Executive 1 departure from KDCA on 20 January.

[GeoffSM1]

I leave it to you and others to judge/determine the interest level of this item. I personally don't find it particularly noteworthy but the Controller's 'standing ovation' comment at 5m 15s prompted an extract to be posted on Twitter.

[tim.landscheidt]

I don't quite understand the schedule.  AFAIK, "Executive 1" (without the suffix "Foxtrot" for family) means POTUS is on board.  17:00Z would be 12:00 EST, i. e. the exact time when he took the oath.  According to http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/national-politics/article127633384.html, he did not leave Washington on January 20th at all.  Are you sure you did not mix something up?

[GeoffSM1]

I leave it to you and others to judge/determine the interest level of this item. I personally don't find it particularly noteworthy but the Controller's 'standing ovation' comment at 5m 15s prompted an extract to be posted on Twitter.

So this is of some interest then!

Tim, how I can I have mixed something up? Look at the name of the audio file I posted. In accordance with my usual practice I have not changed the name from the one in the archive. Also, look at the current LiveAtC Home page and you will see the Tweet which drew my attention to the item.

[tim.landscheidt]

I stand corrected: I did not remember that Executive One also sometimes refers to military helicopters when a former president is on board.  In my mind it was reserved for civilian fixed-wing airplanes that carry (the only) POTUS, and I assumed KDCA tower was talking to an aircraft at Reagan.  As Trump did not leave Washington with his private plane on January 20th and Obama took a military airplane to California with the call-sign Special Air Mission (SAM) 44 from Andrews, none of this made sense.

So: Obama took off from Capitol Hill in a military helicopter with the call sign Executive One, KDCA tower waved good-bye (and halted traffic) from the other side of the Potomac, Obama took off from Andrews in a military airplane with the call sign SAM 44.  And Trump stayed in Washington.

[GeoffSM1]

Thanks Tim.

[VASAviation]

I was just gonna ask how this could be possible. Thanks Tim for your awesome explanation.

I see some other rare callsigns such as OMAHA (I guess this is Customs?) and BlackJack (Helicopter according to Google). Could you please confirm if these two are what I say they are?

So we come to the conclusion that is Obama who's in there, correct? Just going to Andrews to take the B747 which will take him to Palm Springs (actually diverted to March)?