Boeing 737-8 (MAX) just flew over Ephrata at 1,900 feet this morning at 10AM en route to KMWH, Moses Lake. Apparently to be 'stored' temporarily until the 'ban' on them is lifted. Various news stories in the past week or two have discussed how Boeing apparently running out of space to store the aircraft. Some of these stores have included aerial photos, such as one published in the last few days in Moses Lake's daily newspaper, the 737 lined up on taxiways and other areas of the various airports (Renton, Seattle, Everett and out of state).
And a C-17 is in the area. NOTAMs (Notices to Airmen) have cautioned pilots that the C17s, America's largest and widely used transport military aircraft, are active typically from 11PM to 3AM for training missions. And this NOTAM - " 06/067 MWH AIRSPACE HIGH ANGLE DESCENT MANEUVERS WI AN AREA DEFINED AS 20NM RADIUS OF MWH SFC-17999FT 1906211700-1906211745." In other words, today.
KMWH is a popular destination for Boeing Everett 'hand offs' do airlines taking delivery. The 'taxi' pilots of their airline companies typically make KMWH their first flight destination, often spewing lots of extra data on ACARS (used to be like Teletype keyboard without the paper tape) and now a 'glass' display. The display is how almost all US bound aircraft and domestic flights got first word of the attacks on September 11.
I am alerted to these aircraft activities because Air Nav has lent me a receiver and vertical antenna to contribute to their network of FAA data feeds and from other enthusiasts like myself. They said their had about 20 contributors in Western WA but none in Eastern WA. See
https://www.radarbox24.com/stations/PGANRB500251 for what this receiver can 'see.' Right now, the antenna is about 15 feet high and I hope to get it 10 feet higher this weekend. It is lashed to the fence here. AirNav says the current range of this installation is about 180 nautical miles but somewhat non-circular. The display at that web address should show a dark-green irregular but somewhat circular coverage area.
The low-level flights remind me of times I flew gliders here for 10 years. One of the low-level military routes is right over the Beezley Hills, where aircraft tow the gliders to about an altitude of 3,000 feet MSL. We could be thermal soaring gaining altitude at perhaps 4,000 feet while the military transports were below us at their assigned 2,000-foot altitude. We would telephone the military-civilian coordinator at Seattle Center in Renton and they would provide, sometimes by FAX, a list of military flights planned for the weekend for Eastern WA. So we could avoid conflicts. And they were especially useful for a full week, like this week, while a week-long glider contest is going on.
Gliders use 123.300 and 123.500 for comms with the ground station licensed by the FCC. The radios in the aircraft and handhelds (which I attached to my parachute harness 'just in case') do not have to be individually licensed nor does is pilot, like ham radio operators, required to hold an FCC license.
Dennis Eckert KB7ST
PS-- whew, first from me for years since becoming disabled. Not much happens here. I'll probably post a generalized update at some point, especially on the P25 county system.
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