[OT] VC-25A call signs

Anyone know what the VC-25A's are being designated when they're carrying
Reagan's body this week? Since they can't be called "Air Force One"
without a sitting President aboard, does anyone know if a special
designation has been made for this circumstance?

--
Herb Schaltegger, B.S., J.D.
Reformed Aerospace Engineer
Columbia Loss FAQ:
http://www.io.com/~o_m/columbia_loss_faq_x.html

On Fri, 11 Jun 2004 10:48:00 -0500, Herb Schaltegger
wrote:

Anyone know what the VC-25A's are being designated when they're carrying
Reagan's body this week? Since they can't be called "Air Force One"
without a sitting President aboard, does anyone know if a special
designation has been made for this circumstance?

....Speaking of planes, someone should tell Rand to tell Fox to spank
their CG operator. While the Air Farce is capable of many, many insane
and idiotic gestures, without help from my beloved Navy there is
absolutely no way they could have performed a "21 *ship* flyover"
during the funeral processon to the Rotunda on Wednesday.

Unless, of course, Derek knows something he won't tell us because he's
being a dick and killfiled us...

OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr

In ,
Hi Derek! spewed:
On Fri, 11 Jun 2004 10:48:00 -0500, Herb Schaltegger
wrote:

...Speaking of planes, someone should tell Rand to tell Fox to spank
their CG operator. While the Air Farce is capable of many, many insane
and idiotic gestures, without help from my beloved Navy there is
absolutely no way they could have performed a "21 *ship* flyover"
during the funeral processon to the Rotunda on Wednesday.

Unless, of course, Derek knows something he won't tell us because he's
being a dick and killfiled us...

OM

Well, the RAF could have performed such.

In article ,
Herb Schaltegger writes:
Anyone know what the VC-25A's are being designated when they're carrying
Reagan's body this week? Since they can't be called "Air Force One"
without a sitting President aboard, does anyone know if a special
designation has been made for this circumstance?

THe usual identifier for an Air Force aircraft is CALLSIGN #######,
where teh # are teh serial number of the aircraft.
The 89th MAW's usual callsign is "SAM" as in Special Air Mission,
so the callsign would be "SAM (whatever the serial is)

For example, when Nixon was flying back to California after announcing
his resignation, the callsign changed from "Air Force 1" to
"SAM 27000" somewhere over the Midwest, when the resignation took effect.

--
Pete Stickney
A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many
bad measures. -- Daniel Webster

In article , Hi Derek!
writes

While the Air Farce is capable of many, many insane
and idiotic gestures, without help from my beloved Navy there is
absolutely no way they could have performed a "21 *ship* flyover"
during the funeral processon to the Rotunda on Wednesday.

Dunno about the USAF, but the RAF definitely refer to packages of
aircraft as 'xxx-ship formations' - I was watching a Combined Qualifed
Weapons Instructor practice bombing course at the Spadeadam EWTR in
Cumbria, England, yesterday - 'Endplay' (No.15 Sqn Tornado GR.4s)
described themselves as 'a four-ship' while 'Scampi1-4' (SAOEU Tornado
GR.4s) also did the same on their radio calls to the range controller.
It's commonplace in this country; even the 48th Fighter Wing F-15C/Es do
it... we get quite excited when we suddenly hear 'seven-' or 'eight-
ships' arriving for practice bombing.

I know what you mean, though....
--
Graeme Carrott
Membership Secretary/Treasurer, Air North
http://www.airnorth.demon.co.uk/

On Fri, 11 Jun 2004 18:08:46 +0100, Graeme Carrott
wrote:

In article , Hi Derek!
writes

While the Air Farce is capable of many, many insane
and idiotic gestures, without help from my beloved Navy there is
absolutely no way they could have performed a "21 *ship* flyover"
during the funeral processon to the Rotunda on Wednesday.

Dunno about the USAF, but the RAF definitely refer to packages of
aircraft as 'xxx-ship formations'

....That's Englandland. They have a different name for everything.

I know what you mean, though....

....Yeah, it caught a lot of people by surprise where I was watching it
on Wednesday waiting out the heavy rains that moved in. And to be
totally honest, if a bimbo dancer with just three brain cells to rub
together between two fingers can point out that ships don't
fly...well, you get my point.

OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr

On Fri, 11 Jun 2004 12:48:19 -0400, (Peter
Stickney) wrote:

For example, when Nixon was flying back to California after announcing
his resignation, the callsign changed from "Air Force 1" to
"SAM 27000" somewhere over the Midwest, when the resignation took effect.

....IIRC, some of that was done out of regulations as well as out of
spite. According to some local ATCs at Muller who were on duty at the
time, apparently it was intended to make the change at touchdown, but
ATCs across the country were notified that when Ford took the swearing
in they were to change it regardless of whether or not Nixon was still
in the air.

OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr

On Fri, 11 Jun 2004 10:48:00 -0500, Herb Schaltegger
wrote:

Anyone know what the VC-25A's are being designated when they're carrying
Reagan's body this week? Since they can't be called "Air Force One"
without a sitting President aboard, does anyone know if a special
designation has been made for this circumstance?

CNN said the plane's callsign is SAM 28000.

Brian

From OM:
On Fri, 11 Jun 2004 18:08:46 +0100, Graeme Carrott
wrote:

In article , Hi Derek!
writes

While the Air Farce is capable of many, many insane
and idiotic gestures, without help from my beloved Navy there is
absolutely no way they could have performed a "21 *ship* flyover"
during the funeral processon to the Rotunda on Wednesday.

Dunno about the USAF, but the RAF definitely refer to packages of
aircraft as 'xxx-ship formations'

...That's Englandland. They have a different name for everything.

I know what you mean, though....

...Yeah, it caught a lot of people by surprise where I was watching it
on Wednesday waiting out the heavy rains that moved in. And to be
totally honest, if a bimbo dancer with just three brain cells to rub
together between two fingers can point out that ships don't
fly...well, you get my point.

It doesn't take all that many brain cells to look up the word "ship"
in the dictionary. At the risk of broadening one's perspective on the
meaning of certain words, in this case you have to stretch all the way
to definition #2:


ship
n.

1.
a. A vessel of considerable size for deep-water navigation.
b. A sailing vessel having three or more square-rigged masts.
2. An aircraft or spacecraft.

....
(http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=ship&r=67)


For anyone who hasn't been to an airshow and picked up on how standard
this terminology is, you can try Googling ["four ship" flyover
site:.mil] and see for yourself that there are plenty of hits from
official US military sources.


~ CT

For anyone who hasn't been to an airshow and picked up on how standard
this terminology is, you can try Googling ["four ship" flyover
site:.mil] and see for yourself that there are plenty of hits from
official US military sources.

....another search suggestion for outside of official military
channels: Googling ["four ship" site:f-16.net] gives me 63 hits.


~ CT