Help Required From Air Traffic Controllers

[gumboot]

This is mainly for people like Cheapshot and Calcas, but anyone else who is familiar with this can answer.

John Farmer, in a FOIA request, has acquired flightstrips from ADW - Andrews Air Force Base, from 9/11. However, like many things, much of the flight strips is incomprehensible to a layman. I was wondering if we could get some explanation for what we're looking at?

Examples can be found here (http://911files.info/blog/?cat=22).

There's a lot of codes involved. The strip appears to be divided into five core areas.

The far left section appears to have information about the flight, I recognise callsigns such as "BULLY1" and aircraft types such as "B747" however there's additional information I do not recognise.

The second-to-left section is divided into three vertical boxes, and data seems to vary quite a lot.

Likewise for the third-to-left section and second-to-right sections. The far right section is divided into a grid of 9 squares (3x3) and again appears to be used for multiple data types, including a time reference (which Farmer cites as departure/arrival time).

Can anyone spill some light on these matters?

For complete information, here are the two PDFs:

ADW TRACON flight strips (http://aal77.com/faa/5%20ADW%201%20FAA%207230-8%20TRACON%20Flight%20Progress%20Strips.pdf)
ADW Tower flight progress (http://aal77.com/faa/5%20ADW%201%20FAA%207230-8%20Tower%20Flight%20Progress%20Strips.pdf)

[beachnut]

This is mainly for people like Cheapshot and Calcas, but anyone else who is familiar with this can answer.

John Farmer, in a FOIA request, has acquired flightstrips from ADW - Andrews Air Force Base, from 9/11. However, like many things, much of the flight strips is incomprehensible to a layman. I was wondering if we could get some explanation for what we're looking at?

Examples can be found here (http://911files.info/blog/?cat=22).

There's a lot of codes involved. The strip appears to be divided into five core areas.

The far left section appears to have information about the flight, I recognise callsigns such as "BULLY1" and aircraft types such as "B747" however there's additional information I do not recognise.

The second-to-left section is divided into three vertical boxes, and data seems to vary quite a lot.

Likewise for the third-to-left section and second-to-right sections. The far right section is divided into a grid of 9 squares (3x3) and again appears to be used for multiple data types, including a time reference (which Farmer cites as departure/arrival time).

Can anyone spill some light on these matters?

For complete information, here are the two PDFs:

ADW TRACON flight strips (http://aal77.com/faa/5%20ADW%201%20FAA%207230-8%20TRACON%20Flight%20Progress%20Strips.pdf)
ADW Tower flight progress (http://aal77.com/faa/5%20ADW%201%20FAA%207230-8%20Tower%20Flight%20Progress%20Strips.pdf)
I know some of them, the tower guys may know for sure. Second set of strips,

Gofer 06 (callsign you know) first block tell the flight is IFR, I think.

The big middle section is the flight plan. J518 DJB J34 BAE EAU5 MSP

P1311 Is proposed time off, the 1333, hand written, is time off the 240, 2nd column bottom is the FL (flight level) requested.

I have to baby sit, but the ATC guys can correct my errors.

[Boone 870]

From the FAA:

http://www.faa.gov/airports_airtraffic/air_traffic/publications/atpubs/ATC/Chp2/atc0203.html

Scroll down about half way to the departure section, below that is the overflights section.

I don't know if the military does things differently. Beachnut seems to be right on and you may also want to send Pinch a PM, I saw him discussing the flight strips with Reheat on another forum.

[Reheat]

One addition item I can add for you is the Communications/Navigation equipment code which is the letter following the aircraft type in the left column. For example Gopher 06 was a C-130/I. That letter is a code found in the Airman's Information Manual (AIM) and other Flight Information Publications (FLIP) for the type of Communications equipment (VHF, UHF, HF etc) and Navigation Equipment (VOR, Tacan, Omega, GPS, INS etc)

That tells the ATC agencies how to handle and route the aircraft. For example, some USAF aircraft have UHF only and/or Tacan Only and the Code used will give ATC that information.

I believe Beachnut is correct in all respects, but both Cheap Shot and Calcas should be able to go through the whole smear.

[gumboot]

I think, in terms of what each section refers to, it's pretty well covered now. It's now a more a case of determining specific codes. Unfortunately a lot of it appears to be "optional" data, so we basically need someone from Andrews AFB Tower to decipher it.

For example, what do "RV" and "RB" represent?

[Reheat]

For example, what do "RV" and "RB" represent?

Normally, those would be the initials of the person who handled and filed the strip, perhaps the same individual who transmitted the IFR clearance to the pilot. It is quite a possible that there were three people with the initial "R" and they used three different combinations of initials for those three different people. R, RV, and RB could simply be the initials of those three different people.

Unfortunately, those strips are subject to the whims of the NCOIC of the tower and it is unlikely the same people there now were there in 2001. You might get lucky and find someone who's been there for a long time.. Good Luck!

[Pinch]

I posted this on a different board regarding what two of the clearances say:

The clearance listed on your screen shot for Sword 31 is as follows:


ADW AML J149 EMPTY J80 LMN SHACK OFF


which translated to the uninformed, is depart Andrews AFB (ADW), proceed to the fix known as ARMEL (AML), which is a vortac near Dulles, join jet route 149 (J149) fly on that route until you hit the fix named EMPTY (an intersection near Columbus, OH) join jet route 80 (J80) until you hit the waypoint TILMN in southern Indiana, then direct to SHACK, which is a fix on the Offutt, AFB (their destination) HI-ILS RWY 30 approach, then land at Offutt (OFF).

The other clearances on your screen shot reflect similar information: Gopher 06 was headed to a fix called BUFFR north of Dulles to join jet route J518, fly to the vortac fix called DJB (DRYER) near Cleveland, then join J-34 to a fix at EUA5, then direct to Minneapolis Saint Paul (MSP).

The Bully flights, tactical aircraft (F-16's), used more of a canned departure, but you can still gather information from the clearances. "R-5314" is the restricted area that includes the Dare County bombing range in eastern NC. Phelps Lake MOA (military operating area) is a lake in eastern NC near Dare County where they would probably marshall and await their range time at Dare County. The other code words are fixes or victor (low-altitude structure) routes (COLIN, WHINO, V-33) that would have been their flight path down to eastern NC.

Nothing strange here - it all meshes with what we know from transcripts, RADES data and everything else that went on.

[ref]

Nice info. You learn something new every day.

[gumboot]

Thanks everyone. I'm more interested in the hand-written notations though.

[Cheap Shot]

I can answer most of these, the strips are terminal which are slightly different then En Route strips. The first one is the call sign VM306.

That is "Marine Three Zero Six" It is a Beech 20 or a Super King Air,the 795 Is a computer assigned ID, its beacon squawk is 4761, the proposed time is 1330 UTC or Zulu. Requesting 15,000 ft. MSL, NSF is Navy Andrews, the plus sign is a prefferred departure route, DAILY is an intersection, V33 and V286 are victor airways, STIEN is an intersection, don't know HCM, but NGU is Navy Norfolk. Is there any specific strip you are interested in.

[Cheap Shot]

A couple of the hand notations, the triangle is controlled airspace either Class C or D, when the arrow is pointed from the inside out out it means you are cleared out of contolled airspace, the arrow all the way through would indicate cleared through. An arrow orignating from the outside would be cleared in controlled airspace. RV would be a radar vector. An hand written X is probably initial contact and transfer of communications. you write first slash when on initial contact, and the second slash when the aircraft is gone. You might want to pay attention to WORD31, that is the aircraft that will probably draw some interest. That is your Command and Control aircraft.

[Boone 870]

You might want to pay attention to WORD31, that is the aircraft that will probably draw some interest. That is your Command and Control aircraft.

Venus 77 was also a Command and Control aircraft. It's the infamous "CNN Mystery Plane" that was seen over DC. If you go to aal77.com (http://aal77.com/faa/faa_foia.php) and click on the "KRANT" audio link, you will hear Washington giving a "kneecap" departure clearance to Andrews Tower at around 9:43 a.m.

[gumboot]

Another question, how do you distinguish between an arrival and a departure?

One of the focuses is, of course, the Andrews F-16s and when they took off. But by the time this was happening, fighters were coming and going, so it's important to distinguish arrivals and departures. From memory, by about 0930 NEADS were sending all military aircraft on training flights back home.

[Cheap Shot]

Normally in the middle block you will see an A Time "WORD31" A1114, would mean arriving at 1114 UTC. The actual time or the time when the aircraft lands or landing assured would be in the far right, and hand written. Some aircraft show up without information, most of those are VFR, indicated by the V in the middle block, occasionally you may see some with an I or IFR in the middle block same thing except IFR.