Interesting Milair catch

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FrankJ

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I heard an interesting milair comm this afternoon with my PRO-43 w/Diamond RH77CA.

On 344.600 Mhz, heard a callsign "Ascot 7070" with a British accent talking with Wright-Patt Metro to get weather for Tinker AFB, Ft. Worth NAS, and McConnell AFB. Signal was pretty strong at times. Gave his flight level at 370.

I did a little googling and found was a Royal Air Force E-3D. See the link below.
http://www.raf.mod.uk/equipment/sentry.cfm

Just thought I would pass that along. I wonder what it was doing in the US? If anyone has any information they can pass along, let me know!

Frank
 

texasemt13

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Tinker

Got some family friends who were stationed at Tinker AFB. They were AWACS operators- maybe they were here for some training with their E3.
 

kmacka

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They must have made a mistake on the RAF website. It states that the max altitude of the E-3 is 35,000. You heard them report in at FL 370.
 

chrismol1

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kmacka said:
It states that the max altitude of the E-3 is 35,000. You heard them report in at FL 370.
pushin it to the limit
dangerous, there is something called the 40,000 club where pilots try to push their jets to the max. a lot of times the engines actually melt the blades, many crashes becasue of this dumb risk
 

FrankJ

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Yeah, I saw that 35,000 ft. was the limit also. I didn't think anything of the fact that they were at a higher altitude. That's not safe?

Frank
 

captaincraig44

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chrismoll said:
pushin it to the limit
dangerous, there is something called the 40,000 club where pilots try to push their jets to the max. a lot of times the engines actually melt the blades, many crashes becasue of this dumb risk

I'm not sure "many crashes" are due to this. Could you cite some instances?
The most notable of recent history was the Pinnacle CRJ repositioning flight that crashed in Jefferson City, MO in 2004. There was a lot of other indications that the crew was far from acting professionally throughout the duration of the flight, but the jaunt to FL410 ultimately killed them when the engines flamed out and became core-locked.
 

FlashP

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Older jets (low bypass ratio) don't lose thrust at high altitude as much as the newer ones. So the "max altitude" of 707s is quite a bit above FL350... it's FL420. What's listed for the E-3 is probably someone's judgement of "typical" given that you're going to climb very slowly with all that added drag.
 

tmfok7

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In doing alittle looking on Wikipedia, I found the following:

E-3 Sentry

USAF/NATO aircraft
General characteristics

Crew: Flight crew: 4
Mission crew: 13-19
Length: 152 ft 11 in (46.61 m)
Wingspan: 145 ft 9 in (44.42 m)
Height: 41 ft 4 in (12.6 m)
Wing area: 3,050 ft² (283.4 m²)
Empty weight: 162,000 lb (73,480 kg)
Loaded weight: 325,000 lb (147,400 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 347,000 lb (156,000 kg)
Powerplant: 4× Pratt and Whitney TF33-PW-100A turbofan, 21,000 lbf (93 kN) each
Performance

Maximum speed: 530 mph (855 km/h)
Range: 4,000 NM (7,400 km) (8 hr)
Service ceiling 29,000 ft (9,000 m)




Royal Air Force/Royal Saudi Air Force/French Air Force aircraft
General characteristics

Crew: Flight crew: 4
Mission crew: 14
Capacity: 35
Length: 152 ft 11 in (46.61 m)
Wingspan: 145 ft 9 in (44.42 m)
Height: 41 ft 4 in (12.6 m)
Wing area: 3,050 ft² (283.4 m²)
Empty weight: 185,000 lb (83,990 kg)
Loaded weight: 335,000 lb (152,090 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 334,000 lb (151,636 kg)
Powerplant: 4× CFM International CFM56 turbofan, 24,000 lbf (107 kN) each
Performance

Never exceed speed: 0.83 mach [630 mph]
Maximum speed: 0.78 mach (955 km/h) [This works out to 592 mph]
Cruise speed: 0.72 mach (eco) [A little less than 550 mph]
Range: 5,000 NM (8,046 km) (10 hr)
Service ceiling 43,000 ft (13,106 m)
Rate of climb: 2000 ft/min (610 m/min)

You'll notice there is about a 14,000 ft difference in Service Ceiling between the NATO/USAF aircraft and the one the Brits etc. use!
 
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rcvmo

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Most of the stunt pilots including the F-18 pilot in the Red Bull Air races had british accents.
Nice Corsair, Texan T-6's, hot rod whirly, and our own B-25 from Yankee made a heck of a show Sunday.
rcvmo
 

HenryDavid

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Ascot callsign

I'm new here to Radio Reference, but it's very nice. Just getting back into scanning after about 5 years out of it.

I've heard the Ascot callsign quite a few times on the military freqs, even 5 years ago.
 

HogDriver

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That's what they want you to believe. :D

The aircraft basic weight is 177, 000 pounds. 35,000 is about the limit. Normal cruise is 29,000 ft.

As for the CFM-equipped jets, they can probably fly higher but when the aircraft is doing what it's supposed to do, they cruise at 230 KIAS @ FL 290.
 
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HogDriver

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I heard an interesting milair comm this afternoon with my PRO-43 w/Diamond RH77CA.

On 344.600 Mhz, heard a callsign "Ascot 7070" with a British accent talking with Wright-Patt Metro to get weather for Tinker AFB, Ft. Worth NAS, and McConnell AFB. Signal was pretty strong at times. Gave his flight level at 370.

I did a little googling and found was a Royal Air Force E-3D. See the link below.
http://www.raf.mod.uk/equipment/sentry.cfm

Just thought I would pass that along. I wonder what it was doing in the US? If anyone has any information they can pass along, let me know!

Frank


I just realized I saw that jet when it landed at Tinker last week. Wow, what are the chances!

They have conferences and such every once in awhile that all the AWACS folks participate in.
 

HenryDavid

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canders

I live on the east coast of Florida about 70 southeast of Cape Canaveral. Ascot is an easy name to remember, associating it with England.
 

Yokoshibu

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I have seen 135 platforms go above 350 ...a few 135's are to heavy so you cant climb that high... I wouldnt be shocked if the e-3 and e-8 platforms have a weight problem. I remember stories of the older small motor guys getting light and trying to climb above 400
 
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