Using AF1 Call Sign

SkyHog

SkyHog

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Everything Offends Me
Is there a law against using the Air Force 1 callsign during flight? For example, should I fly into an airport and report up "Air Force One, inbound," have I broken a law.

Assume I'm not actually flying Air Force One.
 
SkyHog said:
Is there a law against using the Air Force 1 callsign during flight? For example, should I fly into an airport and report up "Air Force One, inbound," have I broken a law.

Assume I'm not actually flying Air Force One.
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FCC regulation; can't locate a specific reg about misidentification, but 47 CFR 87.107 lists the station identification requirements. See http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?c=ecfr&SID=47e46b23f7468901568264ef80e9bc03&rgn=div8&view=text&node=47:5.0.1.1.2.3.95.11&idno=47

If you used AF1 and not your own ID you'd be in violation of the above reg. If you used your proper ID and AF1 I'm not sure of the reg you'd be violating, but it would be in the FCC realm and probably not the FAA.
 
SkyHog said:
Is there a law against using the Air Force 1 callsign during flight? For example, should I fly into an airport and report up "Air Force One, inbound," have I broken a law.

Assume I'm not actually flying Air Force One.
Click to expand...

If Obama is with you I think you may be okay. :yes:
 
I had a similar question about this--say Obama-s kids get their certs. When taking Obama up in a 152, do they have to assume the call sign AF1, or does it only apply to a military-sanctioned flight? That would be so cool to do! Plus how awesome would the 20nm TFR that followed you everywhere be !!!
 
By using that call sign I'd think you would be impersonating a military officer and if you were the only one on board impersonating the POTUS. Not that the AIM is regulatory but you'd be in violation of the radio procedures in CH 4.
 
ebykowsky said:
I had a similar question about this--say Obama-s kids get their certs. When taking Obama up in a 152, do they have to assume the call sign AF1, or does it only apply to a military-sanctioned flight? That would be so cool to do! Plus how awesome would the 20nm TFR that followed you everywhere be !!!
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If he was flying with his kids in a C-152 their call sign would be "Executive One" not Air Force One. It's a civilian aircraft. Any military aircraft the POTUS rides on assumes that branch callsign. Example: "Army One, Marine One, Navy One." He could be flying in an Air Force HH-60 CSAR helo and it would still be "Air Force One."
 
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Velocity173 said:
By using that call sign I'd think you would be impersonating a military officer and if you were the only one on board impersonating the POTUS. Not that the AIM is regulatory but you'd be in violation of the radio procedures in CH 4.
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Air Force One is the call sign of any USAF aircraft the President is aboard. When POTUS is aboard any US military aircraft the call sign is the service followed by "One". When POTUS is aboard a civil aircraft the call sign is Executive One.
 
roncachamp said:
Air Force One is the call sign of any USAF aircraft the President is aboard. When POTUS is aboard any US military aircraft the call sign is the service followed by "One". When POTUS is aboard a civil aircraft the call sign is Executive One.
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Is there an echo in here? :confused:
 
BTW Air Force 1 is the answer to a popular trivia question.

What aircraft has an unequal number of takeoffs than landings?

AF1 took off to take Nixon home after he resigned but was still officially president. While the flight was in progress, Ford took office and AF1 lost it's designation.
 
upstateny said:
BTW Air Force 1 is the answer to a popular trivia question.

What aircraft has an unequal number of takeoffs than landings?

AF1 took off to take Nixon home after he resigned but was still officially president. While the flight was in progress, Ford took office and AF1 lost it's designation.
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Except that Air Force 1 is not an "aircraft".

The aircraft did have the same number of takeoffs and landings, it just changed call-signs in flight.
 
steingar said:
I have little doubt someone would find something to charge you with.
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Easy answer...if you talk to ATC at all:

18 USC 1001 said:
(a) Except as otherwise provided in this section, whoever, in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United States, knowingly and willfully—
(2) makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation;
shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 5 years
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http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1001
 
upstateny said:
BTW Air Force 1 is the answer to a popular trivia question.

What aircraft has an unequal number of takeoffs than landings?

AF1 took off to take Nixon home after he resigned but was still officially president. While the flight was in progress, Ford took office and AF1 lost it's designation.
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Wasn't Jonson sworn in on the plane which did not take off as AF1 but landed as AF1?

Wouldn't that make it even again? :)
 
momalley said:
Wasn't Jonson sworn in on the plane which did not take off as AF1 but landed as AF1?

Wouldn't that make it even again? :)
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He was sworn on the plane, but while it was on the ground. And in reality, he was POTUS the moment that JFK died, he was just not permitted to exercise the powers of the office until such time as he had taken the prescribed oath.
 
JeffDG said:
He was sworn on the plane, but while it was on the ground. And in reality, he was POTUS the moment that JFK died, he was just not permitted to exercise the powers of the office until such time as he had taken the prescribed oath.
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I think the reverse is true. The VP assumes the power as soon as the President becomes nonfunctional (not necessarily dead), but is not officially the President until sworn. IOW, if the Soviets had taken advantage of that gap to push the button, Johnson would have been able to respond immediately, but had the aircraft been scrambled as a result, it would have been AF2 until someone administered the oath.

Edit: On second thought, I think it would still have been AF1 since JFK's body was aboard.
 
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EdFred said:
Can't really call it a landing though.
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A good landing is one you can walk away from, a great landing is one that the plane will fly again, then there's all the other landings...
 
JeffDG said:
A good landing is one you can walk away from, a great landing is one that the plane will fly again, then there's all the other landings...
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If it's in pieces is it really still an airplane?
 
momalley said:
Wasn't Jonson sworn in on the plane which did not take off as AF1 but landed as AF1?

Wouldn't that make it even again? :)
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Wasn't the body of Kennedy on the airplane? It was still Air Force 1.
 
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