I’m not kidding. There is an IFR reporting point by that name (in the Marlborough Sounds area). Though I don’t know how it would be pronounced.
I was sitting at the airport today listening to the scanner and hearing aircraft being sent to various reporting points including WETTA and Ohura. When I got home I set about finding out where these points are. The CAA web site provided the answer in purely numeric form, so I took it one step (in fact lots of steps) further and plotted them on Google Earth.
You can take a look for yourself by downloading the KML file and opening it in Google Earth. You can also import directly into “My Maps” on Google Maps, however the display on Google Maps does not automatically show the labels (the reporting point names) and there are a LOT of points.
I noted several interesting layouts of the points. There is a series of points on a 40nm radius circle around Christchurch International Airport. Another circle around Auckland International Airport sits at 200nm. Then there is the ‘Tasman wall’ – a near-vertical line of points in the Tasman sea, and the stepping stone line of points down to Antarctica. There are also many points out in the Pacific Ocean, up to 2390nm away.
Screen capture of data from Google Earth (click picture to download)
From what I understand, the pronouciation of BOLOX is pretty much as it looks
Nice picture!
Rodney