Military Air: UK Tornados are in town again.

[SCPD]

Anyone know the frq for the Tornados... Man those things are loud when they take off. I am about 20km from the airport but It sounds like a bomb going off when they launch.

I guess tower would talk to them a bit? But I was wondering if there is a millitary freq we might catch them on, in the air.

 

[Jay911]

If they're not using the milair freqs allocated to the Calgary area (http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?aid=4966), the odds are they'll use whatever freq they want. I don't believe aeronautical users are limited to specific licensed freqs like land mobile users are. Might be useful to sweep the UHF mil air band (230ish-320ish) and see what you get.

I was at work today in Whitehorn when one of them decided to crank it up for a full burn launch. Sounded like someone was dragging a dumpster across the parking lot.

 

[smason]

Is there any way to find out a rough schedule as to when to expect them near the airport?
I saw them on approach earlier this week while driving southbound on the Deerfoot.

I'd love to get some photos of them coming in, will make a good test for my new lens.

 

[DX-300]

Hard to say about the schedule, but most often I see them fly by in the afternoon between 1 and 3pm.

 

[robertmac]

Saw a jet landing from the south this AM about 0915, but it didn't look like a tornado. Had a pile of weapons under its' wings. I'm not an expert on jets, but it looked like a Canadian F15 [didn't have double rear tails]. Had larger bombs [extra fuel tanks] on outside edge of wings. Lots of missles between these large tanks/bombs.

 

[omrail]

Canada doesn’t have any f15 and the tornados is a single tail airplane and not a double tail

 

[smason]

Spent a few hours at the airport today from 12:30 to 3:00 ish.
Saw 2 land, 1 take off.

 

[robertmac]

Well, I said I was no expert on military aircraft. I know Canada does have other F type fighter jets [? F16], as I have seen them landing/takeoff at CYYC before. And the one landing had only one tail. smason, you should have stayed until 1630 as I heard a fighter jet take off about that time on runway 16 and then saw one about a minute later. As I live directly south of 16/34 if the winds are from a northerly or southerly direction, a lot of airplanes fly right over my house. Unfortunatetly, I have a lot of trees, so my field of view is very limited. However, I heard what I thought was another fighter jet take off about 1630 [second one] while I was outside and saw it banking from due south to east over McKenzie area. However, too far away to see much other than it was "moving" and was "loaded". Unfortunately, I wasn't monitoring any of the usual airport frequencies nor military-air frequencies. I don't usually monitor military-air frequencies as generally quiet in Calgary area. Darn those trees, but sure like to have them for shade on a warm day like today.

 

[omrail]

robertmac i think you may have seen the CT-155 Hawk which is for the NATO Flying Training in Canada (NFTC).

here is the site for the CAF fleet http://www.airforce.forces.gc.ca/site/equip/index_e.asp

 

[Jay911]

I was at work today in Whitehorn when one of them decided to crank it up for a full burn launch. Sounded like someone was dragging a dumpster across the parking lot.

Heard this again twice last night (~0330, ~0430) and the night before that too (that's when I've been at work). It's way louder than any other jet taking off. I can't imagine they won't have complaints about last night's 3am launch.

I'm gonna try running my 996 through a continuous sweep search of 230-380 today on the way into work and see if I get anything more than just TV channels.

 

[robertmac]

Didn't hear them early this AM. I agree, the sound is different than passenger jets, except the older British commercial jets [that I haven't seen over the past couple of years]. I know at night, jets are not allowed to take off on 16 unless there is some wind/weather concerns. Last night they were painting lines on 25 so landing/takeoff was really controlled on this runway. The Calgary Sun had a picture of the British Tornado G4. Now, I'm still not convinced that all the fighter jets taking off are Tornados. I don't have any time to really look for pics. on different fighter jets. Will say today, about 1358 a fighter jet went over my house and the brief sighting showed it to be similar to what I saw landing Friday AM. That is, it was was a dark shade of grey/green as in military green [if there is such a colour]. I've heard it called "olive green". Then at 1400, another jet flew over and it was a lighter, grey colour which seems to match the Tornado colours in the Sun. Granted, it was lower than the first so could have made a difference in colour. Neither of these jets had as much armament today as I have seen this week. Can't say which direction they turned after heading south over my house. But there was a difference in colour. But this could be my "aging eyes".

 

[smason]

A couple of photos if anyone's curious:

http://www.masoncomputing.com/misc/IMG_2559a.jpg
http://www.masoncomputing.com/misc/IMG_2589a.jpg
http://www.masoncomputing.com/misc/IMG_2623a.jpg

 

[robertmac]

smason, thanks for posting these. Did you see any other fighter jets while at the airport? The armament on these pics. is not the same as I saw Friday AM. It would appear from your pics, that there are at least 3 tornados. Does anyone know how many there are in Calgary at the present time?

 

[smason]

smason, thanks for posting these. Did you see any other fighter jets while at the airport? The armament on these pics. is not the same as I saw Friday AM. It would appear from your pics, that there are at least 3 tornados. Does anyone know how many there are in Calgary at the present time?

There are at least 4 as far as I know, seems to me someone who was there mentioned there were 6
When I got there there were 3 on the ground, and people there said at least one was out.

OK just looked it up, the Herald says 6 from http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/city/story.html?id=67e5d255-c6e8-46bd-a289-cf808d9deaa0

Fighter jets roar through city skies
Sean Myers, Calgary Herald
Published: Wednesday, June 25, 2008
British jets will be tearing through Calgary air space this week as part of a military exercise at CFB Suffield.

The Royal Air Force's 13 Squadron promises to keep it as quiet as possible. However, it will be hard to miss the distinctive roar of the six Tornado GR4 jets taking off and landing at the Calgary airport until Monday.

 

[DX-300]

Those are spectacular photos smason, good job!

 

[mark2117]

A couple of photos if anyone's curious:

http://www.masoncomputing.com/misc/IMG_2559a.jpg

I saw this smoke the other day and I've seen it before, anyone know what it is?


***By the way there are 6, they've been here for probably 3 or 4 weeks now. I live minutes from the airport so I frequent the area a lot(not including for work). I hear them quite often as well. They actually stop by periodically throughout the year for weeks at a time more than you think.

******Last summer I remember seeing 2 take off what looked like side by side....coolest take off EVER!

 

[pathalogical]

Nice photos smason ! I too, am curious about the smoke. Are they using live ammo for their training excercise ?

 

[Jay911]

I can't tell the orientation of the pic from the information I've got, but if that is smoke routinely seen on the east side of the Calgary International Airport about midfield, it's what's called the "mock-up site". The fire crews have a ~40 acre section of airport property that's got several props (fake airplanes, decommissioned real airplanes, etc). Some of them are fitted with diesel/propane sprayers allowing them to fill the prop with combustible fuels and light it on fire. They can simulate everything from spilled fuel fires to jet engine fires to in-cabin fires and all other sorts of incidents. It's training grounds for the airport fire crews. They also have the shell of a decommissioned 737 which they use for practicing laddering for rescue, cutting for extrication practice/access gaining, and most frequently, poking full of holes with the Snozzle piercing water nozzle.

I have pics of the mock-up site in action close-up somewhere on my PC... if I have time today, I'll dig them up and post links to them here.

 

[Jay911]

Here we are.

The reason some of these files are named differently than the captions I gave them (mainly caption "Red 5" for pics with filenames "Red 6") is because all the Red trucks were renamed after these photos were taken.

Enjoy!

http://s235.photobucket.com/albums/ee99/jay911_50/CFD Mockup Site/

 

[pathalogical]

Great pics Jay ! You're right about the 'poke' pics, I bet it's fun woriking that piece of apparatus !!!