Mid-Air Refueling over Nova Scotia

[looknlisten]

Just passed overhead Yarmouth. I saw the tanker but unable to see the receiver. Comms on 396.200. Slightly East of AR20 track.

 

[looknlisten]

GOLD61 / MAZDA Flight

GOLD61 ( KC-10A 84-0186) approaching PEI from the North with Moncton ATC. He should be with some F15s returning home from the UK. Look for GOLD71 (KC-10A 79-1710) nearby. Hoping they fly the AR20-SW track. 1455Z
Comms on 294.800 1505Z
Tankers headed to Bangor and Fighters to Barnes.1550Z

 

[looknlisten]

PEACH68 on AR-20NE

PEACH68 (E-8C, 92-3290) inbound to the IP at CYQI at 2001Z to take 85K of gas from MAINE99 63-8872, KC-135R) on AR20-NE.
Via Comms and PP 1950Z

Almost missed him. Seems he let the tanker get ahead of him first.

 

[looknlisten]

HOIST85 on AR20-NE

HOIST85 (KC10, 84-0190) is setting up with unidentified receiver for refueling on AR20-NE. Comms on 341.750 @ 2340Z

 

[Mark]

2325z Had a WASTE 12 flight coming North ZDC UHF only FL270 and lost him.
Notice a HOIST 86 79-0433 up there as well.
By callsign and mask coms say bomber type.
0200z WASTE 11 flight with Gander via ATC net talking about reforming.
Guessing a couple of Barksdale Buffs.
0230z WASTE 12 heard here on HF Gander 5616

 

[looknlisten]

This was the best I could do at the time. The sun had already set and so I booted the ISO to 3200 (sorry for the graininess). No mistaking that oxygen mask sound. About 10 minutes later I lost my internet connection and 30 minutes later...we lost all power for over 8 hours, thus the delayed response.

 

[darrylcn]

Awesome shot. Wow. Thanks for that!

 

[looknlisten]

TABOR41 Flight 1000Z

RCH091 (KC10A, 86-0034) setting up a rendezvous with TABOR flight for 1020Z overhead CYQI.
Unknown receiver type or how many at this time. Using 373.550 Tanker/Fighters and Moncton Center 270.800
Switched to 268.400. (They have that 'Oxy-Mask' sound.) 1020Z
Confirmed flight of 4 F16s 1023Z
Second wave will be following.

 

[looknlisten]

The second wave (TABOR51 Flight) is refueling with RCH82 (KC-135R, 58-0098) at 1100Z.
Confirmed with Center as a flight of 5 aircraft (4 F16s + Tanker?)
They requested to be 25 miles West of track (AR20?).
Boom freq is 314.100.
REACH81 is 20 minutes in trail and will be taking them over the pond.
Looks like REACH81 is transmitting as RCH314 (KC10A, 84-0192)

This has some nice pics of the Fighters involved this morning:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/eor1/sets/72157631071814798/

 

[darrylcn]

Blue flight over me now at 27,500 ft heading SW I think. Any ideas?

 

[looknlisten]

Blue flight over me now at 27,500 ft heading SW I think. Any ideas?

These are the RETRO Eagles from Lakenheath that departed this morning. Just roared over my head (CYQI)at 1916Z headed South.

 

[darrylcn]

Oh yes those guys. Soooo obvious question - still cloudy there?

 

[looknlisten]

Soooo obvious question - still cloudy there?

Funny you should say that...The fighters scooted ahead of the Tanker...right through a patch of blue sky that had opened up. Too quick to get a picture though. Oh well.

 

[darrylcn]

Ha! Well at least you saw them.

 

[Mark]

Following PATH 11 flight of 3 sound like Buffs headed for Nova Scotia 2300z.
A/A heard for these guys were 280.150
Last heard here with Boston Ctr 290.350
Tanker GOLD 61 inbound McGuire from Lajes so not their tanker..
Bunch of SPUR KC-10 tankers up from McGuire
SPUR 50 85-0028
SPUR 51 86-0034
SPUR 65 79-0433
SPUR 67 79-1712

2315z to complicate things here comes the E-4B 73-1677 at FL310 here.
Guess couple of the SPUR tankers for him.
Assume SPUR 50,51 for the bombers and SPUR 65,67 for the E-4B
E-4B burning WBFM 366.600 headed up that way.. Once overseas they shut that off.

 

[snunes]

SPUR67

Spur 67 (79-1712) on Plane Finder now. Over N.S. Also heard them on 341.750

Steve
Caver, MA

 

[looknlisten]

Spur 67 (79-1712) on Plane Finder now. Over N.S. Also heard them on 341.750

Steve
Caver, MA

Thanks for the heads-up and welcome to the forum. I found out too late that this was part of the 3 B2 Spirts that headed East again this morning (two went over on Saturday...1 returned Sunday). Keep an eye out for them making a return trip sometime in the near future.

 

[SCPD]

I'm located in the south end of Halifax and have a home patrol-1. I think that I should be able to hear these refuelings on the home patrol.

What would be the best frequencies to enter to hear this?

Although I'm on the first floor of an apartment building so I'll probably have trouble receiving them.

 

[looknlisten]

I'm located in the south end of Halifax and have a home patrol-1. I think that I should be able to hear these refuelings on the home patrol.
What would be the best frequencies to enter to hear this?
Although I'm on the first floor of an apartment building so I'll probably have trouble receiving them.

Welcome to the group! The HP-1 is capable of picking up AR Comms. Certainly your location is a bit challenging so it's most likely you will only hear them when they are quite close to you.
These are the primary freqs for AR20 (Yarmouth to Sydney) you want to have programmed:
Primary: 341.75 Secondary: 349.70 Alternate Primary: 305.5 Alternate Backup: 265.65
Take the time to go thru some past posts to get other common freqs related to aerial refueling.
We are in a strategic location for a lot of various air traffic coming and going overseas.
Thanks for checking in.

 

[darrylcn]

Fist 32 and 33 are up in Europe pointed west. Two KC-10s which were over NS/Eastern USA recently. They're pointed west so they may be coming our way eventually today.