Air Force One to be in Memphis Friday!!

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TinEar

TinEar

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Monitor 136.725. It's the Presidential Air Fleet Support frequency. You'll hear the lead aircraft generally giving flying conditions and weather to AF 1 along the flight route and also the conditions on approach at the landing airport. There is generally a lot of chat between the pilot of the SAM lead flight and the pilot of Air Force 1, especially as they get close to their destination. I don't think I've ever heard AF 1 actually identify himself on that freq - but it's him. The speaker aboard the SAM flight always refers to the other pilot as "Sir" which is an excellent tipoff. That freq is always the tip I look for when they're coming home to Andrews AFB.

One other note. At least at Andrews, the pilot aboard AF 1 doesn't call on a freq and wait for a response before giving his message. He just gets on the freq, says what he has to say and and the ground controller had "better" answer up immediately.

Alan
 
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C

CORN

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Your last paragraph might work with Andrews crews but when they are in FAA airspace, aka Centers, they are just another aircraft. They get priority handling but when they speak to center they check in like any other aircraft and the center controllers might be busy and AF 1 might have to check in again. Other ATC does not have to "answer up immediately". It's not like they are going to get punished.
 
TinEar

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CORN said:
Your last paragraph might work with Andrews crews but when they are in FAA airspace, aka Centers, they are just another aircraft. They get priority handling but when they speak to center they check in like any other aircraft and the center controllers might be busy and AF 1 might have to check in again. Other ATC does not have to "answer up immediately". It's not like they are going to get punished.
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No, of course not. It's just one of the perks of the callsign at their home base and area. I realize they do things the normal way when with ATC - most of the time. I think it has more to do with the attitude of the pilot than anything else. In any case, I did say it applied to Andrews - not to the world - and mentioned it just as an item of interest.
 
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