Live Flight Tracking

One of my friends was down at Elliot's in DSM and saw the VC-25 (a.k.a. Air Force One when the president is onboard) do a couple of touch-and-gos and a go-around and then headed back east.

It was also pretty cool to follow a UPS 767 in for landing while I was doing my flight training. I never thought those size of planes would be around DSM.

That had to be pretty sweet! I really want to see Air Force One.

UPS brings in 767s almost daily to DSM.

It's pretty amazing what airlines and airplanes came into DSM back in the 80's 90's and early 2000's. Just look at the photos here on the link.

http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?aircraft_genericsearch=&airlinesearch=&countrysearch=-+Des+Moines+-+Int.+%28DSM+%2F+KDSM%29&specialsearch=&keywords=&sort_order=photo_id+desc&page_limit=15&daterange=&range=&thumbnails=&engine_version=6.0

Thanks for the photos, I wish I could have been around to see a couple of the 744s.

Does anyone know if the Northwest 744s were passenger flights out of DSM or if they were diverted?

I know of at least a couple recently that were charters for the Honor Flight program.

I'm pretty sure they were diverted. The United 767s were used on the DEN-DSM route.

This was before the Honor Flights

Anyone know of any heavy's coming to DSM in the near future that aren't UPS?

None, unless they're diverted. A Delta 757-300 came in back in June due to storms over Minneapolis. Frontier Airlines is starting its Denver-Des Moines route on October 23rd, and they are bringing in their E195s (the ones with the animals on the tails)

Thanks. I guess I'll just have to keep a look out for any diversions.

And the charters. Occasionally Sun Country 737s come into DSM. Whenever a team that is going to play Iowa State in football flies here, they come into DSM.

Does anyone in the DSM area know of any air shows scheduled for this summer in Des Moines or anywhere in Iowa? I was planning on going to Oshkosh, but it's the week of RAGBRAI.

Oh, and Delta Airlines will begin flying MD-88s into KDSM starting June 9th on the KATL-KDSM route!

Waterloo is hosting the Thunderbirds the last weekend in August.

The Quad cities also has a good show, June 18th and 19th this year.

You should consider coming up to FSD, if you can. It would be a little hike from DSM, but the air show is usually excellent.

Here's a link to preliminary show dates:
http://www.aero-pix.com/schedule/schedule.htm

Apparently FSD isn't having a show this year
I thought it was every other year, but apparently it's every 3rd year?
http://www.siouxfallsairshow.com/

Thanks for the info! Me and my grandpa are planning on going to go to the Quad Cities Airshow. Sure hope the weather is not too hot.

Sounds like the president will be in town next week. I'm assuming he'll be landing at kdsm. Does anyone have any suggestions on seeing Air Force One land/takeoff?

Sorry, didn't see this post. I went and caught it land at the Hy-vee/Walgreens across the street underneath the flight path.

http://flightaware.com/photos/view/314566-2ecd0c93d14d1aef63fc9d64b0a5ebe535c0e7d5/user/jcisuclones/sort/votes/page/1

Awesome Picture! Mine did not come out nearly as well. I was across the street from the Hy-Vee for the landing and watched the motorcade pass by. I actually was the first car in line on army post road when the motorcade was coming back on fleur. I caught the take off from the end of 23 by a dead end road. All those pictures came out blurry but was incredible seeing it's power at take off.

Thank you! It was definitely cool to see.

My wife got to go down by Hy-Vee for the take-off as well, but I couldn't make it. She said the same thing about the power and sound .....It's a hell of a machine.

TC

You can say that again!

Anyone going out to try to spot Air Force One this Tuesday? Looking for some suggestions on spotting. Thanks.

If he lands on runway 23 your best bet is the Hy-Vee parking lot. If he lands on 5 there isn't any really good spot to catch him. I probably am going to try and catch him on Saturday instead of Tuesday.

Doug

When he took off from 23, I was able to go down to the dead end by SW 42nd st. There were a few other people there and some (presumably) secret service guys. They wouldn't let me park near the fence, so I parked my car in the lot across the street and walked back over. They didn't seem to mind and was able to get a good view of it taking off near the fence. How good of pictures can you get from the top of the parking garage? I just have a crummy point and shot with a weak zoom.

I'm surprised that the Secret Service didn't have any problems with people being there. The parking garage,depending on the time of day is a great spot to take pictures from as long as you have zoom lense. For Air Force One though you will probably be told to leave,but any other time you will usually be left alone. I spot there alot and have only be approached twice,and both times the police officer didn't have any problem with me being there.
Doug

Anyone know when skywest took the dsm-phx route? Evidently I haven't been paying attention and miss the "air shuttle" call sign. It is nice hearing cactus now though on the mainline us air flights now.