Good afternoon planefags! 2/9 Daily Post
✈️ Planes ✈️
Today's finds
- Algerian Gulfstream out of Savannah, GA via u/leta
- The 82-8000 "AF1" plane landed after seeming to circle/land at Langley.
It didn't put up a callsign at all and its transponders seemed to stay off for the majority of the flight.according to u/Tropic_Lightning and u/Warren_Puffitt they may have been practicing approaches! - An Israeli B703 is flying on the East coast as well and has stopped tracking. This plane is a 'blocked aircraft' on most major radar sites (like AF1 is)
- 3 VENUS flights are up out of DC. Probably training, but the one commonly used as AF2 has been turning tracking off on occasion.
- SAM735 out of DC
General info:
- Joe Biden took one of the 'small' planes that can be used as AF1 this past weekend to Delaware. I have seen no confirmation of the callsign "Air Force 1" being used, please post if you find out anything more.
- A SAM flight is a Special Air Mission meaning a high level official is on the plane
- AF1 alternates between 2 different flights reg number: 82-8000 or 92-9000, but they may be flying a test flight if they aren't putting up the AF1 callsign.
- The callsign "AF1" does not need to be used to mean POTUS is onboard, they may use a different one for security
- VENUS indicates a training mission
Side note: if anyone is a front end dev or knows react/vue we need you for a project.
Happy flying!
Was watching the map again in nightshift, some interesting finds.
Tu-214PU-SBUS was doing loops near Moscow: https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=14fc11
"Special-purpose aircraft-control point equipped with a special onboard communication unit SBUS-214 intended for the Ministry of Defence of Russia. The aircraft is built with Russian-made components only, meeting the requirements of the state customers and has a range of at least 7,200 km (4,500 mi). The main purpose of the aircraft is to provide additional communication capabilities to the user."
E-8C Joint STARS spotted in ME: https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=ae1493
"The E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System is an airborne battle management, command and control, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platform. Its primary mission is to provide theater ground and air commanders with ground surveillance to support attack operations and targeting that contributes to the delay, disruption and destruction of enemy forces."
USN P-8A Poseidon over Bulgaria/Greece: https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=ae67f6
Another E-8C U.S. side: https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=ae1499