Another archive post today. When we flew through Honolulu, we had some time at the airport and, needless to say, I took some photos of the traffic. Sure, there were some familiar names but there were also some airlines I hadn’t seen before. Whether it was small props or larger jets, something a bit new and different is always appreciated. Here are some shots from our time waiting for our flights.
At the time of writing this post (not sure when it will actually get published yet) it is a year since we went to the UK for a couple of weeks. There are still quite a few topics from that trip that I have not got around to posting about. One of those was our visit to Bury St Edmunds. It was a pretty hot day when we were there as the second week of our trip turned in to quite a scorcher. I had been to Bury St Edmunds before but not for about 30 years.
As town names go, this one isn’t very imaginative. It is the town in which St Edmund is buried. I wonder how long they thought about that one. We didn’t have time to check out the whole town but just got to explore in the area around the cathedral of which more will come another time. There are ruins in the park area around the cathedral and more churches in close proximity. If you want to get your worship in, this is the place for you.
There are more modern buildings in the area too but more modern is a relative term. Still pretty old by the standards of our current home! The square looked like it was ready for a market to be held but clearly not the day we were there.
Just up the road from Brewster Airport is another collection of vintage helicopters. Monse has some even older airframes. I was a little disappointed at first because I thought that they were going to be R-5s but, when I got there, I came across a bunch of immaculate S-55s. There may have been an R-5 in there too because I could see the tail of something different. Most of what I could see was S-55s, though.
Each of them looked in fantastic condition. They all had individual paint schemes that looked flawless so there was little to be disappointed about. I could shoot what I could see from the road outside the entrance to the driveway. Again the signage did not encourage visitors so I decided against walking up the driveway to see whether they would let me shoot the collection up close. It certainly would be good to visit in more detail though.
Here are some old Japanese rail vehicles. These are part of the SCMaglev museum in Nagoya that I visited when I was in Japan last summer. The museum has a great selection of Shinkansen equipment across the generations but it also has a lot of other rail vehicles from long ago. The vehicles clearly look old from the outside but the interiors are really an interesting comparison with what you see these days. The amount of wood in the paneling and the materials of the seating are definitely of their time. I was quite amused by the fans mounted on the ceiling. Obviously pre-air conditioning days with these cars and so a bit of air circulation was all you could hope for. Knowing how incredibly hot it gets in Japan during the summer, they would not have done much for the riders I would have thought. I wonder whether it was as crowded in those days as it is now. If it was even close, that would have been brutal.
On one day, I had an overflight from both of the initial 777X test airframes. The second one went straight over the house in less than ideal conditions but the first came just south of us if a little higher than is sometimes the case for aircraft heading back to Boeing Field. What I noticed in time was that the moon was on the flight path. Not much of a moon to be fair but the moon nonetheless. It crossed it quite nicely!
I took a ride around Lake Washington on my bike. Once you have turned north at Renton, you go inland for a short time before coming back to the lake shore at the entrance to Seward Park. Between Seward Park on the shoreline is Andrews Bay. Apparently, this is a popular place for boaters to come and hang out on weekends. It was like a traffic jam there. Plenty of the boats were tied together with parties underway. I only had my phone with me so not a detailed shot but it does give a good impression of just how busy the water was.
The UH-34 wasn’t the only helicopter flying at Brewster. As I was driving towards the exit, I heard the sound of a turbine whining. I pulled over to the side of the road and saw that the Life Flight helicopter was running up. I headed to a piece of higher ground that overlooked their space. The Agusta 119 Koala was sitting on a trailer and warming up. It then pulled up in to a hover and transitioned to the grass. A moment later, back to the hover and back to the trailer. This was repeated a couple of times. It didn’t seem like they were actually going flying unfortunately. As they ran down the RPMs, I figured it was time to move on again.
My plan for my big day trip was not only to see aviation related things. Clearly that was the main focus but I decided to add some other stops to the journey. One of these was to be the Grand Coulee dam. Halfway between Brewster and Grand Coulee I was surprised to come across another dam and not a small one by any standards. The Chief Joseph Dam was right alongside the road so I figured I had to stop and take a look. Apparently it is the third largest hydroelectric generator in the US but I had never heard of it!
You could drive right down to the water under the dam and it seemed to be a popular place for people to come fishing. A bunch of guys were spread out along the water looking for a bite. I was more interested in the dam itself so drove down, took some shots and then continued on my way. I then crossed the river and headed up the hill on the other side.
Near the top, there was an overlook stop for the dam so I figured another short diversion was in order. Getting a look at the dam from the opposite side would give a different perspective on the structure (and add some pictures for any potential blog post!). There was a picnic area up at the overlook and a terrace for people to get their pictures. With a large family group over there taking plenty of pictures of each other, I decided to let them have their space and found a different spot to take my shots. Again, a quick visit and then back on to my scheduled trip.
Lots of still shots from my visit to Coupeville and the FCLP training for their Growlers but I was there long enough and there were enough passes to allow me to stop worrying about stills and to try getting some video from a variety of angles. Here is a video I put together of some of the jets.
The replacement of the SR520 bridge across Lake Washington is being undertaken in stages. The main floating bridge element has been completed and now they are working on the next section through to Portage Bay. Traffic from the old lower eastbound section has been diverted up on to the new westbound section while a new eastbound bridge is built. Driving across the bridge you get to see some serious construction hardware. However, you can’t photograph it while driving.
A bike ride took alongside the construction site so I was able to stop and get some photos with my phone. The large lifting structures are actually running on top of a temporary bridge built just for them. These will lift the new bridge sections in to place and allow the construction of the new eastbound section to be done. I’m not sure of the schedule for completion of this work but, once it is done, it will just leave the last phase to I-5 to be done.
