178th Heads to Hungary

For the first time since 2001 around 100 members of the 178th Fighter Wing of the Ohio Air National Guard based at Springfield will fly overseas to Kecskemet, Hungary. The 178th will participate with the Hungarian Joint Force command as part of a two-week training exercise. Most of the members will fly separately, with the fighter jets to follow. Originally the jets were to have left on Thursday April 22nd, but the flight lane disruptions from the erupting Iceland Volcano have delayed that. Look for the jets to take-off in the pre-dawn hours of Saturday morning the 25th. The 178th normally use the callsign "BUCKEYE" for transit outside of Ohio.

OPENING DAY FLYOVER

Four F-16s from the Ohio National Guard's 178th FW based at Springfield-Beckley MAP will conduct a pre-game fly over of Great American Ballpark. The first pitch is scheduled for 1:10 PM so expect the fly over few minutes before then. Keep an ear on CVG frequencies and Indy ARTCC as well as air to air in the 138-143 MHz range.

Try these for activity:

118.300     CVG Tower
118.850     DAY pproach/Departure
120.700     SGH Tower
123.875     CVG Approach
123.925     ZID ARTCC Merwyn RCAG
126.650     CVG Approach
128.700     CVG Approach
254.250     CVG Approach
281.400     ZID ARTCC Merwyn RCAG
290.500     ZID ARTCC Merwyn RCAG
363.150     CVG Approach
383.100     SGH Tower

Photo courtesy of Blues Skies Aerial Photography

Wright-Patterson's 445th AW to fly the C-17 Globemaster III

On March 12th, the Secretary of the Air Force and the Air Force Chief of Staff approved the replacement of the C-5As flown by the 445th Airlift Wing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base with the C-17 Globemaster III. The first four of eight C-17s are expected to arrive in fiscal year 2011 after five C-5As are retired from service.

Delivery of the four newer aircraft are expected in FY 2012 when the rest of the C-5 fleet is retired. The Air Force Reserve Command unit has been flying the C-5As since the retirement of the C-141 Starlifter in May 2006. The last C-141C (serial 66-0177) known as the "Hanoi Taxi" is now housed at the National Museum of The United States Air Force adjacent to WPAFB.

While the C-17 is smaller and carries a lighter payload, it has the ability for rapid deployment, less maintenance and can land on shorter airfields. The C-17 first went into service in the early 90s. The C-5 Galaxy has been flying for over 40 years and is now less cost effective to maintain.
The 445th Airlift wing will become the Air Force Reserve Command's 4th C-17 Unit and the second to fly its own Globemaster III aircraft.

SPRINGFIELD NOT GETTING SINGAPORE JOBS

Springfield ANGB was hoping to land a contract training pilots of the Singapore Air Force. Instead those jobs will be going to the 162nd Fighter Wing of the Arizona Air National Guard based at Tucson. The reason for this, is that it costs between $900,000 and $1.2 million less to train per pilot.

Springfield has been hosting the Royal Netherlands Air Force since 2007 and that contract expires this fall, it is currently being negotiated to extend the RNLAF training. When that 10 year Base Realignment And Closure mission as a training base ends, 150 full time jobs and the base itself are at risk of being lost. Everyone from local politicians to the U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff are committing themselves to keep the base open and operational. One of the cost factors involved with Singapore not coming to Springfield is that they would have to lease the jets to fly. The 178th FW is slated to lose all of it's F-16 aircraft in accordance to the BRAC directives.
In the meantime daily training sorties continue to provide local milair enthusiasts some interesting monitoring.

Recent Area Loggings

Here are some recent intercepts from area monitors:

From Randy True, W4RTT


240.350    Blue Ash Control
291.725    Cleveland Center
139.625    Stings 11 & 12, Yoder 22 & 32,
139.975    Gutter or Cutter 32, Delta 2120
141.825    No Call signs, but they definately sounded Scotch,
           One was dead on Sean Connery.
           SNAKES and ATOMICS in R-5503 at 9:25 to 9:45 local
           time. ATOMICS switched to 269.275.

138.275     These sounded like flights just passing through.
139.900




----

Alex K. N8UCN


344.600    SENTRY 61 (Tinker, AFB, OK) W/ WPAFB Metro Requesting WX
           for Tinker AFB. Later, Sentry 61 gave Pirep. 1750z
240.350    178th SABER FLT checking in after takeoff. 1805z
288.700    AWACS aft call of DRAGNET VICTOR making comm checks on
           frequency.1820z
254.700    DRAGNET VICTOR comm with ATC, with intentions on making the
           Red Hill MOA, 1823z
287.450    Repeated electronic chirps heard form DRAGNET VICTOR.
           Obviously a Data link freq, 1325z
289.300    MACE CONTROL and DRAGNET VICTOR coordinating exercise for
           COLT Flt. 1330z
260.900    DRAGNET VICTOR Calling HUNTRESS w/ comm checks for
           exercises at 1340z
228.900    DRAGNET UNIFORM Tried to establish comms with Huntress with
           no joy. Multiple calls go on for 10 mins. Finally contact is
           made with 180th FW, STING FLT out of Toledo Express APT.
           DRAGNET UNIFORM gave a ground brief and Core checks.
360.775    DRAGNET VICTOR calling INDY ATC with intent of working
           COLT 41-44 in the Red Hills MOA.


238.800    MANIAC calling "Maniac Control" for en-route information and WX
           at 1900z.

----

autobag@fuse.net


336.100    (AR-455) traffic tonight between 7:30 and 9:15 PM local.
           Callsign "5044" told he had four in trail, heading down to
           block. Flt. level 20, and had contact.

343.250    (AR-633) Unidentified traffic. Same period of time. Don't
           know if this was related to the other mission.

           Bengals Game (12/6) Flyby Catch. Heard this traffic starting at
           12:35 to 13:02 local. Couldn't make-out the two syllable
           prefix before the 41 call sign. Had visual over Southern
           Campbell County, KY. They looked like two F-18 Super Hornets.

254.250,    "xx xx41" "flt. level one zero proceeding to the southwest"
254.250,    "xx xx41" "request overhead flyover"
254.250,    "xx xx41" "roger clear for 18 left"


----

John Denny


252.100   MASH 83 airborne out of Grissom ANG.  He asked if they could
          relay to his receivers that he was an hour early and if they
          could be there early that would be great. There were at least
          4 in the BUCKEYE at that time using BLADE & ATOMIC callsigns
          at 2300z.

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Thanks to all, keep them coming!