Tag Archives: Tucson international airport

Section Training

B11I5727.jpgIn my previous visits to Tucson International, I have never seen jets taking off or landing as pairs.  It has always been single jets.  This time I had a couple of times when section takeoffs were carried out.  There also appeared to be some arrivals in pairs too.  Nothing too dramatic but a bit of a change from what I have seen there before.

RO-6A Lurking Around

B11I4127.jpgA while back a friend of mine told me about a modified Dash 8 that the Army was using that had been flying out of his airport.  It ended up coming to Livermore – a short drive from home.  I went to see it but it was parked in a hangar on the other side of the field and I couldn’t see much.  It flew a few times but never when I could see it.  I figured that there was nothing much to do since I wouldn’t see it.  Imagine my surprise when I came across its siblings.

I was driving around Tucson International when I saw two Dash 8s parked up.  Sure enough, they were in the same configuration as the previous one.  This time they had their civilian markings obscured.  A little check with Google and they are apparently RO-6A airframes.  The Air Force operates Dash 8s to monitor ranges for traffic under the -7 designation but these are different.  Spooky stuff no doubt.  Sadly, they didn’t move while I was there but they had been active.  I was just glad to catch them out in the wild.

Dutch Training

AE7I6448.jpgThe Dutch F-16 training unit has been at Tucson for a while now.  It moved from Springfield IL to join the Arizona ANG unit at the International Airport.  I have seen their jets before but it was nice to see them again.  The Dutch F-16s have been through an extensive upgrade program but the airframes are knocking on a bit.  Built by Fokker as F-16A/Bs in the early days of the program, they have soldiered on while the USAF retired their F-16As a long time ago.  I didn’t get a lot of chance to shoot the Dutch jets but managed to catch a few during my time there.