need 500mm or more on a Full Frame camera.
 
At the end of this dirt road you have a great view over Panamint Valley wich is great for a nice scenic overlook of the west side of Death Valley and Panamint Valley. Again, for aircraft photography from this point you need 500mm or more.
 
Another viewpoint wich is great for photography, is 1500m to the east of the Parking at Father Crowley viewpoint (4). Take the 190 to the east until you reach the most northern part of the 190. On the map it looks like a horizontal 'S' shape. Park your car at the nearby layby and walk 150meters up the hill to the edge  of the Canyon.
From here you have a great view and photography is possible with minimal 400mm. From this point you can choose to walk to the east for different views (5). On days wenn the wind is coming from the west you can actually hear the aircraft in the Canyon seconds before you seen them coming around in the Canyon. Most aircraft enter the Canyon at Father Crowley point, and wenn they come in high you can see 'em well before they fly past your location.

Wenn to go?
 
Rainbow Canyon is situated very near to one of hottest places on earth: Death Valley.
Death Valley is generally sunny, dry, and clear throughout the year. The winters are mild with occasional winter storms, but summers are extremely hot and dry. Summer temperatures commonly run above 120 degrees fahrenheit.  Comfortable sports wear providing sun protection and sturdy walking shoes are recommended in summer. Winter requires warmer clothing and light to medium jackets. Photography is recommended from late September tolate May. In the summer months it is simply too hot for comfort, and you may see heathaze in your photos that can spoil a great shot.

Where to Stay?
 
Nearest accomodation is Panamint Springs resort, wich has also the only gas station nearby. Accomodation is not all that great with small rooms in cabins and airco often not working, but it is a great place to eat. With Rainbow canyon nearby you can get a burger and get back to the action within the hour. A recommended stay is the Best Western Hotel Or Comfort Inn in Lone Pine.
 
Lone Pine is a census-designated place (CDP) in Inyo County, California, United States.  Lone Pine is located 16 miles (26 km) south-southeast of Independence.
Lone Pine and the Alabama Hills became famous as they were used as the setting for Western films, including West of the Pecos (1945) with Robert Mitchum, Samson and Delilah (1949) with Hedy Lamarr, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) with William Shatner, Tremors (1990) with Kevin Bacon, The Postman (1997) with Kevin Costner, and Gladiator (2000) with Russell Crowe. Be sure to visit Alabama Hills it's great for landscape photography.  Lone pine is a 1 hour drive away from Rainbow Canyon, and the scenic drive is nice, you might be surprised by one or two Hornets that pass you by at Low Level!
 
What is there to see?
 
Inputs come mostly from China Lake, and Edwards. Aircraft from Fresno, Nellis and Lemoore are also to be seen. During our three-day-stay we saw Hornets and Harriers from China Lake and F-16's from Fresno and Edwards. But none of the F-16's or Harriers could be photographed as they were too high over the canyon. Hornets were all nice and low and even pulling out of the canyon right before us! Hold on to your hat!
 
Traffic numbers are not all that high with an average of 4-7 aircraft per day. It is 'hit and miss' basically, with 0 aircaft on day one and +15 on day two.. And anything in between. In the 10 years of photographing aircraft at low level, I learned one thing: Be patient, and leave the scene at least one hour later than planned.. It happened to me more than once to miss the best aircraft just after leaving the scene..
 
At very high levels you can sometimes see Dogfights or Tanker Missions.
 
What photo equipment do I need?
 
You need at least 400-500mm on a FF camera

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[Sage Bromax]

This sounds fun, but was not the picture that came to my mind when I read the title.

[JeffBett]

You could camp at the Boxcar cabin, its not to far as well.  Since this is Death Valley and the wild west, I would expect to see this baby in a fly by.

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[JFanaselle]

Pencil me in Rick. I have a group of friends that do this very religiously, multiple times a year. I have picked their brains a little, but they've always been pretty secretive about the whole thing (they even operate a private facebook group where they plan their trips). My understanding is that they're low key because the AF has been getting weird about it, and there are rumors of shutting the route down or decreasing the frequency of trips, because it's been getting so crowded with spectators over the past 2 years. Well sure enough, last year when they were out there, one of the guys brought along his "buddy" who was a fellow photographer, and the guy sent tons of photos and videos to NBC news, which proceeded to run an entire story about the canyon and everything that goes on there. I'll try to squeeze any info I can out of them at this point, but chances are slim that they'll give up the details.

That said, I do know it gets very busy out there for Red Flag events. The last time they went out there, they complained that it was almost like an airshow, and people were posting up with chairs in front of each other and fighting over viewing spots. I know you want to make it a worthwhile trip, but maybe you should reconsider making our first experience out there coincide with a Red Flag event. Maybe I'm overthinking it, but I'd hate to be "part of the problem." My friends all camp at Panamint Springs Resort every time, and I guess the place fills up pretty fast when the Red Flag schedules are updated. It's not really that secret of a thing anymore.

[RikRong]

This sounds fun, but was not the picture that came to my mind when I read the title.

I'm sure you're not the only one.  If you search Jedi Transition on Google, there are lot more Star Wars images, than there are pictures of the Canyon.

Pencil me in Rick. I have a group of friends that do this very religiously, multiple times a year. I have picked their brains a little, but they've always been pretty secretive about the whole thing (they even operate a private facebook group where they plan their trips). My understanding is that they're low key because the AF has been getting weird about it, and there are rumors of shutting the route down or decreasing the frequency of trips, because it's been getting so crowded with spectators over the past 2 years. Well sure enough, last year when they were out there, one of the guys brought along his "buddy" who was a fellow photographer, and the guy sent tons of photos and videos to NBC news, which proceeded to run an entire story about the canyon and everything that goes on there. I'll try to squeeze any info I can out of them at this point, but chances are slim that they'll give up the details.

That said, I do know it gets very busy out there for Red Flag events. The last time they went out there, they complained that it was almost like an airshow, and people were posting up with chairs in front of each other and fighting over viewing spots. I know you want to make it a worthwhile trip, but maybe you should reconsider making our first experience out there coincide with a Red Flag event. Maybe I'm overthinking it, but I'd hate to be "part of the problem." My friends all camp at Panamint Springs Resort every time, and I guess the place fills up pretty fast when the Red Flag schedules are updated. It's not really that secret of a thing anymore.

No, that actually makes sense.  I can see how RF would lead to huge crowds up there, that's not something I really thought about.  I'm not really set on a date yet, we can just work on something that fits everyone's schedule.  If the planes are slow, we can still poke around DV during the day.

[EJsarus]

If this gets planned, i will be highly interested.

[Scott Stafford]

I often forget I’m registered here at this forum, but I’d be interested in a week day trip with enough advance notice! 

[RBduffer]

My II cents:

"Rainbow Canyon is situated east of Las vegas, in California, USA"

An Air Force guy who can't navigate, or "Did I drop that payload in Salt Lake City?"

As always, Joe makes some very good points.  And yes Joe, on rare occasions maybe over thinking

OK now that I got my smart ass comments out of the way,     I'M IN!!!!!

[RikRong]

My II cents:

"Rainbow Canyon is situated east of Las vegas, in California, USA"

An Air Force guy who can't navigate, or "Did I drop that payload in Salt Lake City?"

As always, Joe makes some very good points.  And yes Joe, on rare occasions maybe over thinking

OK now that I got my smart ass comments out of the way,     I'M IN!!!!!

I didn't even notice the miscue with the directions.  Haha.  Joe may say he's over-thinking, but he provided some pretty good input on points I never even thought of.

With that being said, once this work trip is done in August, I'd like to start setting some things in motion for this trip.

[FrankB]

There is certainly some great viewing from either the actual Father Crowley Overlook (which is the paved parking area with the vault toilet) or the other spot just a bit further west.  At the spot further west, there is a large parking area, and you walk up a short hill to get to the place where you usually see the videos taken from.  When I was there at the beginning of May, in less than an hour we had two German AF Eurofighter Typhoons followed about 30-40 minutes later by a pair of F/A-18.  As I was leaving I heard someone mention that there was a pair of A-10 in the area, and they flew right in front of us a little after we turned south at Panamint.

I do plan to go back there in the Fall if I can, and I'll probably just get a room at the Dow Villa in Lone Pine. 

If you've not seen the place, these might help you to visualize it.  These first ones are the spot to the west of the actual paved parking lot scenic overlook.







The view from the paved overlook is a little different.  The overlook is at a lower elevation than the more western spot, but the canyon is flowing downhill so to speak, so you are still above the rim.  There were actually a fair amount of people there when we stopped in.  Many of them were shooting video, while at the hilltop spot everyone I saw had DSLRs and big glass.  My Nikon D500 with 300mm f/2.8 lens was sorely missed, but it's not a travel camera so it had stayed home.  Actually, I think it might be too much lens for this spot, but hard to say.  Bring a zoom lens (and don't be like me and forget that you are using a zoom and leave it set at the widest setting), or at least an assortment of focal lengths.

This is the view you get with a 55mm lens on an APS-C sized sensor camera (equivalent to about 80mm on full-frame).  More magnification would have been better, but remember if you get too close then you lose the context of the place.  For scale - that's an F/A-18.   This is looking more or less west.  They generally fly west to east, but not always.



This is almost directly in front of the paved overlook, looking more or less north across the canyon.  Again with a 55mm lens on an APS-C sensor size, but I've cropped the image heavily.





For Red Flag - a few years back there was a small group from SCCX that went over to the hills near Area 51 and camped.  They had a great time, and said that both day and night planes were flying almost directly overhead.  Not quite the same, but something to think about.  I tried to find some pictures posted here but could not.  It was Mitch (Soylent Yellow), Dan, John, and some guy they met from Nor Cal.  It would be easy enough to ask Mitch where they were, he's still around.