Air Force One
 

The President was in CLE today and was woundering does one of the flight tracker sites track the comings and going of Air Force 1. I checked Flight Aware, they show a DL 8967 and DL 8967 from MDW-CLE and CLE-ADW which probably is the press charter. Maybe for security reasons this information is not avaliable but fiqured anything flying could be tracked.

The details won't be published for obvious reasons.

More than just Air Force 1, it turns out that most aircraft owners can opt out of having their flight details published in sites like FlightAware. Just file a few forms and it is done.

From the FlightAware FAQ section

http://flightaware.com/about/faq.rvt...tresultunknown

Moving this to TravelBuzz!

Please follow it there.


___________________

Cholula
CommunityBuzz! Co-Moderator

the presidential calendar is a top secert. my wife would have to print it every now and then, and there would be a lot of secret service present, and she was not allowed to see the thing.

when he lands at andrews, a huge area is cleared.

Your wife had access to print it but not look at it? Only in government... :rolleyes:

AF 1 is a US Air Force operated callsign. You won't see that, or any other military or DoD callsign, be it a C-17 freighter or an Army Black Hawk on any flight tracker site.

Would you be able to hear it if it is operating in the area? Like on United's channel 9 and say you are passing through the same controller's area?

I doubt very seriously that you'd be able to see or hear anything about AF1 while it's in the air. Or any of the other support aircraft either for that matter.

just think about it. you'll figure out a way to do it. the secret service did.

Odds are you wouldn't hear them because they were using a UHF radio. Military aircraft generally use the UHF as a primary with a VHF as a backup. Civilian aircraft use the VHF as a primary and very few even have a UHF onboard.

Yep, you can hear it if you're listening to a tower or ramp where it is. I've done this a few times, but never on channel 9, only on on my radios. Its kind of interesting, because the AF actually replaces the tower controllers with AF controllers while the aircraft is present, so you'll hear some interesting accents sometimes.

I've listened to AF1 both via liveatc.net when it is at SFO and on UA's Ch9* both on the while taxiing at SFO** an while flying en-route and it is quite exciting to hear but iirc, the tower controllers at SFO were the same voices I've always heard (unless the controller has an evil twin bother with the same voice ;))

*In both cases, the Captain made a point to announce it for anyone listening ^.

**Taxiing up until the mandatory ground stop until AF1 taxis and takes off.

Yes, I have heard it a couple of times on UA Channel 9

Here and here.


I'm not so sure about that...

I watched a documentary on Nat Geo recentally about AF1 and the Pres Advance Team stages AF Officers inside the control towers to supervise activity. Don't recall that they actually replace the controllers but I guess its possible in some countries.

It does sound dysfunctional, but it's a result of different people having different levels in terms of security clearances and different skill-sets for different people.

Even in private sector corporate environments there are times when senior management will allow administrative support staff to push out print-outs but not let them see it.

I was under the impression that replacement of tower controllers isn't always anywhere near as frequent a given as same skill-set able "minders" being put in place.

i really don't think GS/BAC/C allow people to "see" merger data, for example.

about Xerox created the most advanced desktop computer system (alto, and star)about 20 years ago. they sold it to mac, and it became the Lisa. they also solld them the graphic inteeface and the mouse. at about the same time charles siminoni at xerox created "Bravo". the forerunner of word. he wrote word. simoni went to microsoft with bravo. he owns an island near seattle, a couple of helicopters, and took a trip in space. my wife was the analyst for that machine and software. she refused to go to seattle.

when WH equipment broke, top half of xerox bldng in royslin was cleared, facing buildings were cleared, all by secret service. she would print the stuff to a remote printer. all residue was confiscated. took about 50 or so SS agents, and a huge traffic jam. she did similar things for other agencies for top secret documents. she had highest level of civilian clearance, but that was not near good enough. sure wish she would have gone to MS.

talking about af1 security
 

particularly during the bush era, a group of about 6 helicopters would depart andrews, fly over to and down suitland parkway(not the potomac) and back. about an hour later, an AF1 would take off from andrews, and if north, turn and run up or down the beltway very loW and slow. happened at least once a week.

Just follow the #AF1 hashtag on Twitter for some interesting tidbits on Air Force 1 operations: https://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23AF1

Posting to this old but helpful thread because one of the AF1 747's just flew over my house at maybe 3-4,000 feet, that was impressive, and I was able to watch it long enough to see it make the turn for Andrews (I presume). No idea if anyone is on board today. I live north of the beltway and don't see much KAFB traffic. I jumped online to see if I could track it. The consensus seems to be: maybe. Flightaware as a policy does not track military aircraft. Flightradar24 is Swedish and you can see military aircraft but the identity reads "blocked". There are some others that may have various policies (planefinder.net, etc). Based on other reports in the airline nerd forums apparently AF1 may or may not have it's transponder on depending on location, situation, etc. All in all pretty cool stuff.

AF1 does have transponder turned on sometimes -- at least it did in the past.

I too would get a buzz if I saw AF1 flying over my house.

I get that buzz quite often when POTUS is in SF as if AF1 (or any other aircraft) departs the 28's ex-SFO and turns north, all I have to do is step out on to my balcony and look up :)