Air Force One Landing in Ottawa Ontario Canada

[theweave]

Does anyone know if I can find the recording of Air Force One landing today in Ottawa Ontario Canada here on ATC? I think there is a feed for Ottawa International Airport on here.

I think he landed around 10:30 eastern and is supposed to fly out around 5:00 pm this afternoon.

Probably won't be much on there but it would be cool to hear it.

[Railrodder]

I was listening in and recorded the transmissions on a cassette tape. I have to transfer it over to my hard drive. Wasn't a lot of chatter though.

[kea001]

Arrival: say from 10:00 - 11:00 EST or 
1500z - 1530z
1600z - 1630z

Departure: Plane left at 5:25 EST but there was a lot of activity prior to that.
President arrived at the airport around 4:15 I believe. You might want to pull
21:00z - 21:30z CYOW, Feb 19, 2009
21:30z - 22:00z    "               "
22:00z - 22:30z    "               "

I found the departure feed particularly entertaining but that was mainly because the CNN video stream was surprisingly in sync with the liveatc stream to the point where I had more info than the poor pilots stuck waiting for their clearances. 

[easterncoyote]

Could you tell me where I can find the audio of the departure please?  Thank you.

[delta092b]

YOW Archives. 22:00 - 22:30 Z 19 Feb. TO @ 22:25 (17.25 local).

I thought it was funny how they wanted to sweep the runway and ask Air Force one to hold short. The response, "we don't need any sweeping...if you can get them off we're ready for departure"....something like that anyway

[delta092b]

Actually I just noticed that the Archives don't even have CYOW listed. Never noticed that before and I was listening live earlier.

[kea001]

From recollection, I think there's a thread on here somewhere about the CYOW feed not being archived at the request of the supplier.

Too bad. You missed an uncomfortable exchange between the controller and the airforce one pilot which went something along the lines of:

ATC: Air Force One. line up and wait.

AF 1: Line up and wait.

ATC: Air force one. Hold short RWY. 25. Maintenance is doing a sweep.

AF 1: There's no need for maintenance to finish the sweep.

At this point ATC was silent for a few seconds. Can't imagine what was running through her head at that moment.
Then maintenance was requested to depart the runway and Air Force One was given takeoff clearance.

[kitsap2]

From recollection, I think there's a thread on here somewhere about the CYOW feed not being archived at the request of the supplier.

Too bad. You missed an uncomfortable exchange between the controller and the airforce one pilot which went something along the lines of:

ATC: Air Force One. line up and wait.

AF 1: Line up and wait.
ATC: Air force one. Hold short RWY. 25. Maintenance is doing a sweep.

AF 1: There's no need for maintenance to finish the sweep.

At this point ATC was silent for a few seconds. Can't imagine what was running through her head at that moment.
Then maintenance was requested to depart the runway and Air Force One was given takeoff clearance.

Interesting, I've never heard someone (ATC) tell A1 to wait.  But then again, after listening to Canadian ATC transmissions, I heard phraseology that really surprised me.

Tom

[kea001]

From recollection, ATC had cleared two or three flights to leave before the ramp was closed.  Two of these opted for deicing. One, (a Porter Airlines Dash 8 bound for Toronto) elected to forgo deicing.
I think Air Force 1 got stuck behind either one or both of the planes that had been deiced.

ATC had been advised that there would be an hour freeze on any activity, starting at about 5:10 local time, while the President was on airport property.

As it turned out, this freeze was lifted within 5 - 7 min. after his departure, according to ATC, although this info didn't seem to get to operations for another 5 - 7 min.  from what I could gather from their transmissions. Pilots were calling in for requests for instructions as there was some kind of red light signal on the ramp that had to be extinguished in order for the pilots to be able to push back.

The departure actually went a lot smoother than the arrival. During arrival, there must have been 7 to 10 flights  that were left on the apron unable to access their gates as the President was on the property.

[Saabeba]

From recollection, I think there's a thread on here somewhere about the CYOW feed not being archived at the request of the supplier.

Too bad. You missed an uncomfortable exchange between the controller and the airforce one pilot which went something along the lines of:

ATC: Air Force One. line up and wait.

AF 1: Line up and wait.

ATC: Air force one. Hold short RWY. 25. Maintenance is doing a sweep.

AF 1: There's no need for maintenance to finish the sweep.

At this point ATC was silent for a few seconds. Can't imagine what was running through her head at that moment.
Then maintenance was requested to depart the runway and Air Force One was given takeoff clearance.

I heard the exchange.  AF1 pilot sounded tense, but he had been told to wait for a bit of time before the wait for sweep.  I am not sure if the urgency was for the POTUS schedule or due to vulnerability when AF1 is on the ground.

[kevinbrown]

I recorded both the landing and departure communications and will post them once I figure out how to edit the recording down to just the AF1 communications.

It was interesting to listen live and hear the most famous call-sign in the World "Air Force One".  AF1 was scheduled to arrive in Ottawa at 10:30 AM and while listening to ATC I watched its arrival on televison. In true Air Force One tradition the aircraft came to a complete stop on the tarmac at PRECISELY 10:30 AM!  On the departure I also heard the tower instruct AF1 to "hold short" until a sweep was completed and the terse reply from AF1 "not necessary ..were ready to go once the runway is clear". shortly after this AF1 received take-off clearance and a few seconds later I watched as AF1 was "wheels up" over the Ottawa Airport.

Listening to Ottawa ATC I was surprised on how much French was spoken by both Pilots and the Tower. From a safety standpoint this cannot be good.

[flyingfiddler]

Good morning,

I lived in Ottawa for 7 years and earned my PPL flying out of Ottawa International airport.

It's true that there is a lot of French communication to/from ATC but the controllers will also make it clear to any English only speaking pilots of anything that they need to be aware of.  I can't quote any CARs (Canadian Aviation Regulations) at the moment but I believe that is part of the flexibility 'deal' of bilingual service at any bilingual ATC outfit in Canada.

On a side note, I remember watching Clinton leave Ottawa during his 2nd term and a friend of mine and I parked near the radome near the golf course south of the airport.  Security was pretty tight but I'm sure nothing like it was for Obama...  especially in this post 9/11 world.

Cheers,
Dan Pergau
Barrie, Ontario

[kea001]

Listening to Ottawa ATC I was surprised on how much French was spoken by both Pilots and the Tower. From a safety standpoint this cannot be good.

There are two official languages in Canada. As a result, when a person is dealing with a federal government agency or federal government sanctioned agency, it is a legal requirement that they be served in the language of their choice; English or French.

[bcrosby]

There are two official languages in Canada. As a result, when a person is dealing with a federal government agency or federal government sanctioned agency, it is a legal requirement that they be served in the language of their choice; English or French.

As well.. Ottawa is right on the border of Quebec/Ontario.. so a lot of french pilots there as well.

This is something you're used to in the eastern part of Canada. ATC will relay/translate relevant information to you if someone else came on the freq in the opposite language you understand.

Blake

[Dan CZQM]

Hi all,
It certainly was entertaining to listen to all the airline traffic trying to get released for departure before the airport was locked down for what they were told could be an hour.  They did delay the shutdown by 10 or so minutes a few times so a few more did get out.  In the end there were 2 aircrafts holding short and the tower told them that they were stuck there until the restriction was lifted but the pilot of AF1 told the tower "to let them go ahead as I still taxiing".
I did not detect anything in his voice, he seemed relaxed when he told tower "No need for sweeping, have them vacate the Rwy, we are ready to go" or someting to that effect.  I took it as "I am not worried about being attacked here, no one put anything on the Rwy".

Dan