KirstenL4W

The President is visiting Las Vegas.  Unlike most visitors to this town, his will not be a visit filled with debauchery,  but like most visitors, he is here to try and make some money.

Enough about politics.  I really hate political discussions.  What I’m here to talk about tonite is some plane spotting.  I’ve talked about how easy it is to spot airplanes coming and going from McCarran International Airport here, and honestly, even though the majority of the planes I see are the Southwest Airlines 737s, I still never get tired of seeing the planes.  I drive along the 7/25 runways on my way to and from work every day, and since Las Vegas is a world famous destination, I do get to see some nice foreign airlines.  Tonite, however, I was eager to see Air Force One.  This is the 747 that the US Air Force keeps and maintains, and it is called Air Force One whenever the President is on board.

Security is predictably tight.  Normally, tower communications for traffic on the 7/25 runways is broadcast over an FM radio station, which I can tune into while I am driving along the center and eastern portion of the runways.  Typical conversations are pilots looking for landing clearance, getting taxi instructions to get off the runways, and the tower giving takeoff clearance.  Tonight, however, there was a sense of urgency.  All departures were routed off runway 1R, which sits at the western end of the airport and since it uses a different radio frequency, I was unable to monitor radio transmissions.  I was able to hear air traffic control demanding that all traffic switch to the other frequency, so I knew Air Force One was close.

Normally incoming traffic lands on runway 25L, which is closer to Sunset Road, where I was watching for the plane.  Planes then get taxi instructions to cross 25R, which normally has outgoing traffic on it.  Since there was no traffic on 25R, I had a feeling that 1) they were keeping 25R clear so as to move the few incoming planes off the active runway and to their gates as soon as possible, and 2) Air Force One would be directed to land on 25R.  Like I said, 25R is further away from the road, and therefore the public, so it would be less of a security risk.  Point 1 is just a theory, but I was correct on point 2.  The flight was due to land around 8pm, and ended up being about 45 minutes late.  The observation parking lot on the north side of Sunset Road was closed off, so Boyfriend and I parked across the street at an industrial park.  Boyfriend brought the camera and tried to get pictures, but since it was dark and the aircraft was still moving rather fast, he did not get to capture the image he wanted, or anything close for that matter.  It was still a memorable sight.  I could vaguely make out the blue and white paint, but I did (almost) clearly see the US flag that is on the tail.

One more note on security.  In the parking lot of the industrial building, there were a number of people with cameras, sitting in their cars listening to the radio.  It was really no more than a dozen people.  As soon as the plane touched down, a nondescript, tan, older model SUV went speeding out of the parking lot, heading west, presumably towards the executive terminal.  I believe that the President gets off the plane near the executive terminal, which is the place where all the rich people go to take a limo directly to their private plane.  Trying to coordinate security so the Prez can pull up to a gate would be a logistical nightmare, and the news did report that commercial aviation would not be affected by the speical flight plans.  Private flights are grounded, though - at least out of McCarran.

I haven’t read about the President’s departure plans, but since he has a speech and luncheon planned for tomorrow, I assume he will be taking off sometime around the time I leave work.  I’ll check the news tomorrow to see if there’s anything, because it could always affect my commute in some way, but if I’m lucky I can see it take off.  I’ll have to remember to bring my camera to work, so I can have the possibility of taking a bad picture of a tiny plane (no way will Boyfriend let me take the DSLR to work, so I’ll be stuck with my point and shoot.  Wait, that sounds bad considering it’s a matter of national security.  I’ll be stuck with my regular, not so magnificent camera).

So that is the highlight of my extremely casual plane spotting.  What is your favorite plane-spotting experience?

Trackback URI | Comments RSS