Why (seemingly) do so many military aircraft use KTYS

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falconkidding

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Maybe a dumb question. I'm temporarily (or long term maybe) in the Knoxville TN area and driving by KTYS there is always a row of T-6 II, T-38, T-1, the navy jet (goshhawk?) blackhawks, the navy orion and c130, F18s and harriers at the FBO. Is that common? Just a random guess but maybe it meets some sort of XC requirement for all the training AF and navy guys? Or maybe thats normal for class C airports and they just get a ton of transient military aircraft.
Just thought i'd ask cause i've never been around a class C before.
Now I just need to join a flying club out here. Doesn't seem to be any at TYS but DKX has one and seems to be a sweet little airport.
 
There are cross country training squares for everyone in the USAF. More for the training guys. I've been meaning to being a cross country up there, never got around to it. (In a mil jet)

I recommend DKX, I learned to fly there over 20 years ago and love going back to visit.


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Yes, it's a convenient XC stop for the Columbus jets and their navy counters in the Mississippi area (Meridian). It's also home to TN Guard tankers (UPT classmate of mine is a Knoxville local and pilot in that unit).

In the training world, we actually prefer civilian side of joint fields or civi only fields, as the FBOs generally treat us well, the gas-n-go is a breeze and you don't have to deal with the cumbersome PITA that is military transient ops. It's also a nice getaway from the garden variety ----holes they stick us in during the training tour.

Some airplanes lend themselves to civilian fields better than others. I love flying the Talon, but I hate taking it off-station. The T-6 was a much better X-C airplane in all respects of consequence to off-station ops (luggage limits, rwy requirements, self-start cape, TOLD, ingress). I worked a lot less turning a Texan off-station than the Talon. The T-1 of course is the XC king daddy. Or as we call it, the Country's best mainline flowthrough agreement airline. :D
 
EvilEagle said:
There are cross country training squares for everyone in the USAF. More for the training guys. I've been meaning to being a cross country up there, never got around to it. (In a mil jet)

I recommend DKX, I learned to fly there over 20 years ago and love going back to visit.


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DKX is a fun little field.
 
Down the road at CHA they get a healthy amount of transient military as well. Almost everyday I fly over there's either T-1s, T-6s or T-45s in there. They're the usual players for the VR routes in the area as well.

TYS also has military based there. KC-135 ANG and Army NG just traded their Kiowas for Black Hawks last year.

Air Show on the 16th. Weather cooperates I'll be coming up.
 
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Yep down the road from me is KMEI and lots of navy jets at the FBO getting fuel even though Merdian NAS is right there. The good thing, the FBO is down right awesome. Weekly trips there from Columbus for me nets me free waffles, coffee, and soft serve ice cream. YUM!! I may go this weekend.
 
There is a nice Starbucks within walking distance of the FBO at TYS. That and the contract fuel.
 
Walboy said:
It seems like there is a lot of transient military training aircraft, particularly Navy/USMC, at KIWA (Phoenix/Mesa AZ Gateway airport). I suspect it's a combination of good weather, abundance of MOAs, long runways, and decent fuel contracts.
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The contract is a binary thing, either it is or it isn't contract - that's all we look at when going places. Long runways and a good night life (or free food for pilot training out & backs) are what typically draw the xc lines.
 
In the old days...Hookers and Booze...probably not so much anymore...:)
 
Sometimes the civilian field becomes the primary choice on XCs.

Did a UH-60 static years ago in north GA. The school house sent an AH-64 up as well. We were going to go IFR, they had to go VFR.:rolleyes: My first choice for fuel was Dobbins because it was military. Needed a PPR, not a big deal but the also had quiet hours in effect for our arrival time. Decided on Cartersville to the NW and the Apache went with Dobbins. Well, apparently 1,500 ft for the Apache wasn't working for ATL approach because they were vectoring them all over. Could hear them getting yelled at by approach because they were in ATL's arrival corridor. We get gas, showed some locals the aircraft and depart on time for a 1300 hard time. We land +- 1 minute, with no Apache in sight. They show up an hour and a half later! They got stuck in Dobbins due to quiet hours and while they were there, the Marine Reservists snuck out and plastered the bottom of their aircraft with squadron stickers!:p

So, sometimes it doesn't pay to choose the closest military base. Especially when Marines are around.
 
Velocity173 said:
Sometimes the civilian field becomes the primary choice on XCs.
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So, sometimes it doesn't pay to choose the closest military base. Especially when Marines are around.
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No, not sometimes. All the time. :D
 
Velocity173 said:
Air Show on the 16th. Weather cooperates I'll be coming up.
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If it looks like you'll make it up send me a PM with your phone# if you want. I'll probably be there both days with the wife and whoever else I can drag along. If you get a few min to spare while your up here I'd be happy to meet a stranger from the internet whos given me some advice over the past year.
 
Maybe the presence of a TACAN could be a contributing factor?
 
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