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From: cfiaime@ihnp3.UUCP (J. Williams)
Newsgroups: net.aviation
Subject: Re: Re: No favoritism in Washington Center
Message-ID: <205@ihnp3.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 26-Dec-85 09:31:04 EST
Article-I.D.: ihnp3.205
Posted: Thu Dec 26 09:31:04 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 28-Dec-85 00:49:01 EST
References: <3074@sun.uucp> <945@terak.UUCP> <656@kitty.UUCP>
Reply-To: cfiaime@ihnp3.UUCP (45261-J. Williams)
Distribution: net
Organization: ATT Bell Labs
Lines: 36

In article <656@kitty.UUCP> larry@kitty.UUCP (Larry Lippman) writes:
>>   what is Air Force 1 doing on VHF?
>
>	Why not?  Washington Center is an FAA *civilian* air traffic control
>operation.  While Washington Center no doubt monitors 243.0 and has other UHF
>capability, it is common for military *transport* craft - which have the same
>speed and altitude range of civilian craft - to use VHF so that other civilian
>aircraft can know what's going on in their airspace.

About the only military aircraft without VHF capability seems to be
Air Force and Navy fighters.  VHF is considered mission essential in 
most other aircraft.  I have worked joint missions with Air Force 
helicopters where messages were passed on 122.9 and 123.45.  Additionally,
while at Pax River with the Starhawk, we heard P-3's, C-130's, and S-3's
on VHF.  At Fr. Rucker, Alabama, most of the general purpose aircraft
had VHF capability.

All of the FAA installations have UHF capability, simply because the FAA
"owns" the airspace over the United States.  There are sections of the
airspace that are special use, but the FAA has the right to use this
airspace if it needs to.  There are military liason officers assigned to 
each Air Route Traffic Control Center, and to many approach control
facilities.  Military flight plans are filed through the FAA just like
civilian flight plans.  Only the military flight plan form requires a
bit more data, such as a passenger manifest.  (It is always alot of fun
to fly out of a military field, simply because of the way base operations
treats flight crew.  The paperwork forces you to really plan your flight,
the way we should do anyway.)

As an aside, if you ever have a chance to visit an ARTCC or tower, do
so.  You will be pleasently suprised at the professionalism of the 
controllers.

				jeff williams
				AT&T Bell Laboratories
				ihnp3!cfiaime