TripleDelta From Croatia, joined Jul 2004, 1053 posts, RR: 7 Posted (6 years 2 months 3 weeks 4 days 15 hours ago) and read 2551 times:
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Today I saw my first live KC-10 at ZAG (which surmounts to exactly two DC-10s I ever saw in person ). I got to within 200 meters of it and needless to say, I was impressed. However, I could not see the tail markings clearly, as there were several trees blocking my view.
Later I managed to snap a (literally) long shot of it from about a mile away, but with a 200 mm lens, I couldn't capture much detail. Zooming in on the shot as much as I could, it's obvious it's an USAF machine, but I couldn't see which squadron. The tail band was as shown below (mind the distance I shot it from):
I went through the pics in the db, but it appears that most KC-10s have blue tail bands. The only different one I saw was the McGuire AFB one, yellow font on a black background.
Does this a/c belong to some squadron not yet photographed or is it, more likely, a McGuire-based AFB whose band is distorted by the distance?
KC135TopBoom From United States of America, joined Jan 2005, 11712 posts, RR: 52 Reply 3, posted (6 years 2 months 3 weeks 4 days 11 hours ago) and read 2498 times:
Quoting MDorBust (Reply 1): Travis are generally blue, and McGuire are generally green. I thought Altus and Charleston had yellow/orange bands... but they don't have -10s AFAIK.
It could just be the McGuire text being distorted as you suggest. The text is quite large.
That is correct, all the KC-10As are assigned to McGuire AFB, NJ, and Travis AFB, CA.
TripleDelta From Croatia, joined Jul 2004, 1053 posts, RR: 7 Reply 4, posted (6 years 2 months 3 weeks 4 days 11 hours ago) and read 2490 times:
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Incidentally, how often does the KC fleet ferry personnel? Shortly after I took the picture, I saw two buses (about 2/3 full) of uniformed personnel speed off toward the city escorted by special police units. Since there were no other a/c at ZAG other than the usual traffic, I presume these people came aboard the KC-10.
Checksixx From United States of America, joined Mar 2005, 996 posts, RR: 0 Reply 5, posted (6 years 2 months 3 weeks 4 days 11 hours ago) and read 2485 times:
Gunships From United States of America, joined Nov 2001, 574 posts, RR: 6 Reply 7, posted (6 years 2 months 3 weeks 4 days 5 hours ago) and read 2430 times:
[quote=TripleDelta,reply=0][/quote
It's a Travis aircraft, I recognized it right away.
There's no way to tell which squadron is flying it, the tail stripe identifies which AMU maintains the aircraft. Although the AMU's may have flying squadrons aligned with them, they fly any aircraft on the ramp regardless of tail stripe color. They don't stick with only certain aircraft.
TripleDelta From Croatia, joined Jul 2004, 1053 posts, RR: 7 Reply 8, posted (6 years 2 months 3 weeks 3 days 20 hours ago) and read 2400 times:
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Quoting Gunships (Reply 7): It's a Travis aircraft, I recognized it right away.
There's no way to tell which squadron is flying it, the tail stripe identifies which AMU maintains the aircraft. Although the AMU's may have flying squadrons aligned with them, they fly any aircraft on the ramp regardless of tail stripe color. They don't stick with only certain aircraft.
STT757 From United States of America, joined Mar 2000, 16261 posts, RR: 52 Reply 9, posted (6 years 2 months 3 weeks 3 days 18 hours ago) and read 2387 times:
I live near McGuire AFB, they have about 32 KC-10s based with the 305th Air Mobility Wing at McGuire. Their bands are usually light blue.
Galaxy5007 From United States of America, joined Sep 2005, 586 posts, RR: 0 Reply 10, posted (6 years 2 months 3 weeks 2 days 2 hours ago) and read 2296 times:
Quoting STT757 (Reply 9): I live near McGuire AFB, they have about 32 KC-10s based with the 305th Air Mobility Wing at McGuire. Their bands are usually light blue.
All of McGuires tails are being converted to Dark Blue with yellow lettering. They have been swapping tail flashings since they got thier first C-17
Travis currently has blue tails and red tails with white lettering for the TRAVIS. A new tail flashing is supposed to be implemented like the one they have on the C-17 and C-5, Travis being in the black portion with the three tails, and in the colored portion(white for the 17, blue for the 5, look up 87-0042 for a pic) has the california golden bear.
The C-5 may be a FRED, but once you learn the ins and outs of it, the C-5 Galaxy is a awesome plane!
Galaxy5007 From United States of America, joined Sep 2005, 586 posts, RR: 0 Reply 11, posted (6 years 2 months 2 weeks 5 days ago) and read 2211 times:
Quoting Gunships (Reply 7): It's a Travis aircraft, I recognized it right away.
After looking it over, Travis has black in the front of the tail with the three white tails, then the color. The fuzzy picture has a yellow look from the front back. I seriously believe thats a McGuire bird.
The C-5 may be a FRED, but once you learn the ins and outs of it, the C-5 Galaxy is a awesome plane!
Dc1030guy From United States of America, joined Apr 2004, 63 posts, RR: 0 Reply 12, posted (6 years 2 months 2 weeks 2 days 15 hours ago) and read 2172 times:
TripleDelta:
My squadron (2d ARS out of McGuire) had a trip throughout europe for two weeks around the time you are describing. From the looks of it, it appears to be a Travis tail flash, but the distant could be distorting the color. To ad more confusion to the mix, it could have been a McGuire crew flying a Travis tail.
I'll check with the crew who flew the trip and our schedulers and get an answer to you.
Gunships From United States of America, joined Nov 2001, 574 posts, RR: 6 Reply 13, posted (6 years 2 months 2 weeks 2 days 11 hours ago) and read 2159 times:
Quoting Galaxy5007 (Reply 11): I seriously believe thats a McGuire bird.
I'll bet you an adult beverage that it's a Travis aircraft...
Dc1030guy From United States of America, joined Apr 2004, 63 posts, RR: 0 Reply 14, posted (6 years 2 months 2 weeks 2 days 9 hours ago) and read 2146 times:
Quoting Gunships (Reply 13): I'll bet you an adult beverage that it's a Travis aircraft...
Gunship, you might have to do just that! Bjorn Van Brussel took a picture of our crew/bird in Belgium. This is the same jet/crew I was referring to earlier. I will still have to double check with them on Monday, but I fairly certain they stopped in Croatia during their trip.
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From Croatia, joined Jul 2004, 1053 posts, 
). I got to within 200 meters of it and needless to say, I was impressed. However, I could not see the tail markings clearly, as there were several trees blocking my view.
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