25001 Flew Eglin > Oceana this afternoon callsign sounded like Tale/Tail 11 landing Oceana was 14.45Z.
It is now (2030Z) on Tucson approach cancelling IFR and descending into Marana. Callsign still the same.
It is due out of Marana in about an hour he advised ATC. Busy day for this airframe.
Pieter,
02-5001 Trying to get out of Eglin area,turned around at Montgomery and headed back to Eglin at 14,0000 and descending,nothing flying around here but snowflakes and bitterly cold.
After a 1.5h stop at Mildenhall it has left for Andrews, and then onwards to the north-west.
It looks like the flightnumbers of 00-9001 and 02-4452 not only always start with a 7, but simply count up from 70 to 79 and then back to 70 again. Over the last
9 months they were SPICY71,MALT72,JUNE73,RUSK74,JONAS75,DAVE76,CHING77,SHRED78,OXIDE79,AARON70,RULE71,ACTUS72,HOOCH73,BEEF74,JOSH75,PITY76,TRIX77,MILO78,WAYNE79,YAHOO70,HAGEN71,BURN72,NARK73,KOJAK74,THICK75,CURSE76,GLOBE77,MANNY78,ZONK79 with local TERRA training missions in between. We can wait for ....70 next week.
The Eglin-operation seems to be down to one aircraft after 99-6143 left for Greenville-Majors 6th of January, I'd guess for a major check or upgrade. Since then most of the
flying was done by 02-5001....disappearing on three occasions just when N610G showed up.
Hmmm, interesting for sure! It flew Eglin - Greenville-Majors 20/5, and departed there 23/5 around 18:00 utc for a 3-4hr stop in the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area (no tracks at low alt at adsb-exchange) before heading to Rota.
It left Rota again at ~0900utc in easterly direction..
edit: ..and returned to the US 28/05 Chania/Souda Bay - Rota - Bangor - Norfolk/Oceana? as RCH581
The last flight of 99-6143 (N226G) was on January 6th to Greenville-Majors as well so a swap of airframe which is 02-5001 is possible here. Pictures please...
All flights of 02-5001, 98-6006 and N610G since January fit exactly to have been flown with one aircraft, having changed identity 12 times in the Eglin-area in those 135 days.
Description of the C-32B: The C-32B provides dedicated rapid response worldwide
airlift to the Commander, United States Special Operations
Command, in support of the US Government domestic and
overseas crisis response activities. The 150 SOS of the New
Jersey ANG operates the C-32B from Joint Base McGuire-DixLakehurst,
NJ.
Also: The ANG C-32B mission requires rapid response airlift to worldwide locations with little to no warning...
After a quiet period some activity again: On May 29th 02-4452 flew to Greenville Majors and it has been there since, leaving the McGuire fleet with just 00-9001. That seems to have done almost only TERRA training-missions up to last week. On the 12/13th of August it flew via SNN, and over the Netherlands, to the Middle East as ARLO70.
99-6143 had been at Greenville Majors since the 6th of January. It finally showed up with some local test flights early August, and flew back to Eglin the 8th. It has started doing the usual local training- and domestic flights from Eglin again. Last flight as N226G was 27th of December 2017.
02-5001 has made its second(?) ocean-crossing: On the 11/12th of August via Rota also to the Middle East, as RCH585. It just landed at Ramstein this evening on its return, clearly avoiding Austria, as most C-32B flights do.
During the absence of 99-6143/N226G over the last ~7 months most Eglin-flights were done by 02-5001. N610G appeared six times for a few days, and 98-6006 twice...just when 02-5001 did not operate and must have been at Eglin. Six pictures I found online of N610G, 98-6006 and 02-5001 taken between January 31th and July 10th all show 12 windows and small scuff-plates. While I write this Rabbit above confirms this config at Ramstein, thanks!
02-5001 has left Ramstein for Bangor the 16th. At the same time now 99-6143 flew to the Middle East as RCH587. ADSBexchange shows an incomplete part of a flight of at least 11hrs & 5000nm non-stop from Andrews, circumnavigating Spain, to a point southwest of Crete. The parts not covered were travelled with an average speed of 420-450kt, which makes a fuel-stop unlikely.
Near Gibraltar it descended to 22000ft and reduced the speed, a rare example of Air-to-air refuelling of an Eglin C-32 during a mission? Difficult to find back the tanker afterwards...