Good catch…those are not planes you want operating in an 'operational' capacity. 4 at a time isn't a training sortie.
Also noticed POTUS was using a backup AF1 in TX…something doesn't feel right.
That crossed my mind…it still looked odd. Also seems like they've been turning SA on/off on the GPS the past few days. My hikes have been rock steady for years and the past few days the GPS has been reading short some days, accurate others. Reminded me of the SA days before they turned it off.
Nice dig. 7K' is a little tight for a 747.. he has to have go/no go abort allowances and at full fuel, he'd probably be calculating long.
This one looks like an IFR training flight brushing up on old school VOR navigation. I used to be a flight instructor in the area and recognize those turn points well as being directly over VOR nav beacons. The check pilot is having the one under the hood track certain radials inbound and switching to generate a route. Old school, but works well. Now you can do anything with GPS. Those guys have it all…celestial, INS, you name it.
That's a lot of democracy right there..