OT: Military Aircraft Domestic Flight Exercises Over MA?

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RoadGrader

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anybody here familiar w/ military flyovers in MA?

I live in MetroWest Boston and yesterday between Noon and 2PM I viewed no less than 24+ high-altitude flights, all @ 1 1/2 X higher than standard commercial flights

all but a few stray singles were aircraft running in pairs, parallel to each other, one trailing relatively close behind the other

they were all east of me traveling NE to SW on a line appearing as if coming from the Gulf of Maine heading to NYC or the mid-Atlantic states

this is not the 1st time I have seen the same sort of multi-plane "event" over MW-Boston although the other times the flight paths were more directly from East (over Boston) to West (heading to say Chicago way)

does anyone have any idea where the base(s) of origin of these planes could be?

and please......no TGIASM contrail jokes :) TYVMIA
 
C-17-Globemaster-III-53.jpg


C-17 Globemaster
Probably prepping for some transport of troops/equipment

More info here
 
RoadGrader said:
^^nice link :rolleyes:

you could prolly fill up all the planes I saw yesterday w/ SOs from just the MW-Boston area :)
Click to expand...

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee ROFL o:)

I didnt see any yesterday and was outside with the kids all day.
 
RoadGrader said:
all but a few stray singles were aircraft running in pairs, parallel to each other, one trailing relatively close behind the other

TYVMIA
Click to expand...

I would guess they are probably refueling operations in this instance. Either an Air National Guard 'weekend', with guys up getting flying time in and refuelers getting time in, or just your basic everyday military flight ops, with refueling.
 
Possibly returning to Westover after an exercise and taking a round a bout route to get flight time or help out the NY or CT Guard? Didn't see them here on the North Shore.
 
So they flying around YOUR house, RG? You had better lose that spy equipment really fast.

ROFL
 
Benign Despot said:
I'm pretty sure it's just the normal flight path for commercial jet liners taking the polar route from Europe to the east coast. The ones that are still really high are the ones headed farther down the east coast than New York
Click to expand...

I'd agree with that except for the planes traveling in pairs part.

Commercial flights don't normally do that.

Assuming they are military flights, that would be flight path for a great circle route from Dover, DE to Europe or the Middle East.

For example, this is the flight path from Baghdad to Dover.

gcmap


Dover is the major staging air port for cargo flights overseas.
 
^^This

is the most plausible answer, O_P_T so TYVM for the info :thumb:

the tandem pairs of aircraft were flying the same paths @ intervals of 10-15 minutes between them which could account for well spaced landings @ the same destination
 
There is a squadron of refueling tankers out of Pease in Portsmouth NH.
I camp up in that area in the summer and frequently see these things coming in off the Atlantic, sometimes up to a dozen of them, one after another.

I haven't noticed anything lately in my town, but up in the North Country you often see fighters doing maneuvers, winter or summer.
I was at the picnic area at the top of Kancamagus Highway a couple summers ago, hot afternoon, and we heard jets coming. Two A-10s came right up out the valley, and went about 500 feet over our heads. One of them did a barrel roll as he went over... freaking awesome....and loud.
 
Gulf of Maine would be Pease Air Force Base. The National Guard is there but they still use it pretty often. They guys there are activated quite often.
 
When I lived in North Central Mass, I would see all kinds of military flights like that. All heading SW. I'd see the big ones, I'd see the fighters, and once in a while I'd see the cargo planes flying low.

Fairly routine, I guess.
 
O_P_T said:
I'd agree with that except for the planes traveling in pairs part.

Commercial flights don't normally do that.

Assuming they are military flights, that would be flight path for a great circle route from Dover, DE to Europe or the Middle East.

For example, this is the flight path from Baghdad to Dover.

gcmap


Dover is the major staging air port for cargo flights overseas.
Click to expand...


Yes but this one makes more sense

gcmap


Westover to Bad-dag

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm

http://www.westover.afrc.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123194780
 
babalu87 said:
Yes but this one makes more sense

gcmap


Westover to Bad-dag

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm

http://www.westover.afrc.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123194780
Click to expand...

For serious. I dated a girl from Chicopee. Right before the 2003 Iraq War there was a C-5 type cargo plane either landing or taking off about every 15 minutes all day long. It was pretty impressive. You something big was going to happen. From RG's description, it seems like they were returning though, or on maneuvers.
 
RG,
Let us know when the Swedish bikini team drops in:coffee:

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-c2NEFPqTwY&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-c2NEFPqTwY&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
 
RoadGrader said:
^^This

is the most plausible answer, O_P_T so TYVM for the info :thumb:

the tandem pairs of aircraft were flying the same paths @ intervals of 10-15 minutes between them which could account for well spaced landings @ the same destination
Click to expand...


Wait, do you mean to say that the "pairs" were 10 - 15 minutes apart or that you saw two pairs of aircraft 10 - 15 minutes apart?

If you assume they are flying 400 mph, 10 minutes is over 60 miles. I know that FAA regulations require a minimum spacing of 30 miles on landing, not sure what the spacing is when flying.

So if it is the former, then it could just be regular commercial flights on a great circle route.

Assuming they were C-5's and flying from Baghdad to Dover (5330 NM) they would have to have refueled along the way since their range is 2,960 NM with cargo. So those might have been tankers. I doubt they would be going into Pease, since they wouldn't be at altitude over MA if they were doing so.

Babablu, you're forgetting one thing about the flight path.

Large commercial and military aircraft don't always fly the most direct route. The North East is a very buys air space and there are designated corridors for these flights. The basic direction RG described is one of the standard corridors for stuff coming from Europe. If they were coming from the Middle East, that great circle route is close enough to the Europe one, that they would get put in the same corridor.

Now, I realize that the military will tell the FAA to pound sand and send it's air craft where they want, if they need to. However, in the absence of an emergency, they keep these free flight maneuvers to designated regions.

If they were going into Westover, I would expect them to be at a lower altitude when the cross NE MA. Usually the higher altitude lanes are for transiting aircraft and the lower altitude are for "local" aircraft.

RG said they appeared to be at higher altitude than "normal", and assuming that's true, it suggests they are transiting to someplace further down the coast. Dover would be a good guess.

Of course, I'm not sure how RG knew the altitude of the aircraft. No offense intended, but judging the altitude of an airplane isn't the easiest thing to do, and if you have not been trained on how to do it, your guesstimate may not be all that accurate.

If you think it is higher because the plane looks smaller only works if you know how big the plane actually is.
 
patswin said:
There is a squadron of refueling tankers out of Pease in Portsmouth NH.
I camp up in that area in the summer and frequently see these things coming in off the Atlantic, sometimes up to a dozen of them, one after another.

I haven't noticed anything lately in my town, but up in the North Country you often see fighters doing maneuvers, winter or summer.
I was at the picnic area at the top of Kancamagus Highway a couple summers ago, hot afternoon, and we heard jets coming. Two A-10s came right up out the valley, and went about 500 feet over our heads. One of them did a barrel roll as he went over... freaking awesome....and loud.
Click to expand...

CleatMarks said:
Gulf of Maine would be Pease Air Force Base. The National Guard is there but they still use it pretty often. They guys there are activated quite often.
Click to expand...

I used to fly out of Pease on the refuelers back in the 80s on occasion. We'd go south as far as NJ to refuel ANG planes, at least on the trips I took.

(Fun times...)
 
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