apodo77

Hopefully you got to see Air Force One.
PBI (West Palm Beach, FL) is my home airport and I see AF1 regularly. It is where the Donald's plane is parked regularly when he is staying at his Maro Lago hotel in Florida.

The Delta Sky Club has a great view of it. Las time it was parked I took some pictures while they were boarding (you could see snipers on the roof and a ton of police at the airport) and then used the restroom. When I got back about 2 minutes later it was gone. They just board and roll on out quickly.

Great report.

Innocent Abroad

Yes. In the meanwhile some CCR regulars moan the fact that they can no longer enter it through the "secret door" for pax in transfer....

offerendum

Heared about it. Always visited in transfer, but don´t think it´s such inconvenient to use the entrance through the lounge. My issue is the state of CCR, not what you could expect from a F-lounge.

BA5E

Thanks for sharing your TR with us, and enjoyed seeing the photos of the First Wing. Hope had good flight home.^

Flame3601

Looking forward to "part 2" , keep up the standard of content !

Innocent Abroad

Bear with me a little bit more and you will find out

Thanks

chris1979

enjoying the TR - looking forward to the next parts and AF1!

Innocent Abroad

As soon as I've learned that Air Force One will be landing in TLV couple of hours before my flight from LHR I realized I must plan very carefully in order to make sure I will have the best chances seeing it - this is how operation Lame Duck came into being

As always the first phase of planning entailed gathering intelligence. Fortunately, Air Force One landed in TLV just couple of months ago (for the late PM Shimon Peres funeral) so I could gather some information regarding the assumed parking position of the presidential bird. As far as I could tell from the official photographs it was parked near the LY main hangar in between terminal 1 (domestic) and terminal 3 (international). The big question was were should I sit on the plane. Initially I picked seat 16K in the World Traveller Plus (AKA Premium Economy) cabin on BA's 789. This seat is a window seat at the right hand side of the aircraft. This is my favorite spot in WTP, which is arranged in a 2-3-2 configuration, and row 16 being the from row with plenty of legroom. With BA's relatively new Theoretical Seating system I almost always have the seat next to me free.

So the question was on what runway my flight would land and remember that this was taking place some two weeks before the flight! Luckily, I've been a long time runway enthusiast of TLV so it seemed that a seat on the left hand side would be the best. Let me illustrate why:



Without going into too many details the possible runways in TLV are 12 or 30, 21 or 26. If 12 is in use the aircraft would have to turn backward and taxi to terminal 3 so being on the left side should work fine. If 30 is in use (the opposite of 12) it would be more trickier as AF1 will be in sight for a short period of time in the final approach phase but still on the left side. 21 would be ideal, again on the left and 26 quite disastrous but again in theory the left side would be the best. So left side it is

I had then to move myself from 16K to 16A but alas it wasn't available But I couldn't afford failing the operation just because of my need for an extra legroom so 19A it was. Fortunately, when online check in opened I was able to choose 16A ^ Now, however, I was worried what will happen if I'll be upgraded to Club World, which happens quite often from WTP on the 787 to TLV. There were no windows seat available anymore But I was lucky and there was no upgrade the flight was full, in fact.

I was sitting anxiously as we approached TLV - what runway will it be? After a short holding period over the Mediterranean (very rare in TLV but hey this is not an ordinary day here) I could notice that we are going to land on runway 21 - hurray :-:

But will Air Force One be where it suppose to be? The tension continued as we rolled down RWY21 toward its intersection with RWY30:



And then the LY hangar in site:



And then (drumroll.....) this:



Wait; what's going on? Zoom in please:



TWO OF THEM Must be a classic example of Schrödinger's cat

One last gaze and farewell:



Mission accomplished @:-)

Must rewrite the title: Air Force Two

I know you all were waiting for this but don't miss the epilogue in which you will find out if, how and when did I reach Jerusalem.

Hint:

offerendum

Operation Lame Duck As far as I know Air Force One alwas travels with a second one to transport the Beast etc.

chris1979

love the planning and glad it all worked out.

yes, AF1 travels in pairs though obviously only one of them is called AF1.

halfcape

We once saw AF1 in Boston on a return trip. UD BA and on the wrong side, but still able to clearly see it. We were really excited. The grump with the window view wasn't. The extra time circling before we could land was quickly forgotten.

offerendum

Every vehicle with clown president on board has the callsign 1. For excample coast guard one etc. Vice President ist Two.

chris1979

yes, which is why I said only one of them can ever be called AF1.

Hadn't heard of 'coast guard one' necessarily - Marine One must be the 2nd most common after AF1 given he uses Marine One most of the time to get to Air Force One.

offerendum

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coast_Guard_One

Was never used so far. If the guy who makes a 4 year internship at the White House at the moment gets aware of it I guess one Coast Guard helicopter will do a roud trip with him Always First!

TheAAdmiral

Very nice. Thank you.