Su-27 in American hands: "First" civilian Su-27s arrive in US

[quellish]

http://www.prideaircraft.com/news.htm

Actually, I had heard 2 years ago there was already one, maybe two Su-27s in private hands in the US. Separately, there have been SU-27s flying out of Groom and Tonopah for a few years. These are ex-Belorussian Su-27s that apparently came with quite a collection of spares.

 

[Weasel Pilot]

Post 9/11 the FAA decided that ex-military jets were now verboten in civilian hands, less those already imported. If someone brought in Su-27s (plural) they might just have some very expensive static displays!

 

[flateric]

...unless they bought 'em on behalf of Air Force

 

[yasotay]

I believe they were bought by a Corporation that does contract air combat support to the US government.

 

[Creative]

I believe they were bought by a Corporation that does contract air combat support to the US government.

I wonder if that's ATAC http://www.atacusa.com/

And interesting that the link quellish posted is no more, hmm?

 

[yasotay]

I think the government is none to pleased with the publicity regarding a corporation that is paid to play aggressor.

 

[quellish]

I believe they were bought by a Corporation that does contract air combat support to the US government.

I wonder if that's ATAC http://www.atacusa.com/

And interesting that the link quellish posted is no more, hmm?

Ah, but it gets more interesting!
http://www.prideaircraft.com/flanker.htm

 

[flateric]

Groom Lake footage
from 1:08 we can clearly see the Flanker

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l08tgVSjIU&feature=player_embedded

 

[quellish]

I've seen some clear photos of Flankers on the DET 3 range, and I've seen some of the bills for the program. It surprised me that they got some!

 

[sferrin]

I love that they stick text right over where the camera is looking. :

 

[mrdetonator]

I believe they were bought by a Corporation that does contract air combat support to the US government.

I wonder if that's ATAC http://www.atacusa.com/

And interesting that the link quellish posted is no more, hmm?

Are these Flankers ever going to fly? Now, when "overhauled" and freshly painted they want sell them, hmmm.... :

 

[mrdetonator]

Groom Lake footage
from 1:08 we can clearly see the Flanker

You right, but how do you know it is over Groom lake?

What is the aircraft at 0:10? Could be the F-22.

 

[quellish]

You right, but how do you know it is over Groom lake?

What is the aircraft at 0:10? Could be the F-22.

That is a Flanker. The Gulfstream you see in the footage is N105TB.
Video shot from Tikaboo looking towards Groom is pretty easy to recognize once you've seen a few

 

[mrdetonator]

That is a Flanker. The Gulfstream you see in the footage is N105TB.
Video shot from Tikaboo looking towards Groom is pretty easy to recognize once you've seen a few

....I've seen some clear photos of Flankers on the DET 3 range, and I've seen some of the bills for the program. It surprised me that they got some

you have a pretty good imagination buddy ;D
what is the Gulfstream altitude anyway?

do not hesitate to post/link those pictures...

 

[quellish]

That is a Flanker. The Gulfstream you see in the footage is N105TB.
Video shot from Tikaboo looking towards Groom is pretty easy to recognize once you've seen a few

....I've seen some clear photos of Flankers on the DET 3 range, and I've seen some of the bills for the program. It surprised me that they got some

you have a pretty good imagination buddy ;D
what is the Gulfstream altitude anyway?

do not hesitate to post/link those pictures...

Google is your friend.
http://images.google.com/images?q=su-27%20groom%20lake&oe=utf-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi
There are other photos out there as well.

A pretty good imagination meaning...?
The Gulfstream's altitude?

 

[TomS]

I love that they stick text right over where the camera is looking. :

It's called not being willing to pony up the $30 to buy the full user version of the video conversion software they are using. Seems odd considering the hundreds of dollars they must have invested in the camera and the ten or hundreds of hours spent shooting the footage.

 

[mrdetonator]

Google is your friend.
http://images.google.com/images?q=su-27%20groom%20lake&oe=utf-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi
There are other photos out there as well.

yes, you have a pretty good imagination, but regarding google there are only foggy screen caps from the video you`ve posted recently, no clear photos of Flankers at on whatever is DET 3 range.

and yes, I was asking you what is the altitude of Gulfstream aircraft in the video.

 

[quellish]

yes, you have a pretty good imagination, but regarding google there are only foggy screen caps from the video you`ve posted recently, no clear photos of Flankers at on whatever is DET 3 range.

and yes, I was asking you what is the altitude of Gulfstream aircraft in the video.

Oooook.
Well, DET 3 is Detachment 3 of the Air Force Flight Test Center.
You would have to ask the person who shot the video (which I did not post) what that altitude was. The author is easy to find.
There are plenty of clear photos, many available by using Google. You may want to search for the registration number N105TB as well.

Good luck and happy hunting.

 

[Spongthrush]

As it's me that shot the video I can answer a couple of points.

As I recall the Gulfstream and MiG-29 were mostly at medium level (FL200ish) when on task over Groom Lake. I do have the audio from Groom Approach and Tower but I'm not sure that this was particularly useful as they were pretty quiet until they recovered into Groom. They must have been chatting on a tactical frequency during the test.

We simply got lucky that day...we tend to go for a day out up Tikaboo Peak once a year. Although we'd seen what we thought was a MiG-29 on previous (and subsequent) visits, the Su-27 was a first. The video was fimed with my analogue camcorder which I subsequently converted using the free program which puts the text centre screen. Perhaps I'll try simply videoing the original video with a digital camera and see if that brings any better results.

As I say, we were just lucky, not only that they were flying some interesting types but also that they were flying on the Tikaboo Peak side of the base. Some video more recently of interesting types flying out of Groom is just specks on the runway as they flew circuits too far away to be much use. We assume that they are 'interesting' types as you wouldn't expect chase planes calling 'clean and dry' etc in the circuit if they were chasing a F-16. And 'good chute' calls too.

cheers
Ian

 

[Creative]

Same plane I believe is now for sale ???

http://www.controller.com/listings/aircraft-for-sale/SUKHOI-SU-27/1990-SUKHOI-SU-27/1160633.htm

 

[quellish]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4lE6HcBPxw&feature=player_embedded&fmt=18

First flight in the US.

 

[Spongthrush]

Last week from Alamo, NV we watched a Su-27 dogfighting with a F-15 for 45mins to the east of Groom Lake approx 0715-0800, flares n all from the F-15. The Su-27 was the same all blue with white nose colour scheme as that seen 9 years ago.


Photo is pretty rubbish but....


http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-35wdv3SEi1o/T5RZXC81VZI/AAAAAAAAEQk/UaV9XveygNM/s640/Su27+F15+over+Tikaboo+18Apr2012.jpg


Ian

 

[quellish]

Last week from Alamo, NV we watched a Su-27 dogfighting with a F-15 for 45mins to the east of Groom Lake approx 0715-0800, flares n all from the F-15. The Su-27 was the same all blue with white nose colour scheme as that seen 9 years ago.


Photo is pretty rubbish but....


http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-35wdv3SEi1o/T5RZXC81VZI/AAAAAAAAEQk/UaV9XveygNM/s640/Su27+F15+over+Tikaboo+18Apr2012.jpg


Ian

Nice photo!
You may be interested to know, Ian, that HAVE FLAG may actually be your old nemesis, N105TB (and it's predecessor).

 

[Spongthrush]

Thanks. I'd better look up HAVE FLAG then.


N105TB seemed to be active recently; in fact one day in March I think I 'saw' that N105TB, N448TB and N20NY were all up at once out of Bedford. I haven't seen many reports of it on the west coast since I saw it at TTR in 2010 flying at the same time as the F-117A. Maybe it avoids use of mode-S giveaways and uses tactical callsigns for the transit west. Or maybe it's not playing any more.

 

[dicanio]

A bit of an old thread now its 2017, but you may be interested to hear the Su-27 is alive and well and flying in Nevada.

I spent 3 days in the Tikaboo Valley last month, and was lucky enough to see a Su-27 dogfighting with an F-16 on the afternoon of election day.

If you want to see the pictures, they're on my blog:

http://area51trips.blogspot.co.uk

Hope thats of interest to some of you.

Phil

 

[Mr London 24/7]

'The Daily Mail' covers the same in 'Area 51 shocker' style....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4127690/US-Russian-fighter-jets-mock-dogfight-Area-51.html