Mid-Air Refueling over Nova Scotia

[looknlisten]

Bunch of ROMA tankers to Northeast tonight..Guess some headed over to get some Aviano F-16's
for Red Flag later this week.Good callsign for Italy based aircraft..LOL

ROMA 81 86-0029 Travis
ROMA 91 85-0030 McGuire
ROMA 83 63-8000 92ARW
ROMA 02 62-3528 916ARW
ROMA 01 85-0027 McGuire

Ciao Darryl ..

Watching them pass by (on PlanePlotter) at this time.
ROMA01 is transmitting full position as well..even on Planefinder.net. 0130Z

 

[darrylcn]

85-0027 is the same jet that was Bobby 61 the other day. Hope it's not unique to just that aircraft.

 

[darrylcn]

Anyone else see that there are two (both?) VC-25s out flying together? 92-9000 and 82-8000 just flew over me at nearly the same time.

 

[metal57]

AF 1 and SAM 44. POTUS heading for India.

 

[primehifi]

Some of you may find this interesting..

US military jets spotted flying in formation over Manchester - Manchester Evening News

US military jets spotted flying in formation over Manchester



Three jets were spotted flying in formation over Manchester on Friday afternoon.

Witnesses took to Twitter this afternoon to report the sightings. User @dazM33 said: “Three fighter aircraft over South Manchester.”

The low-flying US military aircraft were seen flying side-by-side near to Manchester Airport and over Boothstown.

The National Air Traffic Services - which provides air navigation services across the UK - said the planes were US military aircraft.

A NATS spokesman said: “The information we have is that these were US military aircraft flying through UK airspace that had come across the North Atlantic.”

Aviation enthusiasts posting on online forums said the aircraft were two or three F15 jets heading to Lakenheath RAF base, in Suffolk at around 27,000 feet. They said the planes were followed by a KC-10 fuel tanker plane which allows for mid-air refuelling.

 

[looknlisten]

That is hilarious.
Not the first time spotter forums had been mentioned in the news. I monitored that exact flight early that morning. BLUE42 (KC-135R, 62-3508) and DUCE82 (KC-10A, 83-0079) refueled a RETRO flight of Lakenheath Eagles returning to base from scheduled maintenance.
One F-15 had a generator failure and returned to Robins. The AirSpare tanker RTB'd to McGuire AFB.
Thanks for that link!

 

[Mark]

Bit off topic but today 1645z Canforce 0147 Chinook CH-147F from Boeing factory up the river
near Philly in area testing his vortac beam instruments as wants to overfly KILG beacon directly.
I see Boeing has 20 year contract to service them so assume a overhaul was done..

 

[darrylcn]

Yessir, just glad to have some activity here Mark! I owe the forum a long long range shot fof a USAF E-3 and a surprising KC-10 (figured a scheduled refuel would have a KC-135) from last week.

 

[looknlisten]

COBRA55 and LIMA22 AR20-NE

COBRA55 (62-4125, RC-135) is refueling with LIMA22 (KC-135R, 63-8040) on AR20-NE at 2350Z

 

[Mark]

AR20NE Res tonight 2330z-0130z..Maybe westbound Cobra?

 

[nyair1]

COBRA55 (62-4125, RC-135) is refueling with LIMA22 (KC-135R, 63-8040) on AR20-NE at 2350Z

I had Cobra 55 on 255.400 FSS by my location

 

[BM82557]

A-10's to be deployed to Europe

Just an FYI - http://forums.radioreference.com/2338299-post102.html

 

[looknlisten]

Just an FYI - http://forums.radioreference.com/2338299-post102.html

I listened to their deployment on Wednesday morning. There were four CLEAN72/71/82/81 tankers fueling the dozen(TABOR31/35) A-10s near Cape Cod as they made their way to Lajes. They should be on their way to Spangdahlem Germany today (may stop in the UK on their way).

Another news story that came out before they left gave me a good heads-up;
First Air Force theater security package deploys to Europe

 

[Mark]

Red Flag ends today in Vegas.. May catch Aviano and Lakenheath birds
coming back east unless they hold them for more training on ranges out there.

 

[looknlisten]

Red Flag ends today in Vegas.. May catch Aviano and Lakenheath birds
coming back east unless they hold them for more training on ranges out there.

I noticed some 'GOLD' tanker activity today at Vegas. GOLD27 (59-1444,KC-135R) and GOLD26 (58-0103,KC-135T).
They have been there for awhile now...but may be the ones to watch for.

 

[looknlisten]

BLUE/RETRO Flight

Fighter Control UK reports that 2 F15s have departed Lakenheath headed back Stateside for their usual maintenance rotation. They left a bit later than usual, so I'm guessing they may arrive over Nova Scotia around 3:00pm local (just in time for the sky to cloud over).
As usual, you may want to tap into Live ATC to gain a Heads-up:
Airport Detail: CYYT | LiveATC.net
Look for at least one of these tankers to show up on PlanePlotter;
79-0433 BLUE51 KC-10A
63-8021 BLUE52 KC-135R
Happy Spotting

 

[darrylcn]

Thanks Howard! And no doubt about the clouds

 

[darrylcn]

Heads up, they are over me right now headed Southwest

 

[looknlisten]

BLUE51, 79-0433, KC10 at FL250 approaching Halifax 1745Z

 

[looknlisten]

No good news from my location. Despite clear skies and 3 spotters, never saw a thing.
Zero comms except them calling Boston as a flight of three. I'm beginning to think I'm in the wrong hobby.