Jay Z Coming to Town?

Posted on June 19, 2019 by Rob

Corporate jets are rarely painted in interesting schemes so, when they are, you notice them.  This one showed at at Boeing Field with a puma on the tail.  A bit of research when back home suggests it is a project between Jay Z and the sport gear manufacturer Puma.  I think it is to help out athletes that are sponsored by them.  The registration is apparently a reference to Jay Z himself.  I have no idea who was on it on this occasion.  Maybe Sean was onboard?

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This Didn’t End Well (Another Sinking Feeling)

Posted on June 18, 2019 by Rob

I posted a shot of a boat that was partially submerged in Renton in this post.  I came across a similar sight in Kenmore recently.  This boat was tied up to the outside of the marina but was clearly in a bad way.  I don’t know what happened but I am going to make a guess.  The water level in the lake is very high at the moment.  There are many wooden piles out in the water that are normally above the surface but they are currently all submerged.  I wonder whether the boat’s owner did not know they were there and punched a hole in the hull?

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The Mad Dogs Aren’t Gone Quite Yet

Posted on June 17, 2019 by Rob

The McDonnell Douglas MD-80 is a jet that has had its time and is now rapidly disappearing from the skies of the US.  However, they aren’t all gone.  American Airlines has been a big user but the arrival of 737s and A319s means they are heading to the desert in large numbers.  I had assumed that meant they were a rarity but DFW is clearly still seeing a lot of them.  I was taking a shot of any of them that showed up since I might not get many more chances.  I have, of course, shot them a lot of the years but this was a nice final encounter.  Strange how pleased you are to see something that used to be a bit of a yawn.

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Light Rail Shots for Work

Posted on June 16, 2019 by Rob

A work requirement needed some photos of a project in which we are involved.  We provided he pictures but the team requiring them had an issue with the images we had an wanted something new.  When we couldn’t find any more, the easiest thing was to take some.  I was heading in the right direction one day so stopped off to take some shots of the Sound Transit Link light rail system.  I figured I would share a little of them here too for the rail fans amongst you.

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Never Heard of Them But Now They’re In the News

Posted on June 15, 2019 by Rob

Until recently I had never heard of Miami Air International.  Then I photographed this rather unpleasant yellow 737-800 that landed at Boeing Field.  Only FlightAware (and a squint at the text on the fuselage) let me know who operated the jet.  The Scimitar winglets hint at the previous owner since they clearly didn’t get repainted!  A couple of days after this, another of their jets went off a runway in Florida and ended up in a river.  Now I know who they are!

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Changing Landscapes By The Second

Posted on June 14, 2019 by Rob

The weather while we were in Jackson was rather variable. Our first day was pretty sunny but it clouded over and the second day had clouds constantly moving through.  You would get patches of sun showing up periodically but it was generally overcast.  As you looked to the hillsides surrounding the valley, there was hardly a moment when things were constant.  Light might pick out the terrain briefly and then a cloud would roll in and obscure the view completely.  There was always something different to see.  Even though the conditions were not great, it was still gorgeous to watch the constant evolution.

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A C-17 at Boeing Field?

Posted on June 13, 2019 by Rob

Boeing Field does occasionally get military transient traffic at weekend but recently it has had some heavies show up.  I saw that a C-5 had been passing through which would have been really cool to see.  I was heading down that way not long ago when I saw a KC-46 depart towards me as I drove shortly followed by a C-17.  I was a bit disappointed to have missed both of them.  I did not anticipate that the C-17 would return.

However, a while later, I heard something call up on final but it wasn’t showing up on FlightRadar24.  I took a guess it might be military and moved to the arrival end and, sure enough, the C-17 was coming down the approach at a leisurely pace.  It was a Travis jet.  I was told that McChord is being resurfaced so that might explain why this jet ended up at Boeing Field rather than down there.

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Sunset Over Victoria Harbour

Posted on June 12, 2019 by Rob

The title gives this one away to be honest.  I was walking back along the shoreline of Victoria Harbour and the sun was setting behind me.  I looked back to see the view and the sky was looking rather appealing so I was hardly going to avoid taking a couple of shots.

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Stored Max Jets Filling Up the Place

Posted on June 11, 2019 by Rob

The grounding of the 737 Max fleet worldwide means that they have been coming off the production line and going in to storage.  A few of them were scattered around the Boeing ramp at Paine Field.  One was particularly interesting though.  It seemed to have the front fuselage wrapped in something while the rear fuselage windows were not covered but had individual panels sealed across them.  No idea what this was all about but it did look unusual.

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Big Horn Sheep Safely on the Slopes

Posted on June 10, 2019 by Rob

The end of our wildlife spotting trip in Jackson took us around the back of the elk refuge.  Alongside the road is a slope which is very popular with the Big Horn Sheep.  It has steep sides and food for them to graze on.  The terrain renders them safe from the predators that might otherwise bother them since they are the ones with the advantage on such a steep and craggy slope.  There were families of sheep scattered along the slope.

They weren’t very far away from us but, seeing as they are not large, they didn’t fill the viewfinder.  Our guide carried a spotting scope which gave us a really close view.  It also allowed you to get a quite impressive photo using only your cellphone since you could hold it up against the eyepiece.  I did shoot with the bigger camera too, though.  Some of the sheep moved up on to the ridge line where they were silhouetted for me to photograph.  It was fun to watch them move around as they were constantly walking to the next good food source all while they were perched on some pretty precarious spaces.

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