N800PM Gulfstream 5

[Cavemonster]

This may sound non-military, but bear with me.

N800PM came on the radar as it appeared at Tonopah Test Range w/c 18-Sep-20 and is pictured there in this article [url]https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/3 ... ember/[url]

At the time it was owned by famous golfer Phil Mickelson. After its week at TTR it ended up at Dallas-Love Field 28-Sep and was registered on 15-Oct to TCN Transport of Dallas. Looking back, it would appear that Phil stopped using N800PM in the spring as it had visited all the usual places that an 'Eglin' C-32B would visit, i.e. Greenville TX, Eglin FL, Pope etc prior to a trip to Provo UT and Tonopah.

I've been tracking it recently on the ususal trackers.

21-Oct-20 Dallas Love - Eglin AFB
23-Oct-20 Eglin AFB - Pope AFB - Norfolk Intl - Brunswick-Golden Isles, GA
24-Oct-20 Brunswick-Golden Isles - Norfolk Intl - Kodiak, AK - Anchorage AK
some intra-Alaska flying then
28-Oct-20 Kodiak, AK - Anchorage - Pope AFB
29-Oct-20 Pope AFB - Norfolk NAS - Africa

Listening to liveatc in concert with the movements, callsign used was N800PM, with one <unconfirmed> exception.
After N800PM's arrival at Norfolk NAS (KNGU) on 29-Oct at 0754z, a few minutes later there's chat from the Tower about paperwork for RCH581. This callsign is in the range typically used by the 'Eglin' C-32Bs, so my initial thought was that a C-32B was at KNGU. At 0827z RCH581 is cleared to DRRN airport which is Niamey, Niger.

At 0915z RCH581 is cleared for takeoff.

Correlating with the trackers, the only departure in this timeframe is Gulfstream 5 N800PM. I conclude that as N800PM was frequenting Greenville, TX and Eglin, Pope AFBs, Norfolk etc that it's being operated by the same guys as the 'Eglin serial swapping' C-32Bs.

Happy to be corrected of course! As far as I know the aircraft is still in Africa.

[michel N]

Today SEAL Team 6 rescued an American hostage in that area, with the help of Mildenhall based Ospreys and MC-130’s.
Might be connected with this aircraft being in the same area?

[AK01]

Nice catch, i just listened back the tapes, and indeed 99.9% sure it was N800PM using RCH581. To add, he was given squawk 3654 during his clearance, same was showing on ADS-B for the N800PM, and indeed only traffic in the area at that time. Original destination was NAS Oceana, but that was closed till 10z due to work in progress.
Regards Pieter,

[Cavemonster]

With apologies for bumping this one, I’ve just finished listening to ‘Devil Dragon Pilot’ by Laurence A Colby on Audible. It’s a novel, but the author is clearly ‘authentic’. The novel mentions Special Forces borrowing a civil Gulfstream and having it modified with a rear exit for high level parachute jump. This sounds like a very plausible explanation for the use of N800PM. I assume it was somehow de-modified recently (assuming that it was actually modified in the first place)…..