Thanks Paul. I may be dust before they come through this area again though. I put a couple of radios on search looking for their air/air during the flight but never found anything. Those freqs may narrow it down "next time" hopefully.
Yesterday, I posted the TFR I found for the upcoming weekend CAP but I missed one that was posted for today. It follows....
NOTAM Number : FDC 6/3201 Issue Date : March 13, 2006 at 23:34 UTC Location : Silver Spring/Calverton, Maryland near WASHINGTON VOR/DME (DCA) Beginning Date and Time : March 15, 2006 at 18:05 UTC Ending Date and Time : March 15, 2006 at 20:15 UTC Reason for NOTAM : Temporary flight restrictions for VIP (Very Important Person) Movement Type : VIP Replaced NOTAM(s) : N/A
Affected Area(s)
Airspace Definition:
TFR Center: 11.9 nautical miles from WASHINGTON VOR/DME(DCA) on the 028 radial (Latitude: 39º02'47"N, Longitude: 76º57'09"W)
Radius: 3 nautical miles
Altitude: From the surface up to but not including 3000 feet MSL
Effective Date(s):
March 15, 2006 at 18:05 UTC (March 15, 2006 at 13:05 EST) - March 15, 2006 at 20:15 UTC (March 15, 2006 at 15:15 EST)
NOTE: The President is travelling via car into Montgomery County. See message #1412 on Sticky Major Events Thread posted at 1323.
1259: FLYER flight (A-10 PA-ANG Willow Grove) on FSS freq «255.4» reports entering SR-800 at 250 knots and at 500 feet....points A-F.
1305: BANDSAW KILO calling HUNTRESS "on AICC" «364.2»
1318: CRAB 54 is doing pattern work around the airfield at Phillips AAF on «126.15» He's going to go around again and then head for MTN (Martin State).
1326: CRAB 54 reports five miles out and heading for landing at Martin State with Tower on «121.3»
1336: BATON 20 (EC-130, 193rd SOG, PA-ANG Harrisburg) landing at Martin State with Tower on «121.3»
1340: If the mission is still on, we should start hearing the MARLIN and PANAMA F-15 flights from Langley in the next few minutes.
1341: REACH 105T to Quantico Base Ops on «355.3». IDs as a C-130 arriving in 20 minutes and will need 20,000 pounds of fuel.
1342: BANDSAW to GK on «249.8» but he's too weak to copy.
1345: PANANA 71 (1st FW Langley), flight of five, with ZDC-Cape Charles «256.8» shortly after takeoff from Langley.
1348: PANAMA 71, flight of five, checks in with GK on «249.8» at FL230, turning toward the airspace (W-386).
1350: MARLIN 81 flight (1st FW Langley) with ZDC-Cape Charles «256.8» at FL210.
1351: MARLIN 81 flight with GK on «249.8» checks in as a flight of four at FL210 and will be MARSA with PANAMA.
Note that BANDSAW had the suffixes reversed for the two Langley flights.
1353: PANAMA flight checks in on «363.9» to BANDSAW as instructed.
1356: MARLIN flight leader on «249.8» tells the flight to "Push 16 Prime" and they come up as planned on «389.1» A minute or so later they make contact with BANDSAW to begin their activity.
We have 9 F-15s now buzzing around in air combat maneuvers under the control of the BANDSAW E3C aircraft.
1417: Refueling boom freq «387.8» active but too weak to copy from here.
1419: And so is boom freq «320.6» (This is where I normally hear the Langley fighters refueling but this activity is very weak this time.)
1422: BANDSAW KILO calling Giant Killer for a frequency check «249.8»
1423: BANDSAW reports PANAMA 71/72/75 will RTB «249.8»
1423: PANAMA 75 tries reporting that fact to GK but has trouble making contact...finally does make contact and reports the RTB info via HEELS. «249.8»
1428: Found a new (to me) refueling boom freq «365.7» Two aircraft - both loud and clear. No callsigns heard yet. For the next several minutes they are heard just chatting back and forth about direction, altitudes, etc. By 1438, I can only hear one of them. They mentioned turning toward the northeast a few minutes ago so apparently one of them has flown out of my listening range.
1434: MARLIN 81 flight checks in with GK on «249.8» to report RTB. They also check in on Langley tac «276.675» Direct HEELS at 14,000 feet.
1435: SPORT 1 (Martin State A-10 travelling callsign) with Pax River Approach on «305.2»
1436: SPORT 1 to BayWatch on «354.8» to say he'll be working with two AXEMAN A-10s. (Very curious about the use of this callsign for normal work.) SPORT 1 reports they'll be working R-6609 from surface to 20,000 feet for the next 30 minutes.
1442: The two aircraft on «365.7» are talking about working in R-6609 and one asks the other if they recognize the SPORT callsign. The other doesn't know who it is either. I can now hear both of them again....very well. I'm suddenly not sure if this is a boom freq or just a tanker interplane/tanker squadron freq. I guess it could also be any old pair of aircraft that just happened to be talking about refueling a bit ago. We'll see soon enough what it is. One of them is setting up at 25,000 feet which always seems to be a good refueling altitude. They still haven't used a callsign...just 1 and 2 to ID each other.
1445: AXEMAN flight reports airborne at 45 after the hour. «347.2»
1448: AXEMAN flight with BayWatch ojn «354.8» and using tac «142.3»
1451: PANAMA 73/74 report ready to RTB and at 20,000 feet to GK on «249.8»
1452: Bollen Range active «237.2»
1459: I believe «365.7» is a tanker interplane freq but don't have a clue for the unit due to the lack of callsigns. Perhaps if I can pick them up elsewhere if/when they begin refueling, I can slap an ID on them. (Heard them chatting until about 1510 and then they disappeared. No refueling. No nothing. I'm reluctant to give this a "boom freq" or even "tanker" tag based on the limited info I got from them.)
1502: Have another U/I freq with a pair of aircraft in air-air chat on «333.35». They are flying at 15,000 feet. The two aircraft are talking about a problem one of them has. The other is flying around him checking the gear door and rudders, etc. Everything checks okay so one of them is going to stay on this freq if he's needed, the other is going to land somewhere. A couple of minutes later, there's a TESTER 04 on this freq (female speaker). It's not one of the aircraft involved in the earlier problem.
1505: The aircraft with the problem from above is with Pax River on «310.55» to announce he's going to land. No callsign heard.
1515: Another Langley flight...Norfolk TRACON «370.925» to ZDC-Cape Charles «256.8», to Giant Killer on «249.8» to BANDSAW assigned freq «363.9». And after all that, the closest I can come to his callsign is CAVE. He's very weak and the band is very noisy today. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.
1521: AXEMAN flight out of BayWatch area and with BWI TRACON on «317.425» Reports direct Martin. Then they're over to Raven Ops «347.2» to report 10 out, both Code 1.
1522: Bollen Range has WARDOG talking. «237.2»
1522: DATSUN 71 (1st FW Langley) with ZDC-Cape Charles on «256.8» (This is the second flight mentioned by BANDSAW earlier that would follow the MARLIN/PANAMA flights.)
1525: DATSUN 71, flight of three, into GK's area on «249.8» reporting right turn directly to W-386, Delta area. Trouble contacting GK...extremely weak according to flight leader...as reported by just about everyone today and every day.
1529: DATSUN 71, while on «249.8», says to "Push 16 Prime" and come up on «389.1». One of the DATSUN flight has a problem with fuel venting. They're going to watch it and if it continues he'll be sent home. He tells the aircraft with the problem to push button 17, 2 AUX. Flight leader then makes contact on this freq with BANDSAW. (Note that it's well past the 1950Z time that BANDSAW said earlier he'd be working in W-386. Perhaps that time was just for the MARLIN/PANAMA flights.) There is also someone working the other assigned freq - 363.9 - but I don't have any callsigns there to ID the flight.
1535: The air combat maneuver being performed by the DATSUN flight is against a simulated attack by an SU-27 FLANKER Russian Sukhoi fighter aircraft. (They're still fighting the Cold War. Should we tell them? Easy for the F-15 to defeat...the F-22A would make mincemeat out of an SU-27 before the SU-27 even knew it was in the same airspace.)
1541: U/I fighter tac freq «142.45» active.
1545: RAVEN flight of A-10s at Bollen Range «237.2»
1556: DATSUN 71 flight reports ready to RTB, direct HEELS to GK on «249.8»
1558: That earlier flight that I thought was CAVE is also reporting RTB on «249.8» It still sounds like CAVE.
1600: DATSUN 71 flight with Norfolk TRACON «370.925» as they head to Langley.
That's it for now...END OF REPORT
