Let’s put this thing to bed right now.
The Navy has a presence at Andrews AFB. There is a reserve EA-6B squadron there, VAQ-209. I contacted a former commanding officer of that unit whose
name I was passed by a navy buddy of mine. I wanted to ask a few questions about departure procedures, and his answers jibed with my own recollection
of flying out of there back in the early 90’s. Things like departure standards don’t change much over the years.
And no, I won’t be passing his name out. He doesn’t need anyone, especially the CIT Cover Girls or Captain Bob bothering him with their a)
leading questions, b) their convoluted cherry-picking of comments c) their ignoring of important information or d) their intrusive and obnoxious
manner.
I won’t be posting the departure plates here – Boone870 posted the Camp Springs plate farther back in this topic and you can view them
here.
The Morningside 1 departure is used for aircraft with filed flight plans taking them to northern destinations. Camp Springs 1 is used for
western-oriented destinations. If you are headed south, your destination determines your departure instructions. For example, if you are headed to
Langley AFB, 125 miles to the SSE of ADW, Morningside 1 is used with vectors to the east and then SSE. Other southern destinations use the Camp
Springs departure.
Departure procedures out of Andrews are strictly controlled with aircraft adhering to ATC radar vectors for obvious reasons – P-56, DCA, IAD and the
plethora of other aircraft that are transiting this region and the other restricted areas/aerodromes nearby (Quantico, Belvoir, etc). I’ve
mentioned before that I have a fair amount of experience flying in and out of a high-density area (Grumman’s production facility out on Long Island
at Calverton in the early 90’s) and have related that you are under ATC control for a long time so they know where you are, how fast you are going,
exactly where you are going, all for density/flight separation/airspace control reasons.
Gopher 06, the call sign for the Minnesota ANG C-130 flown by Lt Col O’Brien and his crew, was headed back to their home base in Minnesota, located
to the NW of Andrews, approximately 1000 miles away.
With that western destination, Gopher 06 would have been cleared on a Camp Springs 1 departure. Adhering to the departure instructions located on the
departure plate as well as verbally when the DD-175 military flight plan was filed, they would have expected the following clearance and departure
instructions:
Maintain runway heading, turn left to a heading of 270 within 3 miles of departure, climb and maintain 3000 feet within 8 miles of ADW VORTAC,
expect radar vectors enroute.
Plotting out a Camp Springs departure on Google Earth shows this:
Taking the aircraft, as has been said time and time again, south of the Anacostia River to pass over the DCA approach corridor with plenty of vertical
separation with aircraft heading into Reagan National from the south.
What O’Brien said is perfectly consistent with these published departure procedures and rules. It is the interpretation of his comments by the
aeronautically challenged CIT Cover Girls and Captain Bob that is creating their confused positions.
The Camp Springs 1 departure takes the aircraft a little over 2.5 miles south of the mall. Anyone who has flown at all knows that you can get a great
view of ANYTHING from 2.5 miles away.
In addition, another comment that has to be repeated ad nauseum and again is that no controller would *ever* vector *any* aircraft so close to P-56
such as what CIT claims happened. Simply doesn’t happen.
There's a reason why people don't talk to you a second or third time and it ain't the Dark Side - its your inability to be honest with them
[edit on 3-9-2008 by pinch]
