Don’t worry, we were not dealing out beatings to Fighter Control's (FC) Editor Rick Sleight (Aka "Moose") and no animals were harmed in the making of this article either! Rest assured, the reason for this trip was a little less violent! Moose is the unflattering nickname which the Boeing C-17A Globemaster III seems to have been christened with.
Fighter Control's Paul Newbold reports on the First FC Overseas trip of 2008 which took place on the second weekend of February, with additional photography from Brian Rodgers and Rick Sleight.
Ramstein Air Force Base (AFB), home to the 86th Airlift Wing (AW) which is around Sixty miles South West of Frankfurt was our final destination, which recently had seen quite a lot of C-17A activity recently, with around Twenty Five visiting in a weekend, along with other transport aircraft types such as the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy and Lockheed C-130 Hercules.
 It was very early to bed on Friday for most of us to catch the first Ryanair flight from Stansted to Frankfurt Hahn on Saturday morning. Bob Marriner, Glyn Fuller and I left Derby at 2 am with Bob kindly volunteering to drive. With lots of catching up to since our last trip away, we chatted all the way to Stansted and by the time we arrived my voice had all but disappeared. With lots of people to talk to it got progressively worse throughout the day, but I tried not to let it get me down.
On approach to Hahn the weather seemed a little misty in the hills and we hoped the conditions at Ramstein would be clear. It turned out to be a gorgeous weekend with clear skies and hardly any wind.
On landing at Hahn slightly late (so thankfully we didn't have to listen to the Ryanair early arrival fan-fare!) We were confronted with hardened aircraft shelters (HAS), air traffic control tower and buildings still sporting the previous tenants (United States Air Forces Europe [USAFE]) markings. Some of those on the trip had seen the base during it's military active days and were reminiscing about times watching F-4E's and F-16A/Cs, while others like myself were trying to imagine such jets screaming off the runway on which we had just landed.
_small.jpg) On the road and our first stop was the Flugaustellung museum of the Junior family at Hermeskeil, which was on the route to Ramstein. All the exhibits outside could be seen from around the fence here. There were many more aircraft inside but the museum is closed at this time of year, not opening until the beginning of April. There were a huge selection of well preserved aircraft here, most of which are well known but there are two recent arrivals since my first visit in 2005. Which are worth a mention. These are both Saab aircraft – ex Swedish air force S-35E Draken serial number (s/n) 35931 and SF37 Viggen, (s/n) 37964.
One aircraft displayed outside seemed to have developed stealth abilities. An ex-RAF De Havilland Comet proved very difficult to spot for one of our group(who shall remain nameless to save his embarrassment!). As this was a rather large aircraft there was much joking to be had at his expense for the remainder of the weekend and beyond!
On arrival at Ramstein the first stop was for some food at McDonalds (except for yours truly, who dined on my usual spotting staple diet of jam sandwiches!), where our first C-17A of the day was seen on approach to the base - s/n 02-1112 of the 183rd Airlift Squadron (AS)/Mississipi Air National Guard (ANG).
After a quick roadside lunch, we moved on to the hill at Kindsbach, which gives great views of the base from a distance.
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We were presented with a tally of eight C-17s parked on the ramp with nearly all of the based 86th AW C-130 Hercules also here along with three C-5 Galaxies.
The aircraft movements during the afternoon proved very slow, with the fine weather unfortunately not attracting many visitors.
 Resident 86th AW Gates C-21A Learjet, s/n 84-0111 returned to base along with a Temporary Detachment (TDY) C-130H Hercules, s/n 91-1233 of 165th AS/Kentucky ANG, plus a solitary additional C-17A, s/n 05-5140 of 729th AS/Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC) from March AFB in California.
During the afternoon we met a couple of friendly (they usually are) Dutch spotters, who advised us that a US Navy (USN) C-26D was due and indeed aircraft s/n 900531 from Sigonella, which proved to be the last movement of daylight hours before a beautiful sunset took place over the approach. Unfortunately, no aircraft landed during this time, to frame them against the setting sun, thus not affording the photograph it's beauty deserved. As the sun set the temperature dropped considerably, leaving some of us wishing we had worn more layers. Chilled to the bone we headed off to the local hotel (Birnbaumhof) we had booked at Schwedelbach (for details, please see http://www.booking.com/hotel/de/birnbaumhof.html), taking a hot shower to warm up before heading off to the local Italian restaurant (Da Francesco), on the Kaiserstrasse in Kindsbach, which had been recommended to us by fellow Fighter Control member, Garf Smith. In his words he was "spot on", as the food was fantastic although I was so tired I was struggling not to fall asleep in my food! I had really lost my voice by now and it was so terrible an early night was in order for me, while the rest of the gang had one last drink once back in our hotel.
I was ready for the cold weather the next morning as I added an extra layer of clothing. It was a good thing too, as the temperature was –5C when we departed the hotel at 8am. My voice was a little better now and we all seemed in higher spirits after a good night’s sleep, looking forward to more Moose activity.
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We stated the day witgh another look from Kindsbach hill, which disappointingly revealed only one extra C-17A arrival overnight. This was s/n 93-0600 from the 62nd AW at McChord AFB. Checking internet logs on our return, it appeared that at least two more C-17A's had visited during dark hours, we would recommend taking a scanner to use at the hotel, to ensure you don't miss any such movements, as we did. A C-21A also departed, which on arrival home was confirmed as s/n 84-0112, which was the only resident 86th AW C-21A I hadn't seen before, so I was very happy.
We all decided that rather than sit in the cold all morning in our Mercedes rental van, we would take the short hour drive up to Wiesbaden to see if any resident C-12s or UC-35s from 1-214th AVN were outside. On arrival this proved a fruitless trip as nothing could be seen at all.
On the way back to Ramstein, we took a look at the former USAFE base at Sembach. Where a F-86F Sabre is preserved. This was spotted from a distance on a pole in front of the USAFE admin block which is still in use. The former airfield was now in use as an industrial estate and many of the HAS had been ingeniously extended for use as workshops/warehouses.
 Nearing Ramstein a 1-214th AVN C-12U was spotted from the van, departing and this was confirmed by some more Dutch spotters as s/n 84-0156. That was just so typical, as we had just driven for TWO hours to Wiesbaden and back, only to see one of their aircraft at Ramstein! Yet another look from Kindsbach revealed another C-17A had arrived during our absence, s/n 99-0064 of the 62nd AW at McChord AFB.
The afternoon started quiet busily, but sadly with too many civil movements for us purely military spotters, although even I took some pictures of the Kalitta and Polar 747s, which we had to admit looked good in the fantastic light and they were at least flying as military flights I suppose!
Further arrivals were C-17As s/n01-0197 of 437th AW at Charleston AFB and a relatively new aircraft, s/n 06-6168 of the 436th AW/3rd AS at Dover AFB. More resident aircraft arrived in the shape of 86th AW C-21As, s/n 84-0110 and 84-0081, plus another TDY C-130H, s/n 91-1236 of the 165th AS/Kentucky ANG.
As the sun went down, the extra layers paid off and we left at sunset to head back to Hahn, relatively happy with a total of thirteen C-17As seen, which although not quite the twenty fivewe had hoped for but it still was not too bad.
 One of the others things about Fighter Control trips is that we have our very own "galivanting gourmet" in Mrs Jacqui Rodgers, who travels on all trips with spotting husband Brian (our Wrecks and Relics planner) and the 'norm' is that she brings home baked cake with her, which is handed out to one and all! This trip was not outside the of the 'norm' and delicious cake was offered to all eight of us who travelled on this trip and the Fighter Control Cake is now World Famous thanks to the Dutch spotters we met!
We noticed that on at least one E-group, that the 'Brits' cake was mentioned, so I suspect Jacqui will have to ensure that even more is made for the forthcoming 2008 trips? It really is worth travelling with us, if only to sample some of the gourmet delights offered, plus we always ensure that as well as enjoying our spotting, all our trips include some relaxation time to sample some of the local food and drink. Whilst having a good laugh at one another expense, as we never take ourselves too seriously! Indeed, we ate another superb meal in the terrace restaurant at the airport at Hahn (the Germans really do know how to prepare good food) and we departed for home, after yet another fun weekend, with by now some very familiar faces to me. On arrival at Stansted Airport we said our goodbyes and headed off our different ways.
For those wanting to see a detailed plan of how to locate some of the spotting locations, please take a look at the excellent spotting on guide on the superb aviation website that is Scramble, at the following link;
http://www.scramble.nl/airports/publish/etar.htm
A log of the two days at Ramstein was as follows: NOTE: Serial numbers in (brackets) were unconfirmed.
| Saturday 9th February 2008 |
| Visitors |
| 96-0006 |
C-17A |
Charleston 437th AW |
| 01-0188 |
C-17A |
Charleston 437th AW |
| 01-0194 |
C-17A |
Charleston 437th AW |
| 02-1112 |
C-17A |
Mississippi 183rd AS/Mississipi ANG |
| 05-5140 |
C-17A |
March 729th AS/AFRC |
| 05-5142 |
C-17A |
March 729th AS/AFRC |
| 06-6159 |
C-17A |
Travis 60th AW/21st AS |
| 06-6162 |
C-17A |
Travis 60th AW/21st AS |
| 06-6167 |
C-17A |
Dover 436th AW/3rd AS |
| 69-0008 |
C-5A |
Stewart 137th AS/New York ANG |
| 69-0027 |
C-5A |
Martinsburg 337th AS/AFRC |
| 70-0449 |
C-5A |
Memphis 155th AS/Tennessee ANG |
| 64-14831 |
KC-135R |
Phoenix 197th ARS/Arizona ANG |
| 900531 |
C-26D |
USN Sigonella |
| |
| TDY |
| 91-1233 |
C-130H |
Kentucky 165th AS/Kentucky ANG |
| |
| Residents |
| 84-0111 |
C-21A |
86th AW/76th AS |
| (63-7)865/RS |
C-130E |
86th AW/37th AS |
| (62-1)835/RS |
C-130E |
86th AW/37th AS |
| (62-1)833/RS |
C-130E |
86th AW/37th AS |
| (63-7)885/RS |
C-130E |
86th AW/37th AS |
| (64-0)502/RS |
C-130E |
86th AW/37th AS |
| (64-0)527/RS |
C-130E |
86th AW/37th AS |
| 64-17681/RS |
C-130E |
86th AW/37th AS |
| 63-7792/RS |
C-130E |
86th AW/37th AS |
| (64-18)240/RS |
C-130E |
86th AW/37th AS |
| 68-10935/RS |
C-130E |
86th AW/37th AS |
| (70-01)260/RS |
C-130E |
86th AW/37th AS |
| |
| Sunday 10th February 2008 |
| Visitors |
| 93-0600 |
C-17A |
McChord 62nd AW |
| 99-0064 |
C-17A |
McChord 62nd AW |
| 01-0197 |
C-17A |
Charleston 437th AW |
| 06-6168 |
C-17A |
Dover 436th AW/3rd AS |
| 84-0156 |
C-12U |
1-214th Avn |
| Still present from 9th: |
| 02-1112 |
C-17A |
Mississippi 183rd AS/Mississipi ANG |
| 96-0006 |
C-17A |
Charleston 437th AW |
| 05-5142 |
C-17A |
March 729th AS/AFRC |
| 06-6162 |
C-17A |
Travis 60th AW/21st AS |
| 69-0008 |
C-5A |
Stewart 137th AS/New York ANG |
| 70-0449 |
C-5A |
Memphis 155th AS/Tennesee ANG |
| 64-14831 |
KC-135R |
Phoenix 197th ARS/Arizona ANG |
| |
| TDY |
| 91-1236 |
C-130H |
Kentucky 165th AS/Kentucky ANG |
| 91-1233 |
C-130H |
Kentucky 165th AS/Kentucky ANG |
| |
| Residents |
| All Hercs still present from 9th plus |
| (63-7)840/RS |
C-130E |
86th AW/37th AS |
| 84-0081 |
C-21A |
86th AW/76th AS |
| 84-0110 |
C-21A |
86th AW/76th AS |
| 84-0112 |
C-21A |
86th AW/76th AS |
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