MD ANG 175th Wing
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General Information
The Maryland Air National Guard's 175th Wing is based at Warfield Air National Guard Base/Martin State Airport, Maryland and has the mission [...]
The 175th Wing is currently composed of two flying Squadrons, the 104th Fighter Squadron and the 135th Airlift Squadron, both stationed at Martin State Airport.
The 104th FS is equipped with the A-10C Warthog aircraft. As a result of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Committee's recommendations the 104th FS will gain 3 aircraft, increasing their total authorization to 18 A-10s.
The 135th Airlift Squadron currently flys the Lockheed C-130J Hercules. As a result of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Committee's findings, the 135th AS will lose all eight of its C-130J aircraft to other ANG flying units, four to California, four to Rhode Island.
The frequencies for these squads can be found here
Typical A-10 Mission
This is a step by step monitoring explanation of a "typical" Mission flown by the 104th Fighter Squadron A-10s, in this case Raven-1 Flight taking a short hop to the Patuxent Ranges. Please note that this is a work in progress and will be updated progressively, if you have questions please check in on the Maryland Milair thread on RadioReference.com
If you are lucky enough to be within listening range, the first indication of an impending mission that a Milair Monitor will typically hear will be on the Martin State Airport Ground/Clearance Delivery Frequencies, usually Simulcast on both 121.8 and 253.8 . This will be a Clearance Delivery Message to "Raven 1 Flight of two" and will include the Departure Runway, Heading, initial altitude, and the Potomac TRACON Departure Frequency and Air Traffic Routing for the Mission. The Flight Lead will read back this information to the ground controller, so you should have two chances to hear it all.
You might also hear a Taxi Clearance on these two Frequencies as the aircraft move to the active Runway.
Once at the Active Runway, you'll next hear our Raven-1 Flight with the Martin State Tower on the UHF Tower frequency 297.2. The Tower will give the flight clearance to take off. Once the flight takes off, they will be instructed to switch to the Appropriate Potomac TRACON frequency, usually 290.475.
"Contact Potomac Departure on 290.475" or just "Contact Departure" since the flight already has the departure frequency from the clearance delivery..
You may hear the flight lead say "Push 6" and both aircraft will change to the new frequency. "Push" or Button is a short way to refer to the pre-programmed or "Preset" frequencies in the the Aircraft Radios. In this case the sixth button on the radio is programmed for 290.475. A partial list of the Presets for the 104th Fighter Squadron can be found below.
On 290.475, You'll hear "one", "two" as the Flight Lead and his wingman both change to the new freq and tell the other they've successfully changed in pilot shorthand.
The flight lead will then call "Potomac, Raven-1 "5,000 for 7,000" "
The Potomac TRACON Controller (if heard) will reply "Raven-1, Radar Contact"
Within about five minutes of take off, one of the Aircraft in the Flight will change freqs to 347.2 and call "Raven Ops". They usually then pass a very short message like, "Raven Ops, Raven-1 Flight, off at 02" giving the Squadron Operations Section the flight's departure time, in this case two minutes after the hour.
On 314.0, Patuxent Approach, our flight will call "Patuxent, Raven-1 Flight of Two, Event number 1234, for the restricted Area" indicating to the Controller at Patuxent NAS that they are inbound to the Patuxent Restricted Area Airspace and giving their "reservation" number for the airspace.
Raven, Push-11 Flight Lead tells wingman to change to 270.8, One of the Flight Advisory frequencies for the Patuxent Range Complex.
On 270.8, the Raven Flight will check in with the Range Control Patuxent, Raven is with you in the blocks, we're at 6,000 to 7,000 feet and we'd like to work the Vienna Area for the next 15 - 20 Minutes....
Raven Flight will Check out with the Range Control on <270.8>,"Patuxent, Raven-1 is ready to depart to Mike Tango November" MIKE TANGO NOVEMBER being MTN the designator for Martin State Airport. Patuxent will provide clearance and a frequency change to Raven-1. Raven -1 lead gives "Push 5"
On 317.425, Raven flight checks in with Potomac Tracon, (missed it this time)
'"Potomac, Raven-1 outa 4 for 3,000"'
"
290.475, Potomac, Raven-1 flight of 2 with you out of 3,00 for the visual for Martin 33"
Potomac TRACON: "Ravens, advise the field in sight"
Raven-1 out of 2 for 1,000, field in sight,
TRACON: Raven cleared for visual 33, frequency change approved.
Ravens push 3"
297.2 Ravens check, "2".
Tower, Raven flight of two for the visual approach
Raven-1, Three miles, Gear Down, Full stop