Monthly Archives: April 2017

Avaya Stadium for a Pre-Season Game

I was down in San Jose and I ended up getting some lunch next to the Avaya Stadium. This is the home of the San Jose Earthquakes, a Major League Soccer side. They were having a pre-season game and a steady stream of people was showing up. The stands didn’t look like they were filling up to much. I don’t know whether the Quakes get a good attendance or not or whether being a pre-season game made a difference. Either way, some of the fans up at the top of the stand were certainly making their presence felt. I decided to shoot a pano sequence of the stadium for fun. Blending it proved a little difficult because of the constant movement of vehicles and people in the foreground but most of the odd artifacts will probably not be too obvious.

Lots of “Daves” to See

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If you ask Nancy about a name that I think has good comic potential, it is Dave. It is not that the name Dave is strange in any way but, if you asked me to name something, my first choice would be Dave. It has something that just works for being offbeat. Apparently, I am not alone in this (which will come as a great disappointment to Nancy who will now know I am not alone and will never stop). The online forum for aerospace, PPRUNE, has apparently decided to call the F-35 Lightning II the Dave. Tornados are Tonkas, F-16s are Vipers and now F-35s are Daves. I love it!

Red Flag 17-1 was the first of the Red Flag exercises to which the USAF brought the F-35A. The Marine Corps had brought the F-35B previously but they tended to go out in pairs. This time the Air Force took the jets out in significant numbers. Consequently, I was able to get lots of shots of the jets. Whether it was groups returning as four ships, individual jets departing or odd Daves in formation with other jets, there were plenty of options. They also turned in really nicely on approach for the spot I had chosen so some nice close top sides were also possible.

I won’t yet say that I have grown to like the look of the jet but I am certainly starting to thaw. Since they are all new and spotlessly clean, the colors (is that right given how variations of gray are what we are talking about) really come out nicely in the low light. There are some nice lines to the jet. It may be a bit chunky but it doesn’t have the same problems as the F-22 with angles at which it looks positively uncomfortable. Hopefully, the time will come when the operators are able to move away from the purely gray and adopt some nice colors on the jets. We shall see.

Holocaust Memorial

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After our trip around the Legion of Honor, we took a stroll around the grounds by the museum. The majority of the land is taken up with a golf course – a sad use for some great open space in the city – but, as we walked around the sidewalk, there was a sign for a holocaust memorial. We figured we would take a look. We were anticipating some sort of plaque or a wall. We weren’t prepared for what was actually there.

Tucked behind a wall was a sculpture that really made you stop. A solitary figure stood behind a barbed wire fence while many bodies lay on the ground behind him. It was striking. I know I had been anticipating something straightforward so the contrast was marked but, even so, the effect when I first saw the memorial was dramatic. It really struck you hard. I hope the pictures provide even a hint of how effective the memorial was.

Before There Were 400s

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The 747-400 has been around for so long now and has sold so well that it is by far the dominant version of the jet in service. However, before the late 80s, there were previous versions of the 747. The 100 series through to the 300 series and the SP. The 400 series is the one you see now but, before the 400 took over, the earlier models were the ones that were everywhere. Since I wasn’t taking a lot of photos in those days, I have a lot less photos of the earlier models but I do have some.

Pan Am operated the 100 Series jets and I saw them at Heathrow in the 80s. 200 Series freighters were built in some numbers and many are still around or were until relatively recently. I think the only 300 Series jet I ever photographed was a Saudia example at Heathrow. These shots are some of the ones I have come across in my time. With the 400 Series jets now starting to disappear, it is no surprise that these earlier jets are mainly a thing of the past.

Are These for Gauging the Flood?

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This post is a question for whoever might be able to help me out. I was walking along Alameda Creek and I saw various sets of these devices along the levee banks at different locations. I was curious as to what they could be. They looked like they would float so I wondered whether they are designed to start at the bottom of the track and then float up as the water levels rises. Perhaps this then reports back to some control location so everyone knows the level of the creek? However, that is just a guess. Does anyone know the real story?

Will the Scooters Beat Me Again?

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My previous effort at photographing the Draken A-4s at Red Flag had not gone well. I got shots of them but the conditions were far from ideal. I had hoped for better and been a bit frustrated. When I went back for Red Flag 17-1, the Draken team had become fully integrated into the aggressor program and were launching on all of the missions we saw. I was optimistic about getting some better shots. However, while the first day was a cracking day for us. One disappointment was that the A-4s went left and away from us on recovery.

Launch was a bit better. I had some close encounters with the jets as they flexed towards us during the departures. However, launch does not give great light so, while the angles were good, the shots were t as good as I would have liked. Our second day did better on the recoveries though. Some of the A-4s came our way and we got some good angles on their turn to final approach. I was a happy boy. The light had finally been good and the angles were nice. Hurrah! The special jet or a two seater would have been even better but I am not complaining. I got both the Kiwi jets and the Israeli jets so it went well.

Shovelers Doing Their Thing

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The shoreline of San Francisco Bay has a bunch of ducks. Of the ones I see a lot of, there are two main species. The Mallards are a duck you will see almost anywhere. The others are the Shovelers. As the name suggests, Shovelers like to shovel around in the murk at the bottom of the water to see what they can find. Their bill is shaped to help with rooting around in this mud. The result can be that their heads are no longer the color of the feathers but are, instead, covered in mud.

There is plenty of muddy shallow water along the shore so the ducks will often take off and head to different feeding grounds. It’s fun to try and get them in mid-flight. If things are closer, they will save energy and paddle to their next spot. The best shots are when they come up covered in mud. They look almost surprised by what a mess they are!

Over the Threshold

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When the aircraft are approaching SFO from over the bay, they touchdown out of sight of the usual locations on the bay shore. However, the old control tower provides a better perspective on these approaches. While you are shooting through some pretty stout glass, you can get a good shot or two of the approaches. A good example was the Lufthansa Airbus A380. Watching it come in towards the land, drift across the shoreline and over the threshold before touching down a little way down the runway, you see things in a way that is not often achievable. Since the tower will shortly be demolished, I doubt I will get something similar for a while.

Glassbaby’s Berkeley Glassworks

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Nancy has bought a few items from Glassbaby and was interested in getting one as a gift for someone. Previously we have been to their stores in the Bay Area but this time we went to they works in Berkeley. They have a storefront but it is primarily a glass blowing facility. As we walked in, I was drawn to the groups of people that were busy creating their works of glass art. Nancy was browsing the shelves of glass so I went back to the car to grab the camera.

There were two groups of people at work. Further back in the shop were the staff who were busy creating the core product of the company. They were heating and having the glass pretty efficiently. One of the nice things about Glassbaby’s products is that they are all hand made and consequently, no two are exactly alike.

At the other end of the shop were some people that were doing their own thing. I don’t know whether they were just using the facilities or whether they run training programs. Some of theme seemed to be under instruction. You quickly see which people are skilled at working the glass and which ones are just getting to grips with how tricky it can be. The heat coming from the furnaces could be felt even where I was and the people who were working definitely seemed to be experiencing the heat. However, they seemed to be having a good time creating.

Mitsubishi MRJ90

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The Mitsubishi MRJ program is the first major civil aviation program to come out of Japan in a few decades. There have been military jets but this is the first civilian airliner since the YS-11. The program has not been trouble free and there have been a number of delays. Meanwhile, recognizing the need to have US customers for the aircraft, Mitsubishi has collaborated with a US company to undertake the testing and certification program.

A result of this is that the prototypes have been sent to the US. Moses Lake in Washington is the flight test center for the program. The generally good weather and unrestricted airspace makes it a far better location than Japan for the testing program. Also, it is more convenient for the American flight test team. The prototypes have been ferried from japan to Moses Lake to allow testing.

The early jets came across a northern route via Russia to get to the US. However, later jets took a southerly route via Hawaii to get to the US. I missed previous jets despite them coming via San Jose. The last of the jets was significantly delayed. It finally headed across the Pacific but got to Hawaii and suffered a technical issue which delayed it. I wondered whether it would ferry when I was nowhere convenient to see it arrive. However, luck was on my side and it made the trip when I was free.

Getting it arriving at San Jose was easy enough. With a departure time from Honolulu, it was straightforward to predict when it would arrive. Getting the departure was a different story. Flight test aircraft do not run to airline schedules. The crew needed a break and the jet had to be refueled. Even then, getting it up and running and to the departure runway was a slow process and I waited a long time for it to happen. The upside to this was that the midday light was gone and things were a lot nicer by the time it rolled. I was rather late though!