There are a couple of Martin State A-10 flights up. One is a two ship AXEMAN flight, who just switched from Ops freq 143.8 to 40.15 FM but I can't hear them on the low band freq. . ("Go AUX 40.15" was the command) Prior to that, they were working 140.025 which seems to be another of their favorites recently. Then, a RAVEN flight just reported takeoff at 1418.
There's also a SCARY two ship F-16 flight from Andrews in the Pax area doing ACM activity simulating HUNTRESS direction.
Scads of transports are all over the place with Dover and Andrews especially busy. Guess they're getting caught up on all the missed flights the past three days. There are also three KC-135Rs from the 756th at Andrews in the air (57-1419, 62-3543 and 57-1487.)
A while ago I heard Guard Copter 26084 contacting Raven Ops on 347.2 for a phone patch to the Baltimore City Fire Department. I couldn't catch the gist of the conversation because it was breaking up from my location. However, the copter did mention taking off from Martin State and going to the Balt City Fire Training Academy to pick up some people and inquired if the FEMA regional director was there. A bit later I heard him airborne again and he said he had 5 pax and their equipment on board but I didn't hear where he was going. The first part of his conversation was at about 1330.
There were also MA-ANG A-10s - apparently at Warren Grove Range. I heard them coming and going on the usual ZNY freqs - Kennedy and Dixie 282.3 and 307.8/
The President's planes took off earlier from Andrews heading for the Virginia Tech area for the 2 o'clock service.
I also stumbled onto CRAB 53 (C-130J MD-ANG MTN) on a strange freq - 362.2 which I have listed as a Navy TAC freq. I only heard one transmission there so have no idea what type activity he was doing. All he gave was his altitude.
Pick a freq - any freq - and you're going to hear activity today.
Just heard VENUS 23 (C-20B, 86-0203, 99th AS Andrews) reporting takeoff at 23 past the hour (1423) and saying he's the "Alert Bird" - whatever that might be....378.1
SAM 1326 (C-37A, 97-0400, 99th AS Andrews) reports late takeoff at 1843Z due to late arrival of D/V 2 plus 5...I'd almost bet he's heading for Europe...378.1
1449: EVAC 33116 (C-17A, 03-3116, 183rd AS MS-ANG Jackson) arriving Andrews with a planeload of injured servicemen...due in at 1920Z...Sigh....378.1 (PACER 13 to Griffin Command and DC 22 to LIBERATOR were also talking on the freq at the same time)
I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before...when the Coast Guard helos - including the ones stationed at DCA that use BLACKJACK - move up and down the coast, the Coast Guard Station Baltimore maintains a listening watch for them on 157.15 (23A) and tracks their positions every 15 minutes when the helos give their lat/longs.
1510: SALTY 92 calling Navy Ops on 386.8 and 139.3...no joy on either....then he tries Dispatch freq 372.2 and has no luck there either. (At one point, he started to give his callsign as "SALTY DOG" and then corrected to just SALTY.)
1515: CRAB 53 with Pax on 121.0 and handed off to TRACON 124.55. (Also just heard TRACON calling Coast Guard 6568 and sending him to 128.35...and also sending an AXEMAN flight to "button 4"...at 1524, AXEMAN flight is with MTN Tower 297.2 14 miles out heading for the runway.
1529: Believe it was the SALTY pair just landing at ADW with Tower on 349.0 (only heard end of transmission from 91 about gear down, etc.)
1535: CRAB 53 landing Martin State...121.3
1535: EVAC 66163 (C-17A, 06-6163, 60th AMW Travis) arriving Andrews with another 8 patients...378.1
1615-20: SUMMIT 14 (C-130E 731st AS AFRC, Peterson AFB, CO) calling SHORTSTOP, the Willow Grove AFRC Ops controller on 351.75
And as a parting shot for this post...can't forget to mention a Royal Air Force C-17A, tail ZZ172, 99 Squadron in the area around 1600. (They've got four of them...ZZ171/ZZ172/ZZ173/ZZ174)
