Las Vegas - McCarran & Nellis

[Dee747]

I'll be in LV for a week in early April, and wonder if any Ppruners with recent actual spotting/photo experience at McCarran and/or Nellis could offer a good insight into the pluses or minuses of doing similar?

I know there are various websites offering advice, but recent anecdotal tales would be very much appreciated. For example - car/no car? Terminal or perimeter at McCarron? Shade/shelter from the sun? The usual stuff .......

Many thanks in advance :ok:

Dee

[derekl29]

I've been there a couple of times, the last time being in May last year, there are a few good spots for photography / logging, you`ll need a car though:

1) On the south perimeter on E Sunset Rd (at its intersection with Escondido St) there is a spotters viewing car park / layby. 25L and 25R are right in front of you, its a great spot for logging but the fence might be too high if you want some good photos.

2) Carry east along E Sunset Rd from there and turn north into S Eastern Avenue, carry past the end of the runways on your left and then there's a Walmart on the left (I used it to stock up on food and drink) but you can also log a/c on finals to 25L / R)

3) At the western end of E Sunset Rd, there is a sport centre with a large (usually empty) car park. Its on the south side of E Sunset Rd, just east of Las Vegas Boulevard, on google maps its just to the east of the Callaway Golf Centre. Good spot to view outbounds on the 25's and inbounds on the 01's are right over your head.

4) On S Las Vegas Boulevard there is a small car park in the middle of the road just next to the Welcome to Las Vegas sign, apart from the obvious, the car park gives a nice view of the Signature biz apron.

5) Most of the biz jet parking is by E Tropicana and Koval Lane, I drove all round here, there are good spots to log the biz jets.

I`m sure there are other spots as well but my time was pretty limited. Spots 1 and 3 for me were the best.

I have several years ago visited N Las Vegas Airport and Henderson, they are also pretty easy to navigate round. I didnt get up to Nellis.

Another place (well worth the 100 mile drive) if you want to see some stored aircraft is Kingman.

enjoy!
Derek

[chevvron]

There's a separate terminal at McCarran where they don't like you taking piccies on account it's used by the civilian airline which transports people to/from Groom Lake aka Area 51.

[AndoniP]

When I went there a few years ago I called Nellis beforehand to ask whether it was open for a tour as they had it advertised on their website. They said they weren't running tours, so we elected to get a cheap southwest flight to Arizona instead, and visited the AMARG, along with the PIMA air and space museum.

Well worth doing both in a day if you're based in las vegas. I always thought they were a bit more pernickerty about spotting around their airports, but I'm probably wrong.

[paully]

Would expect security to be very tight from next month on as the annual Operation Red Flag is on at Nellis. Dont think spotters will be allowed anywhere either there or Mc Carran while its on.

[Dee747]

Thanks folks. Especially to Derekl29 for that detailed account. I'll probably not have a car while I'm there, but am staying on E Tropicana, so will hopefully get the biz side of things OK without too much bother, possible even out of the hotel window. Are any of those sites you mentioned easily accessible by public transport (busses)? And if you go there without any vehicle to rest in, how conspicuous would you be as a spotter just standing there with a camera and scanner? Are there usually other spotters present too?

No interest in photographing the Janet flights or terminal as I value my freedom too much.

If it'll be too much hassle getting to anywhere near Nellis I'll probably give it a miss (reluctantly).

I am hoping to do a night time heli flight down the strip though - does anyone have any particular recommendations for that?

Cheers

Dee

[Akrotiri bad boy]

I did a run to the Grand Canyon with Sundance Helicopters. Absolutely wonderful!!

Take a late afternoon trip out aiming to return at sunset, the trip takes about three hours including a picnic down in the canyon. The return flight runs paralell to the strip with some great photo opportunities. It also gets you some close up air to ground views of the "Janets".

As for spotting.... I had a room at the top of the Four Seasons hotel and watched the aircraft from my bed:8

[derekl29]

Are there any buses or public transport to the locations on E Sunset? I'm not sure to be honest, it's a fairly built up area in terms of local commerce, so maybe. there's always taxis I guess.

Are there any other spotters? at the "spotters" viewing car park and lay by, yes there's loads of people pulling in and watching the aircraft, so you shouldn't really stand out from the crowd but generally few people actually spot so I'm used to the odd curious look in the US. That place is official to the extent that its got signs up advertising that the ATC transmissions are re-broadcast on a normal fm frequency so you can listen on your car radio, so it's fairly safe there.

At the sport centre car park it's generally pretty empty, I've stayed there albeit inside and next to a car and no ones ever said anything to me but with all things near airports over there some people can get twitchy but I've never seen it there.

[AndoniP]

Dee747

We did the strip and the grand canyon trip. We booked both trips through Viator as they seem to have a good selection of trips from different companies.

The strip flight, try and go at sunset so you get some natural light, if your camera has a good sensor. If it's not that great take an early evening flight with plenty of natural light. At night with a bad camera your photos will turn out poor.

You might also see the lovely Sands Corp 747SP parked up at McCarran.

[smallpilot]

If you havent booked a hotel yet... both the MGM Grand, the Luxor and the Mandalay Bay are right next to the airport and when you check in you can ask for a room overlooking it! I do it everytime, all 3 are very good hotels, Mandalay Bay is one of the best hotels on the Strip anyway.

[Dan Winterland]

''Would expect security to be very tight from next month on as the annual Operation Red Flag is on at Nellis.''

It runs about ten times a year. And it's an exercise, not an operation. Not that secret - I did about five and the place abounds with spotters. Some even go flying on the exercise sorties. I took several civilian passengers on Red Flag flights on tankers.

[Hotel Tango]

The Janet 737s can be photographed without problem from public areas on the approach. Best bet is to have a car. Just by driving around you will find a number of good places to photograph from.