IL-76 N78GF @ AFW

Does anybody know anything about this aircraft besides what’s in the FAA registry database? I’ve never seen a U.S. registered Russian aircraft before. Seems to belong to Air Support Systems.

flightaware.com/live/flight/N78GF

There’s this little company called Google that has a search engine. By placing “North American Tatical Aviation” (the quotes were included) in the handy-dandy box Google provides, I found nata-inc.com/

Google, huh…

I think I have heard of them. Can’t quite place where I heard of them, though.

Search Google, that will probably refresh your memory.

Nope, still nothing…

…and what happens if you try to “GOOGLE” google? :confused:

google.com/search?hl=en&q=google

Uh i have never googled GOOGLE before. You my friend are a MADMAN :open_mouth:

Is THAT all it takes???

I GUESS SO :open_mouth: :open_mouth: :open_mouth: :open_mouth:

GOOGLE “GOOGLE Little Star”
How I wonder where you are.
Above what bright and shiny URL
Does Ogden Nash’s humor twirl?

Perhaps some of you don’t remember the Ogden Nash. A four-seater built in Utah!

Ilyushin Il-78 (Midas) tanker aircraft c/n 0083485558 formerly CCCP-78759 and recently UR-76759 has been obtained by NATA North Atlantic Tactical Aviation of New Jersey and the Florida based Aero Group.

It is being followed shortly by another one, namely N… ? ex UR- 76767 ex CCCP 78767 c/n 0083487598.

Both these aircraft are going to be evaluated in the US DoD Request for Proposal for a commercial Air Service tanker operations contract.

Another one ie 3rd maybe acquired if US shows interest.

Aircraft number one arrived Ft Worth at NATA’s facility May24 to start evaluation .

This Soviet era aircraft closely resembles the USAF operated STARLIFTER which is now being gradualy retired to AMARC. DM. Paul

Thanks, Scotland. Now that was the kind of quality reply I was looking for!

damiross Posted: 25 May 2006 18:52 Post subject:


There’s this little company called Google that has a search engine.

The aircraft is based at GYI (Grayson County) north of Dallas. I flew up there yesterday and took some pictures of it which I will try to post later. Nice looking plane with a dark gray paintjob. Here is a press release I found:

Grayson Airport Lands Training Facility

4-13-06 - The Grayson County Airport is going back to its military roots. A multi-million-dollar company is planting their headquarters at the old Perrin Airfield. The move will bring hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars to Texoma.

By the end of the month F-16s will be just one of the large military aircraft you may see buzzing around Denison. Military pilots from all over the country will soon be coming here to train.

Crews were already hammering away Thursday afternoon on the new headquarters for the international tactical training center.

Charles Searock, ITTC President, says, “It’s a perfect place for us, center of the country, close to training ranges and under utilized as an airport.”

Two and a half acres will soon be devoted to flight training for civilian and military pilots. The company is a private service outsourcing contracts from the U.S. Department of Defense and ally countries, which means plenty of new sights flying high in the sky.

Victor Miller, Project Manager, says, “Russian MIGs, SU-27s, IL-78s, which really dwarfs most airplanes, it’s so big we don’t have a hanger to put it in. People are gonna see that in the sky and get excited.”

And the airport is excited about what’s in store; the control tower will be operating again, runways will be improved and more fire and rescue personnel are being brought on board. Not to mention the positive impact for the entire county.

Mike Shahan, Airport Director, says, “We’ll have pilots coming in from all over to spend six to eight weeks, and they’re spending their dollars here basically as tourists by eating out, staying at hotels, renting condos, basically having fun while they’re working.”

You could call it a flight plan heading in the right direction. From pilots, mechanics, ground crew, and administrative personnel, the company is looking to hire more than 200 new employees. Another 25,000 square foot hanger is also being built to hold more aircraft.

The company operates one other similar facility in Jacksonville, Florida.

Interesting to see this is an ITTC operation. I’ll have to ask Gen. Searock for some more info on what’s up.

The beast in question is an August 1988 built machine still with
Solov’yov D-30KP engines. This is not a stage 3 compliant
aircraft so how did it get registered in the U.S.? Perhaps it fits the
same noise and emmissions loophole as the B.737-200 (AKA CT43A) used
by EG+G. Your comments as ever much appreciated
Be lucky
David

The aircraft has been grounded by the FAA. Evidently the owners don’t have log books for either the airframe or the engines. The pilots who flew it here are back in the Ukraine and can’t be reached. (Apparently they are employed by the company that sold it & no one is answering the phone.) Then to add insult to injury, the Netherlands gave the contract that ITTC was after to a company HQ’d in Ireland.

This is one of the most poorly planned out business ventures that I have ever seen. They didn’t even consider the possible problems associated with fueling an aircraft of this size and type before they brought it to GYI. The IL-78 requires 55 lbs of pressure at the fuel point in order to open the internal valves. 35 lbs. of pressure is the max that can be provided by any of the 2 FBO’s on the field.

They were run out of Cecil Field once before and left a huge mess as well as a big fuel bill for the L-39’s that they were operating. The GYI Airport Board would be better off if they made these clowns move on to another field.

WOW… Thank you Texhill…This is your first and only post since joining and in one post, you’ve said more than Pika, Dami and Jhem (with some exceptions on the last one) have said in all of their posts put together. I like learning from someone who has something worthwhile to say. Stay in touch. PM if you like. DBaker and staff: Please take note of this kind of member. Very nice…TC

Yea, thanks, TexHill. In Pika’s 599 posts, JHem’s 509 posts, and my 916 posts (16.25% of all postings), we have said nothing (well, with a few exceptions from JHem).

So, again, TexHill, thank you for allowing TimCoble to show us the errors of our ways.

By the way, you did have an interesting post, regardless of TimbCoble’s compliment to you. Do you have a source for your information?

Yes, I’d love to read csome cites on this matter.

Or is this a case of “local knowledge”?

I spoke with the FAA inspectors who were here to inspect the aircraft & the logbooks, (which don’t exist). Also the FBO managers at Cecil Field and GYI are friends of mine. I work at GYI and see this hunk of junk several times a day, every day. :frowning:

The “Aggressor Training” that they were planning was a joke from the start.

  1. Why would the Netherlands send it’s F-16’s all the way over here for aggressor training and put a bunch of hours on the airframes. Not to mention the cost of fuel to ferry them over here.

  2. ITTC had a bunch of legal & political hurdles to get over because they can’t own, lease, or operate F-16’s because it’s against the law, (it literally took an act of congress so the Collins Foundation could operate a single F-4 Phantom collingsfoundation.org/tx_f-4dphantom.htm ) no matter who the supplier of those aircraft might be. It would have taken Air Force, DoD, State Dept. & finally congressional approval for them to operate F-16’s.

  3. How did these guys plan to refuel F-16’s with the IL-78 to begin with? The IL-78 is equipped to perform “probe & drogue”, while the F-16 is a “boom & receptacle” equipped aircraft.

ITTC was betting on the come. They were betting that the Netherland’s would not re-new their contract with the Irish company that is currently handling their aggressor training now. Well, ITTC bet wrong.