Had a rare opportunity to observe and monitor Air Force One as it arrived and departed Hunter AAF in Savannah on March 2nd, 2010. I positioned myself at the north end of the runway 10 at Hunter around 0900 on Tuesday. I had a pair of binoculars and observed ground activities on Hunter as they prepared for the arrival. I was also monitoring the Hunter Security Forces on my scanner and was able to feed updates to my friend Ann Lindholm who was positioned along the motorcade route with other Tea Party patriots. My friend Mac-KF4LMT relayed to me when he heard Air Force One transition into Savannah airspace so I tuned over to the Hunter tower frequency to hear Air Force One contact tower and recieve clearance to land. Aircraft 28000 touched down around 1135 and taxied to the terminal where it was still visible from my vantage point. Most of the comm that I monitored was of the tower and ground control and then of local security. Of course all Secret Service comms were encrypted. Once POTUS was in the limo and on his way to Savannah Tech, I broke off and met Mac for some lunch. Later in the afternoon I went back to the same location to monitor and observe departure. Not much comms until Air Force One requested clearance for engine start from ground control. As Air Force One taxied to the active runway 10 they switched over to Hunter Tower where they requested and recieved clearance for takeoff. Air Force One began takeoff roll and rotated at around 1530. I snapped this photo just before they dissappeared into the low cloud deck and switched over to departure. What a great time. I so appreciate all of the airmen that operate that fine aircraft.......especially the comm crew! Sorry, I'm partial!
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