Government VIP to Washington DC, which airport?

[Joseph29]

A government VIP is coming to Washington DC to visit the President, what airport does his/her plane land at? Dulles International? Or Andrews Air Force Base? I ask because I have lots of VIP flightplans and a lot have Dulles and few have Andrews. Wouldn't Andrews have more VIP flights than Dulles?

[sprocky]

Hm, dunno. Have you had a look at a.net, etc.?

[MIKE JG]

Depends. Maybe the British VIPs get to land at Andrews, certainly not the Russians if you know what I mean.

Don't know if they are still there or not but I used to (when I was still flying) see German AF Airbus aircraft based at Dulles at Signature's FBO. Any time there was a big to do in town, there were all kinds of foreign registered aircraft parked at Dulles. So my instinct would be that the majority of them go into Dulles.

[LEBTowerGuy]

BWI gets a lot of government VIPs as well, the Saudis like to use it, we get their 747s and Gulfstreams a lot. I have seen the Japaneese 747-400s in there a few times as well. Also the goverment contractors - Northrup-Grumman, Lockheed, Boeing, etc also tend to use BWI.

[james84]

As far as I remember, Italians go to Andrews as well.

[rassy7]

Mike JG ... bit off topic but I noticed you said you frequently saw German AF Airbuses at Dulles. For about two weeks, There has been a Luftwaffe Airbus on the ramp, flying in and out every morning from Boise/Gowen Field near where I live. I couldn't help but wonder what they would want here. I know last year German F-4s were training with out F-15s etc. at Mountain Home for Red Flag but ... Anyway, maybe you could help me figure out why that Airbus is here, ha ha. Seemed strange to me.

~Josh

[Greg]

Anyway, maybe you could help me figure out why that Airbus is here, ha ha. Seemed strange to me.~Josh

Isn't it the annual "Mountain Roundup" again?

Greg

[MIKE JG]

Not sure, I just looked through Flight Aware for the last couple of minutes to see if I could find the departure destination for the aircraft, but I can't find any examples. Do you know of a specific day and time when you saw one leaving or arriving?

[rassy7]

Possibly tir ... I haven't lived here long so I am not fully in tune to the annual military activities around here. I like the word annual though, Gives me something to look forward to again.

Mike ... sorry, I probably should have specified, it was here the last two weeks of Oct. I checked flight aware when it was here but couldn't find any info. I didn't know they tracked military aircraft.

Anyway, I'll post a pic of it up here for ya.



~Josh

[LEBTowerGuy]

IIRC the GAF has a base at IAD thats why their A310s operate out of there rather than ADW or BWI.

[Greg]

"Mountain Roundup" is the final stage in the training program of German instructor pilots and weapons system officers. Every year they send a couple of Tornadoes and crew from Holloman to Mountain Home for the exercise.

Edit: Yep Mountain Roundup was on. Here's a link with more info.

Greg

[Joseph29]

Thanks for the info guys. I kind of forgot about this thread.

[rassy7]

Ya, thanks. I had no idea. That sure explains a lot,

~Josh

[Andrew88]

Depends. Maybe the British VIPs get to land at Andrews, certainly not the Russians if you know what I mean.

The real deal says that Russian president also lands at Andrews visiting Washington (last time - november'2008)