Last week a Sentry AWACS was doing some touch and goes into Des Moines and brought a lot of Facebook attention across various central Iowa groups, enough so that a local TV station even ran an article about it since Rivet Joints out of Offutt are somewhat common here, AWACS out of Tinker are not.

"Just a training flight"

Today another AWACS flew over so I pulled up online radar tracking and saw it was heading to Tinker but I scrolled around and at the same time I saw: 2 Rivet Joints heading Northwest into South Dakota from Offutt, 2 KC135s and 2 KC10s along the California coast running orbits, a KC46 somewhere in Kansas, another 6 or so KC135s across the continental US (1 had completed several orbits over Pennsylvania), 2 more en route to Hawaii, a Border Patrol P3 Orion off of the California coast. I assume for every plane running orbits there were fighters or bombers doing fighter and bomber things.

Maybe this is normal. Maybe I need to brush off my tinfoil hat. I just assumed there wasn't this much action going on during any given Monday.

Sounds 100% normal to me: 20 year USAF pilot.

quote:

Originally posted by arabiancowboy:
Sounds 100% normal to me: 20 year USAF pilot.

More so now that pilots aren't getting their hours in over Iraq/Afghanistan or less now because we aren't in Iraq/Afghanistan and less logistical movements occurring?

I’d say that’s pretty normal.

What’s extra cool is Omega Air Refueling link

Omega is a private commercial American company providing their own air refueling services for hire. They’ve basically built out their own fleet of KC135 and KC10 from regular commercial aircraft to military style planes for refueling.

Flight tracking does not show them as Military, they are shown as Commercial.

You’ll see them toodling around refueling US Military planes over and around, and just off the coasts doing their thing and making $$$.

Another Link

You can just google them and see all sorts of info on on them.
To me, that’s impressive.
.

Didn't even know about Omega.

I ride the bike trails south of Tinker once or twice a week. I see the refueling and AWACS planes nearly every time I am over there.

Maine and NH both have an Air Refueling wing (Bangor ANG, Pease ANG) so it's actually more concerning when you DONT see these planes in the sky.

Bangor also has one of the longer runways around, with an in-land approach, so it's a prime target for training flights of C-5, C-17, and KC-46 from other bases.

quote:

Originally posted by Scuba Steve Sig:

quote:

Originally posted by arabiancowboy:
Sounds 100% normal to me: 20 year USAF pilot.

More so now that pilots aren't getting their hours in over Iraq/Afghanistan or less now because we aren't in Iraq/Afghanistan and less logistical movements occurring?

I’m not a tanker or cargo pilot so I can’t say with certainty. The amount of stateside training seems pretty static from my viewpoint, and then pilots would just get extra hours with frequent deployments.

Also, although we have completely withdrawn from Afghanistan we do still have forces in Iraq, and we still have a lot of forces in the Middle East writ large.

The 171st Air Refueling Wing is based at Pittsburgh International. I see their KC-135 aircraft several times a week. In the evening around 7:30 PM I often see a KC-135 in the process of refueling a C-5 or C-17. I stop and watch every time.

Every pilot needs to train on in-air refueling just as much as they do on air-to-air and air-to-ground tactics.

If there are training missions going on, there are refuelers in the sky.

I see at least one refueling happening above my ranch every day. I used to be able to time them, but can tell now by the sound (2 jets).

Happens all the time around here. Think it is pretty normal.

Here are KC-135s flying over the U.S. as of 09:50 today.
Desktop Screenshot 2022.08.30 - 09.53.59.38 by Dustin Kellerman, on Flickr

I'm sure they have to fly, just like a private pilot, to keep their qualifications up to date. I don't think this is something one would want to get out of practice or "rusty" on.

In and out of McConnell all day/night long every day. They use the roof ridge on my office to line up on. ;-)

If I sit on my porch, I will see a few go by every day. I'm about 30 east of McGuire AFB and they have a refueling wing there.

quote:

Originally posted by SPWAMike0317:
The 171st Air Refueling Wing is based at Pittsburgh International. I see their KC-135 aircraft several times a week. In the evening around 7:30 PM I often see a KC-135 in the process of refueling a C-5 or C-17. I stop and watch every time.

I got to fly to Alaska with them back in 2002, was a strange feeling knowing that aircraft was built when Ike was Prez

Members have brought up AFRC/ANG tanker units: Do not think of them as "weekend warriors." I was in a couple ANG wings, they flew all week long, not just on drill weekends. On drill weekends the base is packed, but about 1/4 of those people are also full timers.

Sort of near the OP the 185th Air Refueling Wing flies the KC-135R out of Sioux City, though they're using Topeka as home base while the main SUX runway is closed.

In that picture above note all the activity in Oklahoma. Altus AFB is located there and is the schoolhouse for KC-135s, KC-46s and C-17s. Part of the syllabus for all airplanes is refueling, so a lot of practice missions every day.

When I was flying C-141s we had to get a "plug" every 90 days to remain current.

Tankers are a strategic asset, a piece of the nuclear deterrent as well as keeping tactical and mobility aircraft in the air. There are always some in the air, in training, or on mission. There is a big reserve wing at Grissom in Indiana, and an active wing at MacDill in Tampa, and multiple others around the U.S. and world to provide 24/7 coverage

quote:

Originally posted by HayesGreener:
...There is a big reserve wing at Grissom in Indiana, and an active wing at MacDill in Tampa, and multiple others around the U.S. and world to provide 24/7 coverage

Off the top of my head, active-duty wings are also at Mildenhall, Seymour Johnson, McConnell, and Fairchild. Smaller AFRC/ANG wings (typically one squadron) are at Bangor, Pease, Niagara Falls, Pittsburgh, Andrews, McGuire, Scott, Wright-Patterson, Lincoln, Topeka, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, March, and Eielson. I'm sure I missed a few.

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