The Air Force Aerial Re-Fuel Tankers are Always Busy...

[WAYNO]

I frequent a website, Flightradar24.

Live Flight Tracker - Real-Time Flight Tracker Map | Flightradar24

The world’s most popular flight tracker. Track planes in real-time on our flight tracker map and get up-to-date flight status & airport information.

www.flightradar24.com

It tracks and displays flights from all over the world. Our skies are busy!

In the Northwest, we are well represented by Air Force and Navy aviation. I see them often in the skies above me, and this site is slightly less willing to identify military aircraft. The tankers however, are often shown. Every day it tracks aerial tankers from Spokane, and shows them sojourning just barely off our coast. Our boys and girls are in the sky throughout the world, 24 hours a day. And off the coast of Tillamook Oregon seems to be a popular gas station. As you can see, this KC-135 just spins cookies in the sky until now, he's headed back to Spokane. We just never know what missions they are supporting. But I'm proud they are there.

And interesting too, once they were headed back to Spokane, they disappeared from the radar screen.

 

[Danjet500]

This is pretty cool. Thanks.

 

[RC44Mag]

I’ve heard most of those planes in the air are private jets of democrats flying around trying to eliminate global warming, carbon emissions and fossil fuels.

 

[RC44Mag]

Often Mil aircraft doing circles in the sky are on “Cap Stations” Combat Air Patrols. Possibly just exercises?

 

[Robb Barnes]

My son flew KC-135s for seven or eight years before he switched to the SpecOps refueler MC-130J and while the big 135s were ok he says the MC is the one he enjoys more. Maybe it’s because his wife flies the Osprey and he’s actually refueled her bird during a combat mission over Afghanistan a year or so ago!

 

[Jeepnik]

KC-135 weren’t supposed to take passengers on refueling sorties. But when they get were moving to a base to stage for a mission they sometimes would. Once you got to know the crew chiefs you could sometimes get a hop even on a mission sortie. Enjoyed quite a few one and two day visits o places I otherwise wouldn’t have seen.

Besides the crews tended to like the guys in the silver suits who flew around in the funny looking helo.

 

[blume357]

Wayno,

thanks for the link... I'll probably use it during the next week or so... will be on vacation trying to find things to do and this will help me figure out the different aircraft flying over.... I have a link to a sight that identifies the shipping I will see, now I will have it covered up and down.....

 

[Johnny-Baseball]

4th Batt of the 160th SOAR is at Fort Lewis. They practice arial refueling with AF KC-130s (the AF jet tankers can't fly slow enough for the helicopters). So some of that traffic might relate to 160th dress rehearsals.

 

[pyth0n]

Had a few occasions to witness refueling from both the tanker(s), KC135 &10, & receiver, B-52H.

 

[Robb Barnes]

Remington said hammocks came out when more than the normal crew were on board.

 

[AJGUNNER]

Here is another popular route for the refueling planes coming out of Spokane. This is the far Southern coast of Oregon. I was told that most of the planes being refueled in this area come out of Klamath Falls or Fairfield.

 

[AJGUNNER]

Fair warning---once you put this app on your phone and start learning your way around on it, it can become highly addictive!!
I captured this plane going by one day and was daydreaming about what fun it would be to fly around in something like this. Then I brought up the flight history. This plan flat out gets around!

 

[RSIno1]

My parents lived near March AFB in SoCal. They did a lot of training for tankers there we'd sit out on the back patio watching them. The overpass on the freeway even has some artwork.

 

[black1970]

A MC130 J Marine flys over my house several times a week. Call sign is radr something or other.