Author Archives: Rob

Exodus of Southwest Jets

The failure of an engine on a Southwest 737 that sadly resulted in the death of a passenger caused a major review of the fleet of 737s. Inspections were identified for the engines in the affected range and everyone was scrambling to find facilities in which to carry out the checks. ATS at Paine Field is one of Southwest’s suppliers and they took in a number of the jets. Towards the end of the fly day that Paine Field was having, three Southwest jets emerged from ATS’s facility. They were towed to the north end of the field.

Here they were started up and they took it in turns to taxi down to where we were and then depart. One of the jets was an 800 series and may not have bee affected by the inspection but could have been at ATS for other work. The 700s were quite possibly part of the inspection process. After a day of light traffic and warbirds, the appearance of three Southwest 737s and their subsequent departures made for a change of pace.

USS Enterprise

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The Museum of Popular Culture (or MOPOP) in Seattle has an exhibit on Star Trek. The benefactor of the museum is one Paul Allen. It might not surprise you to know that a tech billionaire has a Sci-Fi interest and, since he has some spare cash, he has been able to acquire a lot of memorabilia. This includes some cool models of the spaceships involved. He has a couple of Enterprise models suspended from the ceiling including the Enterprise D, possibly my favorite of the series.

Lear Fans

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Early efforts at composite business aircraft did not go smoothly. The Beech Starship ended up being a burden on the company and they bought most of the planes back and destroyed them. Prior to the Starship, there was the Lear Fan. A project started by Bill Lear and continued after his death, the idea was a composite aircraft with two engines driving a single pusher propeller. The light airframe and plenty of power was to provide great performance. Sadly, the early approach to composite design did not go smoothly, nor did the gearbox design to combine the two engines to one propeller.

The project folded after three prototypes had been built. All three still remain and I have seen two of the three. One lives in the Museum of Flight here in Seattle while another is in the Frontiers of Flight Museum at Love Field in Dallas. The third one is in Oklahoma City so I am a bit annoyed I never knew that when I traveled there regularly. Still, two out of three isn’t bad. The single prop looks pretty chunky (the idea being that single engine handling was identical to twin engine handling) and I imagine the diameter had to be limited to avoid prop strike issues during rotation. Overall, it is quite a neat looking design. A shame it was a bit ahead of the technology curve when it was designed and built.

An Old Friend on the Shore

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When I was a teenager, we lived on the seafront in Cowes. The road was a short distance in from the waterfront but a side street led down to the sea itself and you could walk along from there in either direction, either along to Egypt Point or in to the town center. The railings that stopped you falling in to the sea (if standing up was not something you could manage on your own) were mounted between a series of posts and, on one of these posts, there was a sculpture of a lion. Clearly weathering had taken a toll on this lion but repairs had been carried out over the years. When I was there last year, we took a walk along this same stretch and it was great to see this familiar old fella still guarding the shoreline.

2,000 Down – How Many To Go?

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Today’s post is the 2,000th post that I have put on the blog. It is a bit of a cheat that the 2,000th post is a post about being the 2,000th post rather than some genuine content but, as I was looking at the list of posts, I saw that this was coming up and was quite surprised that I had put so many together. We shall see how long it continues. While I am grateful to those that read the posts (including those of you that ignore the aviation posts and read the others), it is really something I set myself as a challenge so it is a bit self-indulgent. However, while I sometimes stress when the prepared post list is getting a bit short, I have enjoyed putting this together.

Amtrak Approaches Tacoma

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I had a period a while back when I ended up getting a few train pictures. Some of these were intended for work proposals while others were experiments for locations that might be useful in the future. This spot is one that can ideally have a really good background. Sadly, the day I was there was a cloudy one so the background is obscured and dull. It was an Amtrak long distance train rather than one for the potential client but, since it was a test, it didn’t matter this time. I will try again on a nicer day!

Ready to Move a B-52?

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Sleeping through an event is not clever but I have an excuse. I had guests! The Museum of Flight has a Boeing B-52G Stratofortress that has long been stored outside up at Paine Field. Recently, the airframe has been repainted in preparation for its move to the museum location where it will go on display. The following shots show it in its painted state and then in the disassembly process ahead of the move. Some of the components were already at the museum when I last visited including the engine nacelles.

The plan was to move it down overnight during the weekend. I had intended to track the movement and get some shots of the plane out on the streets. Unfortunately, while Mum was staying with me, I sort of forgot that was my plan and woke up on the Sunday morning that it arrived and realized I had missed the whole thing. Doh!

The Monorail

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Work has taken me in to Seattle to see the team that runs the monorail. We shall be doing some work for them on the vehicles but, on this visit, I was just having a meeting. As I headed back to the car, I had to walk right under the elevated track it runs on as it comes through MOPOP. I could hear one of the trains approaching so I took the camera out and got a shot. When we were next there with Mum, I saw both trains together in the station so decided to add one to the collection there too.

The End of the Day is Always Better

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How many times in this blog have I commented on the nice light at the end of the day being the provider of my best shots. It isn’t just about the shot though. Stuff just looks better (hence the better shots) when the sun is low. Mark and I had spent a good day at Coupeville and then at Ault Field but, as the evening was beginning to draw in, we knew a few jets had launched earlier and were due back. As a result, we anticipated some nice arrivals. Mark had also scoped out a better spot for the final turn the jets would be making.

It wasn’t long before we heard some calls on the approach frequency and so we headed to the new location. Our first trade was not the jets we had expected though. Some maritime patrol training was done and a couple of aircraft were making straight in approaches. A P-8 and a P-3 were welcome additions. They may not have been flying particularly interesting approaches but we would have taken them at any time and in this light all was good.

Then the Growlers showed up. The flew some nice curving approaches around us and the evening light was illuminating their topsides in a great way. Clearly these were going to be the shots of the day that we were most happy with. Not only that but they did the decent thing and didn’t land straight away. Instead, a couple of patterns meant we got a good chance to get some shots of them. Once they were down, the radio was quiet and we both had drives home to make so we called it a day. (Sadly, as I got on to I-5 to head south, a C-5 flew over me heading in what appeared to be the direction of Whidbey. That would have arrived in gorgeous light as it looked really nice as it passed over me!)

Battery Gun

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The battery at Fort Casey showed up in this previous post. At the time I showed the general layout but I didn’t show the details of some of the machinery. One of the guns that was still in place was in good condition and the markings from its manufacture were still clearly seen. The location of the manufacturer and the date when it was made are there to see while the rifling of the barrel shows up well. Given the age of the gun, it is in excellent condition.