Ellington Field Hot Ramp shot
Ellington Field ( KEFD) : 8-26-2015
It having been just a little over a month since I’d seen some military traffic come through KEFD, I was pretty excited about the prospect that some fast movers were to be stopping by. Shortly after arriving I heard the tower talking to some pilots in the area advising them a C-17A was inbound. After it landed the radio began to buzz again as “Cowboy 01” called in. As soon as I heard that I knew the fast movers were approaching. Just a couple minutes later here came the three Hornets flying in an echelon formation right down the center of the runway before peeling off to the east to land. I was surprised to see they were not carrying any external fuel tanks; just AN/AAQ-28 LITENING targeting pods on the centerline. And, the air traffic continued! Next up to land was an MC-12W, followed by two F-16Cs who fly the alert mission out of KEFD which I later found out were scrambled shortly before I arrived. Note: the yellow and brown bands on the AIM-120s and AIM-9X missiles denote they are “live” missiles. Last to arrive was a T-45C who flew a couple of go-arounds before landing.
This was a rather unique spotting experience because of the variety of aircraft. Below is a list of them and where they are assigned.
C-17A 164AW Memphis, TN
F/A-18A+ VMFA-112 Cowboys, NAS Ft Worth JRB
MC-12W (do not know the unit)
F-16C Block42 138FW det1, 125FS Oklahoma Air Guard, Tulsa – assigned to Ellington to fly alert missions
T-45C NAS Kingsville, TX
T-1A Jayhawk – 47FTW – 86FTS Rio Lobos, Laughlin AFB, TX
As much as I enjoyed seeing the aircraft, it was the fellow spotters I hung out with that made it that much better. Justin and Milton, it was good seeing you both.
Pictures and Article from Bill Havel
