Damp and cloudy days are not always
ideal for aviation photography but they can provide some interesting
options. One weekend I was up at Everett
when they were approaching from the south.
The jets broke out of the cloud at quite low level but there was some
light from the side coming under the clouds.
The damp air meant that the jets were pulling some conspicuous vortices
as they flared for landing. They were a
long way off but it was possible to get some shots of them. The 747 produced vortices that were easier to
see but the 787s didn’t do too badly either.
It’s been a while since I had a
cormorant post on this blog so time to have another one. This one is to showcase something I love
about watching cormorants but that I hadn’t got good images of. When cormorants take off from the water they
start flapping and running across the surface.
They take quite a while to get up to a speed at which they can sustain
flight. This trip across the surface
usually is too far away to get a good shot of, even if you do spot them in time
to get the camera on target.
However, if you are in a boat and the boat approaches the cormorant, you might spook it into taking off. They are pretty resilient creatures so may just float on by and ignore you but sometimes they will take off. Then, if you notice in time and the camera is to hand, you might get the takeoff sequence. They hop from wave crest to wave crest as they flap and accelerate and then they are flying. You can also lose a little weight before take off to improve performance!
The A340s are disappearing from the
fleets of major airlines pretty quickly as the 787s and A350s come in to
service. Lufthansa is one airline that
still has not only the A340-600 in service but the A340-300 too. I shot a 600 on approach to SFO last year and
it got me wondering just how long they have remaining in service. While fuel prices are relatively low, they
may hang on but higher fuel prices could accelerate their demise. We shall see.
In the meantime, here are some of their fleet in service across the
years.
During our visit to Victoria, there
was a fast catamaran ferry moored up in the harbor. It was named to the V2V Express. Based on the name, my assumption is that it
provides a fast connection between the downtown harbors of Vancouver and
Victoria. However, at no point while we
were there did we see the thing move. I
don’t know whether the service is seasonal, not yet implemented or has
failed. The boat just sat there during
our visit. If anyone knows the story, do
let me know.
I went to Paine Field to get the Air Tahiti Nui 787 which I wrote about in this post. As I walked up to Future of Flight, there was an unusual looking plane sitting at the hold running up the engine. I grabbed some shots of it doing its engine run and then as it lined up and took off. I couldn’t work out what it was. I thought it might be a Bellanca but I was wrong. A search when back at home tells me it is a Harlow PJC-2.
With lovely light, I was hoping to get
it when it came back in. Unfortunately, it
timed its return such that it coincided with the arrival of the 787 so they
went to the left runway instead of the right.
Never mind.
I picked up the Oklahoma City
streetcar from the stop across from my hotel.
There are two routes in the city – one that runs around the downtown
area and another shorter loop that goes from the convention center development
area back to Bricktown. The car I got
was on the Bricktown Loop and, since I wanted to do the full run, I hopped off
at the next stop and waited for the next car.
I got on board along with a guy that
had come to check it out despite his skepticism. He ended up meeting a few people he knew and
seemed pretty impressed by the whole thing.
The vehicles have a battery system on board which allows them to run for
periods without overhead wires. This is
particularly helpful where the line runs under the main railroad. The bridges there are too low to allow for
overhead wires so the system involves periods on battery and periods on wire
when the batteries can be recharged,
Lots of people were out making use of the
free introductory period. Given that it
was a Friday, this was a good indication.
Hopefully the system will prove to be a success. It is part of a number of measures that the
city is implementing to improve the live ability of the area. I wish them well.
Korean Air 777s are hardly a rarity so
would not normally warrant a blog post.
However, this one arrived at a time when the light seemed to be
particularly appealing and I was pleasantly surprised by the shot. I figured it could have a blog post on what
is probably a cold and rainy winter’s day.
With our visitors, we took a trip to West Seattle. The afternoon light on the city looked nice and a pano seemed to be in order. Here is a Zoomify version of it so you can look around the city at your leisure.
Sorry for the corny pun but I just
couldn’t resist. One of my favorite
airliners to shoot has been the Air Tahiti Nui A340-300. I have seen them at LAX on a number of
visits. Shooting them taking off on the
south complex has been possible on a few occasions and I was super lucky to get
one of them landing on the north complex when I was overhead in the
helicopter. The A340s are getting a bit
old at this point, though, so their replacement has been ordered and it is
going to be the Boeing 787-9.
One of the jets was in flight test at
Everett so, with nice weather on a weekend and flying underway, I couldn’t
resist a trip up to get the return. I
was too late for a takeoff shot. The
conditions were great. A cold snap meant
that the air was clear and the sun, while it disappeared for a while shortly
after I arrived, was back in plenty of time for the return. Consequently, as the plane came across the
Cascades, I could see it easily prior to it turning north to come in on the
approach. Mt Baker was clear in the
background as they made the turn to final approach.
The dark colors of the livery make it
necessary to use a bit of shadow slider when processing the shots. It was just after midday so the light was a
bit on the nose of the jet but you could still get something good for the
fuselage sides. The touchdown was a bit
firm providing a smoky cloud of tire rubber.
I wonder how much tread the airline expects to have at delivery? Often the jets will come back for a rejected
takeoff run but this time they went straight back to the ramp.
We were heading towards SeaTac to drop
a friend off at the airport. We were
coming in through Renton on a back road and had some time to spare so I made a
quick diversion to a local cemetery.
This is the final resting place of Jimi Hendrix. I had been meaning to check this out for a
while and this was the first good opportunity.
It is a nicely laid out shrine to Jimi. Some graphics of him are engraved in the stone of the structure and there is a guitar sculpture at its center. A bunch of different picks are inserted in the sculpture by visiting fans. Flowers are growing around the base of the shrine. I imagine that there are plenty of visitors throughout the year although we were the only ones on this Friday afternoon.
