Author Archives: Rob

Two Special American 737s – At Last

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American Airlines has painted a number of its jets in liveries of the airlines that went into it over the years.  It happens that, as I write this on a plane, I just saw an A320 in American West colors as we taxied out.  They painted up three 737s in special schemes and I had a poor record of seeing them.  Two of these, the TWA scheme and the Reno Air scheme, both showed up at DFW while I was there waiting for a flight home.  The TWA scheme landed just after I got there so I saw it while riding the inter-terminal shuttle.  I then had it taxi out past me a little while later.  Sadly it took off from the other side of the field.  The Reno jet followed later and it did take off from our side so I felt like I had finally checked out something that had evaded me for too long.

Great Blue Heron Spotting

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I posted a photo of a cormorant sitting on a post in Lake Washington in this post.  More recently, the same post became the resting place for a heron.  I had plenty of time to inch closer to get a better shot of the bird.  The background was rather distracting so I ended up crouching in an strange position in order to get a cleaner background.  The heron seemed content to wait for me to get the shot.

Jay Z Coming to Town?

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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?

This Didn’t End Well (Another Sinking Feeling)

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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?

The Mad Dogs Aren’t Gone Quite Yet

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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.

Light Rail Shots for Work

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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.

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

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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!

Changing Landscapes By The Second

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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.

A C-17 at Boeing Field?

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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.