No, unlike the military services, the USCG budget (at least used to be) is based on day to day operations.Training exercise?
That would be some great jumps in assumptions from the days I flew in the USCG.I keep a couple of browsers up that track aircraft such as, https://globe.adsbexchange.com/.
I usually watch from central NC and SC and out to sea.
Lots and lots of commercial aircraft which are not really that interesting. What catches my attention is the medical helicopters, blimps, drones, military aircraft and USCG aircraft.
The USCG and US military seem to train during the week, especially Tuesday to Thursday. EWACS and tankers will fly in from various bases in the US to the coastal area, contract fighters will be up and about, and every once in a while, a US fighter might pop up for a short time before disappearing.
Military copters and transports will be flying all through the week, day and night. Right now a C17 is crossing NC and I am guessing heading to Charleston which houses those planes. Very unusual, an E6 is flying SE over Spartanburg SC.
You can tell when the USCG is training, as well as other services, because of their patterns. The USCG C130's out of Elizabeth City will fly a race track pattern somewhere, usually off the coast. Sometimes USCG copters will fly patterns or just go fly the Outer Banks. They don't seem to be on a mission just flying/training. Other times you will see the USCG copters and C130 flying close to each other near Elizabeth City. I would guess they are practicing rescues. There is a balloon/blimp at Elizabeth City that shows up as a copter but just sits in one place a few times a week.
A USCG copter just disappeared from the tracking site near North Myrtle Beach. It disappeared before I could zoom in to see more details. It could have landed at a hospital or the Grand Strand Airport. That is a bit different. It just showed up as on the ground at the airport.
Later,
Dan
Look, in defense of the great state of Florida, it's getting pretty crowded.
Why does it not surprise me that it is from Florida???
That would be some great jumps in assumptions from the days I flew in the USCG.
Unless the aircraft are putting out a specific IFF "squawk", hard to tell what they might be doing....can't recall what code we usually used on SAR missions.
If one watches the websites, one sees the patterns of behaviors, and one will see the same flights at about the same time. And as I described, the routes are usually just kinda flying around, not really going anywhere, nor hanging around in one area. Sometimes they do, but when I have seen that happen it is right off Elizabeth City. There could be a rescue needed at that point but would it require a helicopter and a C130 that close to Elizabeth City?
They were certainly doing something because the copter stayed in the same area for quite some time and the C130 was doing VERY tight turns around the copter. Those are the only flights that I have seen that were not just flying around over the outer banks with the helicopter(s) or race tracks over large areas with the C130(s). I will see USMC C130s doing large race tracks offshore as well.
This morning the only military aircraft I see around NC are a bunch of C17s flying this way and that. Though some UH60's are up in Norfolk and one just popped up at North Myrtle Beach.
Later,
Dan
Yep, I am just "watching" Elizabeth City.eluzabeth city is but one uscg airstation and not like many others as it is the major aircraft repair facility.
While your experience might be pretty accurate guesses, for the other 24 or so uscg irsta's, they would be sketchy guesses at best. In my opinion.