...as if we didn't expect it. Around 3am central time Special Forces connected with AFSOC deployed. No idea where as of yet, but was sudden, from a central CONUS base. Airmen had less than an hour notice to be on flight. I hope to God we're not going to push our luck "over there". This info came to me DIRECT from one deploying..
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I follow planes, but these won't show up.
yeah i just looked. transponders are off
I'm an idiot about all this, but how would you know if a plane is up in the air with transponders off vs nothing up in the air?
Well in this case, if no planes left from central CONUS on the tracker apps this morning around 3am and u/Sabre2th has first hand knowledge that there was a plane leaving from there at that time, we know the transponder must have been off.
Pretty much have to know that a plane was in the air and see that its not pinging the tracking apps to know.
I get "launch" info fairly regular. There are (many) squadrons that RARELY squawk. I would bet that less than 20% of mil aircraft can be tracked on other than military systems.
You could hear and see it take off, or see it go from transponders on to tx off. You could track most of them with radar, if you had access, possibly satellite, if you were at the right time and place, etc.
I’ve been hearing lots of loud planes really low in Eastern North Carolina. Every time I hear one I look an ABS Exchange. No planes near me on it. This weekend one was so loud sounded like someone was dragging something heavy on the hwy in front of my house. It circled around at twice. I believe they are military training. We have four bases in Eastern NC. I’m seeing lots of military planes on the sight circling in different areas of the country. (Those planes don’t have transponders off if you can see on the map. I’m not an expert at tracking planes. Learned here a few months ago. My house is under a commercial plane flight path. I’ve seen planes for years when outside & especially at night.
I saw a pair of 47s headed east in NC over the weekend. Not much MIL traffic normally north of CLT.
Most of what I hear in my part of Eastern NC and see on the tracker is a Coast Guard Blackhawk helicopter from the local base flying loops at night. I suppose the pilots have to get in their flight hours. Occasionally we get a really big plane overhead.
Visual confirmation
https://globe.adsbexchange.com if they are on they are shown. if off ....nothing