Monthly Archives: September 2012

Kauai Sunrise

One of the great opportunities on Kauai is to see the sunset.  Sure, you can get great sunsets in a whole bunch of places but somehow it seems better when you are in a tropical paradise!  This year we didn’t make the trip to the beach at Ke’e which is a popular sunset spot.  Of course, sunset isn’t the only opportunity.

The sun comes up in some pretty ways to and where we stayed provides a good view of proceeding.  We did get a few opportunities to see the sun come up (the time change makes for early rising) and light up the sky.  However, the weather wasn’t always cooperative on this trip so it was the luck of the draw some times.  However, I think we did okay!

Hawaii Time

We recently got to take another great trip.  Like last year, we were back in Hawaii and most of the time was spent on Kauai with a bit of time on Maui at the end.  There is no disguising it – Hawaii is a great place to go.  Whether it is the beautiful scenery, the activities to be done or the chance to just relax away from everything for a while, it is a great spot.

We did a bunch of stuff while we were there and this is going to drip feed into the blog in the coming weeks.  So much to see and report you will be sick of it before too long.  However, I will try and intersperse a few other bits into the stream so you don’t feel it is too one-sided.  Besides, where are the planes?

Another birthday!

Regular readers might think that i am being a lazy blogger.  Today is another family birthday.  Happy birthday Dad!  It’s true that I am not making any new content today and two birthdays in a row might seem particularly lazy on my part but I didn’t schedule them!  Have a great day Dad.

Bay Area Birds

A while back I was in in the Bay Area and was near SFO.  While the area is a good one for getting shots of the airliner traffic heading into the airport there, it is also a great spot for seeing some birds.  The tidal flats are a popular spot for a bunch of shoreline birds.  There are also some large birds like egrets that hang out there.

Pelicans are another type that show up pretty frequently.  Coyote Point is a good spot for the pelicans since they like to soar along the ridge formed by the point and come right past you.  I wasn’t there to specifically take pictures but I did manage to grab some of them as they came by.  Hummingbirds also hang out on the point but I didn’t get any shots of them this time.  However, there is always another chance!

Historic Flight Foundation

Two down and one to go.  A trip across to the other side of Paine Field and you arrive at the Historic Flight Foundation – John Sessions collection of vintage aircraft.  Combined with my previous two visits, you really have to think of Everett as a goldmine for the aviation enthusiast.  Much like the Flying Heritage Collection, the focus here is on airworthy vintage aircraft.  However, they are all allied aircraft and are not all military planes.

The hangar is a lovely spot that is spotless.  The aircraft are arrayed around the place and they all look spotless too.  One was undergoing its annual so was pulled apart a bit more.  There is also a B-25 that was outside when I was visiting.  I was welcomed to take a look inside.  Flights are available too if you want although my schedule and budget were not going to fit in with that and the weather was rather crappy to be honest.

One of the volunteers was an ex-pat Brit and he showed me around the whole collection.  He knew a great deal about the planes having been involved with them for a long time and we had a great time.  others were passing by and would join the discussion as well.  It was a very friendly environment.  John Sessions was also about and said hello but he had a group visiting so was making sure they were having a good time.

As with the other places at Paine Field, I can certainly recommend a visit.  It is an interesting collection and if you can time it to coincide with some flying activity, you will have done even better.

Museum of Flight Restoration Facility

The Museum of Flight has its main building down at Boeing Field in Seattle.  However, they have a separate restoration facility located up at Paine Field.  I had visited this many years ago.  At the time, it was a case of showing up and wandering around.  They welcomed any visitors but it was all very informal.  Since I was nearby, I thought I would pop by and see how their Cutlass restoration was going.

Things have changed a bit.  They have an additional part of the building where they now have a proper entrance and a small store.  They have also introduced a small entrance fee.  This seems perfectly reasonable to me.  Anything that helps with the preservation work the museum does is a good thing.  I talked with one of the volunteers about the changes since I had last been there and asked about the Cutlass.  Apparently it is a basket case and hasn’t moved on much since I was last there.  At least it is being protected, even if it isn’t likely to be in much better shape for a long time.

The facility also has the Comet 4 that they have been making progress on along with the prototype Boeing 727.  It also had the prototype JetStar which is configured with twin engines instead of the four of later models.  Those who know my fascination with this plane as described here and here will know that was a good one for me to see.

This was a brief visit but a good one all the same.  Check them out and help support the work they do.  If you ask any questions, you will be warmly welcomed and given lots of freedom to see their work.

Flying Heritage Collection

The Flying Heritage Collection has a museum facility at Paine Field that was the first thing to trigger in my mind when I was thinking about things to see up there.  The collection is owned by Paul Allen and they have got a great collection of vintage warbirds.  They also have some newer jets but they aren’t in the museum at the moment.  I have been tracking the collection on Facebook so wanted to drop in and see what they had.

The museum was easy enough to find and if you can’t spot it, listen out for the noise of construction.  They are building a new facility next door and the crews were hard at work making quite a racket as a result.  The current building is an old hangar but it does the trick for the time-being.  Since nearly all of the aircraft are flown periodically, the hangar is a working hangar.  Work is done on the aircraft where they stand and the barriers are moveable so the planes can be taken outside when it is their turn to fly.

The place is not huge and you are close to the planes which is good from an interest point of view but makes photos a little more difficult.  If going back, I would take a wider angle lens.  However, it wasn’t too bad and the light was pretty reasonable too.  The Axis and Allied aircraft were very interesting but I was particularly keen to see their recent addition, the Ilyushin IL-2 Shturmovik.  It had not long been in the collection after delivery from restoration in Russia.  I was a touch disappointed when one of the docents told me that, with the flying of the German aircraft they had planned for the coming weekend, Steve Hinton was coming in and was going to take the chance to get the IL-2 up in the air.  Missing the flying at the weekend was one of those things but something even more rare in the air just after I left was rather unfortunate!

Putting that aside, it was good to take a look around the collection and I shall endeavor to get back there at some point soon – hopefully next time to see some of the collection up in the air!

Dreamliner Storage

A recent trip to the Pacific Northwest recently included a free afternoon in which I had a chance to do some exploring.  When I first new I was going to be in the area for a couple of hours, I wondered what to do.  I was thinking about shooting at Boeing Field or Everett.  Everett can have some interesting moves but can also have absolutely nothing happening.  Boeing Field can be the same of course.  I was still pondering this when on the flight across and then it occurred to me that Everett had some other things I had been meaning to do for a while other than hope for wide-body moves from the Boeing plant.

Paine Field (to give it its proper name) is home to a number of vintage aircraft collections.  I shall describe more exploration of them in upcoming posts.  However, as an appetizer, I shall mention something that does involve Boeing wide-bodies.  The 787 parking lot!  I knew that Boeing had produced a bunch of 787 airframes while they were still dealing with the design and production issues and that these were stored awaiting rework for delivery.  I had even seem some pictures.  However, I guess I had not really thought about it until I got there.

Paine Field is covered in Dreamliners!  They are everywhere.  Every time you go to a different part of the field, you come across 787s parked up.  Some are in areas being worked on prior to delivery.  Others are sitting on spare ramp space awaiting their turn in the rework process.  Some can be identified either because they are fully painted or parts of them are that allow you to work out where they will go.  Others are just white and who knows what awaits them.  They have large weights attached to the engine pylons to keep them balanced without forking out huge amounts of cash for the engines.  If you are of an accounting bent, you will still marvel at the amount of cash tied up in these airframes that will not be cleared out for at least 18 months.  No engines reduces this a bit but they are still expensive things to have lying around.  Boeing ran out of their own space so they are renting space from the airport for all of this parking.  I guess the airport is happy to have a bunch of cash coming in without having to suffer too much inconvenience!

If you are anywhere near Everett in the coming months, do at least pass by to see just how much is there.  Of course there are plenty of new jets being readied for delivery too but that just makes it look even more amazing!

Chicago Air and Water Show

My reduced enthusiasm for air shows has cropped up in posts recently.  I mentioned it here not so long ago.  I also talked about it last year with regard to my “home” air show, the Chicago Air and Water Show.  I have been a bit reluctant to go to the show because it is very busy/crowded and the content of the show has been a bit reduced due to the lack of available performers.

This year the show snuck up on me and suddenly it was here.  I had kept my calendar clear on the Friday before the show because I like to go to the practice day.  Not only do you get a full show (usually) but there are a lot less people there.  You can even get bonuses with the headlining team (either the Blue Angels or the Thunderbirds) tagging on a few extra practice moves at the end as they tighten up their performance.  For some reason the Friday also seems to be more lucky with the weather.  This year I figured I would follow the pattern and go then and avoid the busy weekend performances.

The plan turned out to be a really good one.  The air temperature was about 70F but the skies were clear blue.  There was even a hint of moisture in the air earlier in the day which would prove beneficial!  They have moved the show an hour earlier compared to years gone by.  I’m sure this has a number of benefits for the organizers and getting people in and out.  However, the light is a little harsh earlier in the day until it comes around behind the crowds so starting earlier reduces the time for good light.  However, you can still make that work if you plan your shooting.

I met up with a bunch of familiar faces down on North Avenue Beach and we settled in for the show.  We had most of the main performers and a bonus with two Super Hornet displays.  Two crews cover the show, one flying each day.  However, they both get to practice on the Friday.  It is safe to say the first crew got high marks from us for the style of the display and for having it close enough to see.  The second crew seemed to be flying a very different display and were a lot further out.  The first crew also benefited from the humidity levels by dragging some clouds around with them throughout the show.  That helped their rating from us but they were clearly better on the day.

A lot of familiar acts were displaying but I got to see some I haven’t seen much of.  Kirby Chambliss put on an excellent display I thought.  All of the pilots are good but sometimes you see someone and just instantly recognize that they are a cut above the norm.  Kirby fitted that description.

The Blues were the headlining act this year and they performed pretty well.  Most of the display looked slick with the one glaring issue being the poor timing of the sneak passes.  The four ship had been long gone by the time the solos arrived so people had plenty of time to see them coming.  It was practice day so hopefully they fixed that on the real days.  I didn’t see Saturday but was at home on Sunday to watch them come through the downtown as they repositioned.  I did see that four was instead three on Sunday so I guess a jet or a pilot was sick – don’t know which.

With the combination of the great weather, the good friends and some excellent flying, I had one of my best air show experiences in a long time.  This might be my last Air and Water Show so, if that proves to be the case, at least I will have gone out on a high.