There was a military exercise going on right above my house for a good 4ish hours yesterday between 1pm -5pm PST. Three or four F-15’s going in circles and diving low. There was a tanker refueIing them way up high too. I live along the sidewinder route and see jets every day. But this was unique, this hasn’t happened before. I was wondering where they were stationed. I doubt it was Edwards AFB, or Nellis AFB. I was thinking they were with the 144th Fighter Wing out of Fresno. Can I see who flew over yesterday? Location was Bodfish California. Thank you.
It’s very difficult to look up a military flight after the fact. Many of them don’t broadcast their aircraft type, and without a flight ID or aircraft identification number, it’s almost impossible to find them later.
If you download the FlightAware app you should be able to see active aircraft being tracked, including many military aircraft, while they’re in flight. Then you may be able to track them down later with that information.
I’m not aware of any other way to find them, but maybe somebody here knows better.
FlightRadar24 has a playback feature. It shows various USAF tankers moving around during that time. One took off from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport and another came from Edwards AFB. There were a couple of others too. They flew around over Bodfish for some time and then split up. Towards the end of the period you mentioned they all came together at Edwards.
Flying over Bodfish
Came from PHX and EAFB
Landing at EAFB
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Thank you! I checked that right after I posted this, sadly that site doesn’t track fighter jets from what I can see.
Yeah I figured, usually I can see the identification numbers but it was cloudy. Thank you!
If you have the FlightRadar24 app, it has an “Augmented Reality” (AR) view which overlays an aircraft label next to the aircraft as you point your camera at the sky. Maybe that will help reveal IDs even when it’s cloudy.
That’s neat. All we have here is an air refueling wing so I see stratotankers and globe masters (I think all Vietnam era aircraft) flying endless loops both IRL and on flightaware all day. A fighter jet would break up the monotony.
Though these planes fly low, usually at about 4000 ft, and we’re at 1000-ish feet, so they just look big.
I definitely need this. I can usually pick out the aircraft from the Flight Aware app overlay, but being able to just point my camera at it would eliminate confusion in a more crowded sky.
Give it a go, I don’t think you need any special account to use the feature. Sometimes the labels can be a little off but they’re good enough to work out what’s what in my experience.