Author Topic: VC-43A/Air Force One headed to Vegas  (Read 14532 times)

Offline tyketto

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VC-43A/Air Force One headed to Vegas
« on: February 17, 2010, 03:35:33 PM »

Just a heads up guys.

Tomorrow, not entirely sure (but more than likely during the morning), the POTUS will be flying into KLAS, and will be here for 3 days. He is attending a fundraiser hosted by George Maloof (owner of the Sacramento Kings and the Palms Hotel/Casino), plus having 2 Town Hall meetings. He should be flying out Saturday. You should be able to catch both the arrival and departure from Tower all the way up.

Have fun listening!

BL.



Offline rationaljeff

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Re: VC-43A/Air Force One headed to Vegas
« Reply #1 on: February 18, 2010, 04:02:47 PM »
I have been listening and have not heard anything.

I found an article stating flights restrictions starting at 5:45pm today for LAS

Offline tyketto

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Re: VC-43A/Air Force One headed to Vegas
« Reply #2 on: February 18, 2010, 05:44:06 PM »
I have been listening and have not heard anything.

I found an article stating flights restrictions starting at 5:45pm today for LAS

The news didn't announce any arrival rimes until this morning. The POTUS will be here until Saturday. But his arrival should be around 6pm - 6:45pm. If you check DINS you should see the times the TFRs are in effect.

Winds here are calm, so those in the area should expect a 25L or 25R arrival.

The whole thing should be covered on both approach and tower feeds. Perhaps a small blurb on clearance delivery as well.

BL.

Offline WEStJet91DL

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Re: VC-43A/Air Force One headed to Vegas
« Reply #3 on: February 18, 2010, 08:48:00 PM »
Air Force One scheduled to land at 18:15PST 18FEB10 and depart 19FEB at 1300. i have no working video camera, so i will not be able to record his arrival. it's a little dark out now anyway. :( Hopefully I can catch him leaving tomorrow afternoon.

Offline joeyb747

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Re: VC-43A/Air Force One headed to Vegas
« Reply #4 on: February 18, 2010, 09:53:38 PM »
Air Force One landed a few minutes ago...pretty uneventful, routine...will edit as soon as possible...

Offline WEStJet91DL

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Re: VC-43A/Air Force One headed to Vegas
« Reply #5 on: February 18, 2010, 10:09:58 PM »
Air Force One landed a few minutes ago...pretty uneventful, routine...will edit as soon as possible...
You got video?

Offline joeyb747

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Re: VC-43A/Air Force One headed to Vegas
« Reply #6 on: February 18, 2010, 10:25:06 PM »
And here it is...no vid, just audio. I edited out all the dead air...

Enjoy!


Offline tyketto

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Re: VC-43A/Air Force One headed to Vegas
« Reply #7 on: February 20, 2010, 01:58:36 AM »
And here it is...no vid, just audio. I edited out all the dead air...

Enjoy!



Funnily enough, my flight to Sacramento was to be an hour after he landed.. however, my co-worker scheduled it for 3/18 instead of 2/18 (they are the same day of the week). Flew out today right before the TFR went into effect for the POTUS' departure. Have to say, S29000 is rather impressive.

BL.

Offline joeyb747

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Re: VC-43A/Air Force One headed to Vegas
« Reply #8 on: February 21, 2010, 11:22:58 AM »
Here is the audio from Approach and Tower, all in one file. Again, all chatter not involving Air Force One and dead air has been edited out.

Enjoy!
« Last Edit: February 21, 2010, 11:28:19 AM by joeyb747 »

Offline tyketto

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Re: VC-43A/Air Force One headed to Vegas
« Reply #9 on: February 21, 2010, 02:15:24 PM »
Thanks, Joey.

I caught the departure live as it occurred, and like you said, it was rather uneventful (Get out your airport diagrams, kids).

Air Force One departured from 25R at A3. Keep in mind that most jets heavier than a B767 tend to use 25R or 7L full length, because of how heavy they are (both passengers and fuel). So an intersection departure was definitely a shocker for a B742. Since there was nothing in the sky for a 15nm radius (all of the arrivals kept in holding patterns at FUZZY, KADDY, LUXOR, CLARR, or SKEBR), no TIPH was used. The pilot called up ready, and tower gave them their takeoff clearance.

When they switched to Departure, the controller punched him straight up to FL310. This is also interesting, as the ceiling for Las Vegas Departure is FL190. Once he left the 15DME arc of the TFR, the influx of arrivals started from those kept in the hold.

You should be able to grab this off the Tower and App/Departure feeds, starting on 2/19/10, 2100Z.

BL.

Offline jmx53

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Re: VC-43A/Air Force One headed to Vegas
« Reply #10 on: February 21, 2010, 07:58:41 PM »
I'm curious why they would land at KLAS?  I can understand using a commercial field if there was no AFB nearby...but in this case Nellis is right there in the same city!  Wouldn't that be less disruption to normal airfield operations since they always have to hold arrivals/departures plus more secure for POTUS.  Does it have to do with motorcade travel distance issues or is there something else?

Offline joeyb747

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Re: VC-43A/Air Force One headed to Vegas
« Reply #11 on: February 21, 2010, 10:05:16 PM »
Okay, I give up...I've been trying to figure out what airplane the Air Force calls the VC-43A...having no luck...Does anyone know for sure what aircraft that would be??  :?

The closest thing I could find is an aircraft actually used by the US Coast Guard. Pictured below is US Coast Guard Canadair C-143A Challenger 02 (cn 5427) in 2009.

"A Canadair CL-604 Challenger is based at Reagan National Airport. Known as a VC-43A Medium Range Command and Control Aircraft, it's onboard secure communications suite provides operational support for high-level Coast Guard and Homeland Security officials."

From:

http://www.monitoringtimes.com/html/body_cg_assets.html

Sound right??

The aircraft that serve as Air Force One are designated as VC-25A. These aircraft only use the callsign "AIR FORCE ONE" when the President is onboard. When the President is not onboard, I believe they use "SAM" and tail number as callsign.

The pic in the middle is Air Force One, VC-25A (B747-2G4B)  82-8000 (cn 23824/679), landing at ETAR in 2009.

VC-25A (B747-2G4B) 92-9000 (cn 23825/685) serves as Air Force One as well, pictured at the bottom in KBOS in 2009.

There are two of these awesome machines.  
« Last Edit: February 21, 2010, 10:47:23 PM by joeyb747 »

Offline joeyb747

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Re: VC-43A/Air Force One headed to Vegas
« Reply #12 on: February 21, 2010, 10:51:08 PM »
Thanks, Joey.

I caught the departure live as it occurred, and like you said, it was rather uneventful (Get out your airport diagrams, kids).

Air Force One departured from 25R at A3. Keep in mind that most jets heavier than a B767 tend to use 25R or 7L full length, because of how heavy they are (both passengers and fuel). So an intersection departure was definitely a shocker for a B742. Since there was nothing in the sky for a 15nm radius (all of the arrivals kept in holding patterns at FUZZY, KADDY, LUXOR, CLARR, or SKEBR), no TIPH was used. The pilot called up ready, and tower gave them their takeoff clearance.

When they switched to Departure, the controller punched him straight up to FL310. This is also interesting, as the ceiling for Las Vegas Departure is FL190. Once he left the 15DME arc of the TFR, the influx of arrivals started from those kept in the hold.

You should be able to grab this off the Tower and App/Departure feeds, starting on 2/19/10, 2100Z.

BL.


You are welcome! I will try to find it in the archives, and put it all together...tomorrow...too tired to do it right now... :lol:

Offline sykocus

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Re: VC-43A/Air Force One headed to Vegas
« Reply #13 on: February 21, 2010, 11:38:10 PM »
Okay, I give up...I've been trying to figure out what airplane the Air Force calls the VC-43A...having no luck...Does anyone know for sure what aircraft that would be??  :?
The aircraft that serve as Air Force One are designated as VC-25A. These aircraft only use the callsign "AIR FORCE ONE" when the President is onboard. When the President is not onboard, I believe they use "SAM" and tail number as callsign.

The pic in the middle is Air Force One, VC-25A (B747-2G4B)  82-8000 (cn 23824/679), landing at ETAR in 2009.

VC-25A (B747-2G4B) 92-9000 (cn 23825/685) serves as Air Force One as well, pictured at the bottom in KBOS in 2009.

There are two of these awesome machines. 


The T-43a is a 737 based trainer. http://www.af.mil/information/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=127
However the VIP transport based on the 737 is called a C-40. http://www.af.mil/information/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=189 There are also VIP Gulfstreams and 757's. http://www.af.mil/information/factsheets/factsheet.asp?fsID=91 http://www.af.mil/information/factsheets/factsheet.asp?fsID=90 Not really sure other then that. Where, other then the title of this this thread is a VC-43a referenced? Depending on the source, I'm thinking someone may be mistaken.

The aircraft that serve as Air Force One are designated as VC-25A. These aircraft only use the callsign "AIR FORCE ONE" when the President is onboard. When the President is not onboard, I believe they use "SAM" and tail number as callsign.

SAM stands for Special Air Mission. If they aren't doing anything important they probably take a callsign of the from the unit they are based. Each Wing, Group, Squadron generally has a callsign. For example when one of the squdaron's at the base I was stationed had for their mascot the "Striking Snakes" so their callsign was almost always SnakeXX. I think this was the case when one of the VC-25's was involved in the photo-op flybys in NYC a couple years ago. One thing I've noticed for every "rule" there's a time when it was broken. For example once the VP flew in here on his way back from asia. His plane wasn't called AF2...it was Sam something or other. I have no idea why, but I supposed the secret service had their reasons.

Offline tyketto

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Re: VC-43A/Air Force One headed to Vegas
« Reply #14 on: February 22, 2010, 01:19:49 AM »
My fault guys.

It is the VC-25, not the VC-43. I was getting it confused with E-4B, which might have been another military classification of the B742. It is definitely the VC-25.

BL.

Offline joeyb747

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Re: VC-43A/Air Force One headed to Vegas
« Reply #15 on: February 22, 2010, 07:20:00 AM »
Good info sykocus, thank you!  8-)

My fault guys.

It is the VC-25, not the VC-43. I was getting it confused with E-4B, which might have been another military classification of the B742. It is definitely the VC-25.

BL.


OK...makes sense now... :wink:

And yes, the E4-B is known as the Airborne Command Post. Pictured below is Boeing E-4B (747-200B)
75-0125 (cn 20949/257).

Offline joeyb747

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Re: VC-43A/Air Force One headed to Vegas
« Reply #16 on: February 22, 2010, 08:33:48 PM »
Here is Air Force One departing KLAS on 02/19/10. Tower and Departure all in one file. All dead air and chatter not pretaining to Air Force One edited out.

Enjoy!   8-)