How many USAF C-135s have you seen?

[das]

Hi John, I knew 24133 had been over, but I seem to recall I lost my database or something in that time frame and it meant my backup didn't have 24133 on it

[das]

10320 would be nice, one of my last 3 active ones

[Nighthawke]

I have 60-0351 noted 4 times between 2005 and 2009 with 100th ARW based at Mildenhall.

62-4133 only seen once 23/03/2003 climbing out of Mildenhall over Brandon.

[chrisk]

I need NKC135A 56-3596 and C135E 60375.Does anyone know if these ever visited Mildenhall.I think both are now in AMARG if they have not been scrapped

[Chris IL-76]

My late father had a log of all the 135's visiting the UK from the beginning. But I think i've thrown it. Doh!

Scrub that found it....Missing ones left had not visited the UK since he did this list were.

53124 NKC-135A
53129 NKC-135A last visit to EGUN 13/14-04-88 as EC-135P of 6th ACCS, c/s ANCHOR 01

71509 last visit to EGUN 07/08-11-03 as KC-135E of 171st ARW, c/s STEEL 86

91473 last visit to EGUN 03/04-02-05 as KC-135E of 151st ARW, c/s RCH387 / UTAH 74
91481 NASA

00370 NC-135A
00377 C-135A

10269 EC-135L last visit to EGUN 07-03-91 as EC-135L of 3rd ACCS, c/s SHELL 95
10278 EC-135A
10279 EC-135L
10287 EC-135A
10289 EC-135A
10297 EC-135A
10332 C-135B Crashed 11.5.64

23579 EC-135G
23581 EC-135C last visit EGUN 28-04-98 (TDY until may) as EC-135C of 7th ACCS, c/s LOOK 98
23583 EC-135C
23585 EC-135C last visit EGUN 08/10-09-94 as EC-135C of 7th ACCS, c/s LOOK 76

24136 C-135B Crashed 23.9.62

37994 EC-135G
38049 EC-135C
38050 EC-135C last visit EGUN 01/03-12-01 as NKC-135B of 412th TW, c/s AGAR 50
38051 EC-135C
38057 EC-135C

here are a few Chris

Ray

Thanks for your time and research.....I don't normally do numbers but these, B-52's and IL-76's are the exception.

Cheers Chris.....almost through February!!

[graham luxton]

I need NKC135A 56-3596 and C135E 60375.Does anyone know if these ever visited Mildenhall.I think both are now in AMARG if they have not been scrapped

Hi chrisk,
60-0375 visited Mildenhall as an EC-135N assigned to the 6549th Test Sqdn, Patrick on 4 Oct'71 - not sure if that was its only visit though.

While a MATS C-135A I saw it a number of times in the early 60's overflying Southern England on the Upper Air Route Upper Golf One en-route Andrews to Rhein Main - used to call "MATS 00375"

cheers,
Graham

[Rugbyref]

A meagre 274 for me.

[das]

I have 60-0351 noted 4 times between 2005 and 2009 with 100th ARW based at Mildenhall.

62-4133 only seen once 23/03/2003 climbing out of Mildenhall over Brandon.

00351 left the 100th ARW 12-DEC-2006 as QID 98, visited as ADOBE 02 with the 319th ARW on 22/23-JUN-2007, and has never been back since

Ray

[KINROTATE]

ooh, probably quite a lot tbh, but mainly silver ones, white ones and grey ones IIRC. Why do numbers..........?

[chrisk]

Hi Graham.MATS, that takes me back, late 50s 60s.I never saw it on Amber1 over the Midlands,and i was not at Mildenhall Oct 71 to see 60375,moved over there 1975. thanks for info. Chris

[ChrisCwmbran]

I've seen one or more.

Airliners are pretty boring though

[Chris IL-76]

ooh, probably quite a lot tbh, but mainly silver ones, white ones and grey ones IIRC. Why do numbers..........?

If you're not interested you don't have to comment.
Regards

[Nighthawke]

Why do numbers..........?

Because for most, it is the one of the key parts of the hobby!

[AshBailey]

581 C135s between 1984 and 1995; Mildenhall and Fairford mainly, with a few dotted around the UK and Europe.

[DanBeeden]

Great info in this thread. Replying to an earlier poster 60-0375 has indeed visited Mildenhall more recently than the 1971 visit Graham mentions. I have some slides of it on the 11 under-run which are dated 30/04/00. Grim weather but the aircraft was sporting some very colourful nose art featuring Taz the Tasmanian Devil. AFMC tail band and I have it noted on the slide mount '412 TW'.

[adderman]

Sounds like we could organise a coach trip to Ellsworth!

Beware the SAC museum is no longer on base at Offutt but up the road in Ashland (about 28 miles away), one of the EC-135's is, according to the museum website, currently undergoing a restoration programme.

This'll be 63-8049, I visited Ashland in 2004 and was well hacked off to miss it as the fuselage was outside tucked into a compound!

Looking at http://ourairports.com/big-map.html#lat ... ype=Hybrid
It was last reported where the Vulcan is pictured now, you can see 135 type wings to one side.

The Ellsworth EC looks fine in my photos! Great museum in SD, a shame you cannot see the active B1's from outside.

What I do need is 59-1497 preserved at McGuire, not sure it can be seen from outside.

Mike

[Ferrari]

About 120 for me. Only been to Mildenhall about ten times since 1985 when I started spotting. Many on overflights. Still one of the best looking aircraft in my opinion.

[C24]

A slight variation on this theme.

It must be due to the inclement weather of late but for some unearthly reason over the last few weeks I have recorded nine different call-signs for one FC-135 flying over the Baltic countries.

[apex]

A bit off topic again but....

I shot eighty odd visiting 135s over about twenty five visits to Mildenhall during the last three years.

It's a shame then, given the love that exists for these wonderful aircraft, that visitor numbers have slumped over the last nine months. I believe there was only one non 100ARW to be seen arriving at Mildenhall during the whole of last week, with blank days being rather too common these days. It's a worry for me, as we are approaching the time of year when I would be thinking of having a trip up there.

[DanBeeden]

A bit off topic again but....

I shot eighty odd visiting 135s over about twenty five visits to Mildenhall during the last three years.

It's a shame then, given the love that exists for these wonderful aircraft, that visitor numbers have slumped over the last nine months. I believe there was only one non 100ARW to be seen arriving at Mildenhall during the whole of last week, with blank days being rather too common these days. It's a worry for me, as we are approaching the time of year when I would be thinking of having a trip up there.

You are right - there has been a noteable drop off in the number of visiting tankers coming through Mildenhall of late. This is particularly true for the ANG and AFRC units who were seen fairly frequently until not that long ago. Someone mentioned to me that the reason could be do with (though I'm certain someone on FC with more accurate info can correct me) the unit on base that handles visiting aircraft, now operating reduced hours, rather than 24/7. With many (but certainly not all) of the visiting tanker arrivals and departures taking place early in the morning, they are now going elsewhere instead. Prestwick in particular seems to be benefiting.

The big loss for those at the fenceline has been the monthly tanker change-over week where airframes deployed to the Gulf would be swapped with new ones coming from their Stateside ANG/AFRC bases,. During this week there would be a lot of visitors so on any given day during that week you'd have a good chance of shooting some nicely marked tankers. For example:

Monday 06.06.16 - 11 visiting tankers, units incl. Alaska, Kansas, Alabama, Grissom
Friday 10.06.16 - 13 visiting tankers, units incl. Iowa (x4), New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Tinker, Illinois, Grissom
Tuesday 09.08.27 - 9 visiting tankers, units incl. New Jersey, Ohio, Grissom, Pennsylvania, Tinker

There has been the odd flurry this year, such as the 4 Ohio jets that arrived one Sunday morning in late Feb/early March, but sadly the tanker changeover weeks, at the Hall at least, seem to be a thing of the past.

If anyone has better info they can post I'd be interested to hear it.

Dan