Tikaboo Tales

Aha - here's a job that I might like! from FBOdaily jobs at Eglin --------- COMMERCE BUSINESS DAILY ISSUE OF OCTOBER 30, 2001 PSA #2967 SOLICITATIONS UPGRADE AND MAINTENANCE OF THE AIRBORNE ELECTRO-OPTICAL/INFRARED/LASER (AEIL) II SYSTEMS Notice Date October 26, 2001 Description The Air Armament Center, 46th Test Wing, is seeking capable and qualified sources to provide Upgrade and Maintenance of the Airborne Electro-Optical/Infrared/Laser (AEIL) II Systems for the Seekers and Sensors Branch (46 TW/TSWI) and Flight Test Division (46 TW/TSI) at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. The AEIL II systems are four state-of-the-art airborne platforms that support a variety of multi-spectral instruments; Common Signature Measurement Pod (CSMP) (BASES II), Supersonic Airborne Tri-gimbaled Infrared System (SATIRS), Airborne Seeker Evaluation and Test System (ASETS), and Supersonic Telemetric Airborne Radiometer (STAR) Pod. These systems are used to provide truth and signature

This year's excursion to Tikaboo Peak may not have included the same level of activity over Groom Lake as last year but was memorable in that it was the first (and perhaps last) time that I was able to log a serial using the naked eye from Tikaboo. Most of the time one is fiddling with high-powered telescopes, cameras and the like carried up the 7900ft mountain and seeing aircraft at all due to the 26 miles distance from the base is all one expects. Below is HH-60G 91-26352 snooping around us during a security patrol; nice to meet you guys! Next time perhaps you could pick us up and take us for a ramp tour....or at least offer us a ride back to the 'parking lot' at the base of the mountain. If you have any photos of me waving I'd be most interested! To be honest I was a little surprised to be standing on top of a mountain in one of the remotest parts of the world being looked at very closely by the security people from the base. It didn't seem like

Here's N105TB landing at Point Mugu on 16-Apr-04 May01^33.avi

Reference to N105TB's synthetic aperture radar is made here Scalable C and VHDL image processors for SAR image processor - user guide The F-15's pod is here. Perhaps I should send these companies a copy of the photos as theirs aren't great! North Star Systems Southern Research MONSSTR from Calculex useful for seeing who else flies the pod e.g. DERA is a customer. MONSSTR presentation Pender Technology - see ADAPT Pender Technology

Before going flying N105TB and the F-15D were on the Hawkeye Country ramp at Pt Mugu; this image taken from a track on the western (Oxnard) side of the base Here's the NP-3 'Bloodhound 341' landing May01^09.avi Point Mugu really is a nice place for a picnic; shelter from the sun and an array of missiles to entertain you if there's not much going on. As an indication of what we saw flying on 16-Apr-2004: (rough n ready until I check serials, types, callsigns) in addition to the Gator party Numerous California ANG C-130Es (and several others parked close to the Pacific Coast Hwy) 57-0497 DC-130A flew morning and afternoon 164485 and 164487 E-2 together N26974 and N784C SW-4 of Berry Aviation (to San Nic, China Lake etc) 150521/341 NP-3 flew morning and afternoon N707AR N707 'Omega Tanker' landed and parked at the terminal 161322/7X C-12 /NK-316 C-2A Password 36 diverted in with HF aerial problems /254 F-14 pl

Can't remember if I put this up before but here's what N105TB was up to in 2002/3 according to the Director of Lincoln Labs in his report to MiT http://web.mit.edu/annualreports/pres03/05.00.html Airborne Seeker Test Bed The capabilities of modern air defense missile systems have been severely challenged by the advent of low-flying vehicles and modern electronic countermeasures. The Airborne Seeker Test Bed (ASTB) is an instrumentation platform developed by Lincoln Laboratory to investigate these challenges and to identify appropriate seeker architectures and signal processing algorithms. The ASTB, which operates in a Gulfstream II aircraft, provides high fidelity RF and IR reference instrumentation sensors. These sensors are used in parallel with special-purpose wing-pod payloads carrying seekers or sensors being tested. In 2003, ASTB activities include four test campaigns, sensor development, and infrastructure upgrades.

Here's some of 'Bloodhound 122' that appeared to be part of the Gator party

More..... I'm not a pod expert but some googling and hints from friends has turned up the pod that the F-15 is carrying. It appears to be a SATIRS pod.

Here's some holiday photos and sounds from California Here's N105TB and 84-0045 at the holding point shortly after the QF-4 departed This is Gator 4 depating on the mission gator4_dep.wav On the first approach the F-15 did a go-around, presumably to give us a second oppotunity at getting some good shots! Here's Gator 4 the F-15D talking to Mugu Tower gator4_arr.wav And this is N105TB returning from the mission Here's Gator 3 aka N105TB talking to Mugu Approach and Tower gator3_arr.wav

Thanks Ed....here's an interesting picture

An aerial shot of Pt Mugu

Here's something from http://www.mrcday.com/prodFSS.htm which says it's an ASTB radome

I haven't looked at Point Mugu in much detail before but it seems to be the only place - apart from home base BED - that all three big MIT aircraft have visited in recent past. Thanks to Chris for pointing out 'MTH' as the code for MIT as used for the B707 N404PA and the DA10 (really DA20) N20NY....see below which has been edited to remove EGJ F27s, heavy civil airliners and BYA.

Some stuff on Point Mugu http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/point-mugu.htm As a national leader for over 35 years, the Radar Reflectivity Laboratory at Point Mugu remains in the forefront of radar cross-section (RCS) measurements and radar signature control technology. The facility provides monostatic and bistatic radar signature characterization and diagnostics of test objects. The application of wide-band RCS data to Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar (ISAR) imaging of complex objects was pioneered at the laboratory in the 1970s, and is used to conduct signature diagnostics for a variety of applications. The two large anechoic chambers are equipped with compact-range collimating reflectors which provide far-field measurement conditions. The Bistatic Anechoic Chamber is the only facility of its kind in the world to provide full 180-degree horizontal and 90-degree vertical bistatic RCS measurements. All chambers can accommodate a wide variety of test items inclu

Here's N105TB in the Las vegas area having turned north towards Groom Lake And here having departed Pt Mugu - the aircraft is in the top left over Simi Valley - via PMD to DRA.

N105TB back from Pt Mugu to Groom Lake for the Easter weekend! ------------------ Aircraft ID N105TB Aircraft Type GRUMMAN G-1159 Owner/Operator AIR FORCE MATERIAL COMMAND ESC/DIKL 5 EGLIN ST BLDG 1624 BEDFORD MASSACHUSETTS Serial Number 31 Year Manufactured 1968 Certificate Issued 05/10/1993 Airport most visited: Further details are restricted Flight Plan Received 2004-04-08 00:16:06 from Los Angeles Departure NTD POINT MUGU NAS (NAVAL BASES VENTURA CNTY), POINT MUGU CA Destination DRA DESERT ROCK, MERCURY NV Status Landed Planned Alt 17000 Feet Planned Speed 400 kts. Planned Dep 2004-04-08 01:00 Actual Dep 2004-04-08 01:13 Planned Arrival 2004-04-08 02:10 Estimated Arrival 2004-04-08 02:23 Actual Arrival 2004-04-08 01:57 Latest Speed 398 kts. Latest Altitude 15000 Feet Distance to Dest. Last Update 2004-04-08 01:58 Route NTD..PMD..DAG..LAS..DRA/0110

Reference N105TB's trip to PMD on 26-Mar, the LAX Passur site shows our old friend ZXQ1418 aka N105TB going well West of Palmdale and showing it's change of destination to NTD, which is Point Mugu. N105TB_26Mar04_PMD3.bmp

Yes it was N27RA. n27ra_crash_report.doc

Let's assume that it was N27RA that crashed. No sign of it since the day of the incident although it hasn't shown up in the accident databases yet. Meanwhile N105TB appears to be at Pt Mugu again. Although the last flight plan was filed to PMD it appears to have stopped tracking over Camarillo, CA which is around 9 miles from Pt Mugu as the crow - or G2 - flies. Thus its altitude of 2700ft 9nm out would appear to be good. Unless Camarillo happens to be at 2700 elevation which I'll check in a sec. Apologies to Gary for my part in a wild goose chase to try and find it at PMD! N105TB_26Mar04_TXNPMD.doc

Oops - it wasn't N20RA that crashed then.......it's still filing plans Aircraft ID N20RA Aircraft Type BEECH 1900 Owner/Operator DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE PO BOX 1504 LAYTON UTAH Serial Number UB-42 Year Manufactured 1985 Certificate Issued 07/28/1988 Airport most visited: LAS MC CARRAN INTL, NV See a list of all based aircraft at LAS Flight Plan Received 2004-03-26 20:40:08 from Los Angeles Departure PMD PALMDALE PRODN FLT/TEST INSTLN AF PLANT 42, PALMDALE CA Destination LAS MC CARRAN INTL, LAS VEGAS NV Status Planned Planned Alt 19000 Feet Planned Speed 260 kts. Planned Dep 2004-03-27 00:30 Actual Dep Planned Arrival 2004-03-27 01:20 Route PMD..DAG.CRESO3.LAS/0050 Previous Flights OXR - LAS 2004-03-15 21:26 PMD - OXR 2004-03-15 18:36 PMD - NSI 2004-03-12 20:46 NSI - LAS 2004-03-12 22:30 OXR - EDW 2004-03-11 15:07