Author Archives: Rob

Just Not Quite the Right Spot

As I was heading to the tower for my visit, I decided to check out a spot that I had read about for photography. The Airtrain Terminal 2 station has open ends that provide a view of the runways and taxiways. You can get a view of the operations which is quite good. However, you are looking out at each end. The middle of the view is obscured by the terminal buildings – at least for now until demolition takes them away to be replaced with something new. (Supposedly, the new building will include a viewing terrace!)

Unfortunately, some of the most interesting moments take place in the obscured area. Rotations for takeoff and touchdowns for landing can be just out of sight. This is unfortunate. Consequently, this is not a spot I shall try much but it does provide a slightly different view of things at SFO which is at least worth a try. Reverse operations were in effect so I might want to see how it is when things are operating the other way.

Rushing Grebes

Leave a Reply

This post doesn’t have any images sadly but I am writing it so you can go online and check something out. Nancy and I took a walk along the shoreline in Hayward. We saw something strange out in the water and, when it happened again, we realized that it was a pair of grebes running across the water. We Googled this and it turns out it is a mating dance that grebes do. They pair up and then start slapping their feet on the water so quickly that they can actually run across the surface in formation. It is called rushing and is quite amazing to watch. I can’t show you anything myself but do look it up. It is crazy stuff.

One More JetStar

Leave a Reply

Considering how few JetStars there are around, they seem to make a disproportionate appearance on the blog. This one is another active example. My friend, Paul, was telling me how he had seen an example at McCarran on a previous visit. Just as he pointed to where it had been, a short distance away was the same jet. It was away from the fence which was helpful so I figured I should get a shot and add it to the archive. Not a great place to get good shots but better than nothing. Cheers mate!

The Sierras Finally Have a Lot of Snow

Leave a Reply

Since moving to California, we have been in a drought. There has not been a huge amount of rain and, more importantly, the snowfalls over the Sierras have been very limited. Sometimes I have flown over the mountains and they have been pretty bare. Since the snow pack is a primary source of water for the reservoirs, this is a big deal. This winter has been different. We have received a lot of rain along the coastal areas and the mountains have been getting a decent amount of snow. I flew across a while back and, as we looked down on the mountains, they were totally covered. Normally the snow is clear but the other features show up well too like the forests. This time, everything looked white. It was one uniform texture across everything. I imagine that, not only had a lot of snow fallen but it had fallen recently and hadn’t yet shaken off the trees. It looked amazing out of the window of the plane!

Breitling Jet Team

Leave a Reply

There are a number of jet display teams that are operated by militaries around the world. Private jet demo teams also exist although there are a lot less of them. The Aero Vodochody L39 Albatros is an airframe that has proved popular with private teams. In the Midwest, the Hoppers used to display with four jets while out west the Patriots team are a regular fixture. In Europe, the Breitling team has been around for a long time. I saw them when we still lived in the U.K. at a couple of shows but they decided to bring the team to the US for a couple of seasons.

My first chance to see them was at San Francisco Fleet Week. I didn’t have any expectations about how the show would be and I wasn’t super excited about seeing the team. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the show that they put on. The display was well planned and kept something going on in front of the crowd. The Albatros is not a powerful jet so they need to manage the energy well to keep the display going and they did this effectively. The backdrop of the bay was obviously a good addition to the display. They did combine the individual jets with the formation jets well. They also made good use of flares at one point during the vertical maneuvers. That is something you don’t see enough these days. Sadly, it doesn’t always translate as well on photos as it appeared when you are seeing the display.

I don’t know what the plan is for the team this year but I imagine they will need to go back to Europe at some point. Two years away must have been an expensive proposition and means they will not have made any appearances over there. Maybe they will be here again but I can’t count on it. I think they are done. Good job though.

Hobbo Tells a Tale

Leave a Reply

I made a visit to the Blackhawk Automotive Museum on a Sunday morning. They had a speaker booked and this one was David Hobbs. Hobbo has been announcing motorsports on US TV since the 70s and is part of the current NBCSN Formula One team. His talk covered both his days as a racer and his time in TV and he was obviously a popular choice. The place was packed out. They were suggesting there were three times as many people as they had ever had before.

The initial seating was not enough. They brought in flip out chair and then any chairs they could find to try and get a seat for everyone but some ended up standing throughout. It was not short either as he has plenty of anecdotes to work with. Timing was a bit “flexible” in the end. Hobbo has a habit of saying stuff on air which might make the network a bit nervous and his public speaking is an extension of that. I watched a few people flinch at some of the language he threw in but most people seemed to be lapping it up – me included.

After the talk and the Q&A, he posed with a GT40 based Mirage in the collection that he had raced at Le Mans. Then he set up to sign autographs and memorabilia that the audience had. A line formed that stretched across the foyer and beyond. I imagine the museum did well out of the event and it was a great way to spend a Sunday morning.

The Old Tower is Stripped Out

Leave a Reply

The rebuilding of SFO has included building a new tower. I wrote about the old versus the new a while back in this post. The new tower has now been commissioned and is operational. It is time for the old tower to be demolished. Fortunately, the airport invited people to visit before demolition started. The inside of the tower was looking a bit sad. The equipment had all been ripped out. I doubt much of it is getting reused since the new tower will already have been equipped with the latest generation of air traffic control gear. However, the surrounds for the old gear were still there looking rather skeletal.

A week later the process of everything coming down would start. Soon it will look a lot worse and then it will be gone forever. We got a fleeting glimpse of its last days. I hope someone takes some pictures as everything comes down to preserve the last days forever.

Sonoma County

Leave a Reply

Sonoma County is very pretty from the ground but it looks even better from the air. The hills that roll across the county look great and, from above, you get to see way more than you can from the roads. Not only do the hills look great but you also get to see some rather interesting properties that are tucked away in the hills and out of sight. There are some very nice places up there.

LA Dodgers and Emirates Have a Thing

Leave a Reply

Emirates A380s are a regular feature at SFO. They usually look pretty much the same with maybe the occasional graphic added for an event or other. This one was a bit out of the ordinary though. Apparently Emirates must have some sort of promotional tie in with the LA Dodgers. The side of the jet was adorned with a large graphic about the team. The side of an A380 is pretty sizeable so there is plenty of real estate to adorn with whatever you want to include. In this case, they made good use of it.

The Highest Waterfalls and the Valleys of the Wet Side

Leave a Reply

The Big Island has dramatically different characteristics as you move across it. As we took our trip on the helicopter to see the volcanic activity, we continued up the east side of the island which is considerably wetter than the west. There are dramatic valleys and high cliffs. The terrain looks impressive from the air but I imagine it looks even more amazing when you are on the ground. Our pilot described hiking around some of these valleys. Crossing one ridge is apparently a six hour hike and that is if you are not loaded down with too much gear!

We flew in to some of the valleys to have a look around. The ground towered above us on most sides and you really felt in awe of the geology around you. Everything is so large, images don’t even start to represent what we saw. We also came in to the highest falls on the island. The largest of these drop over 3,000’ down the sides of the mountains. We flew in to a corner where these falls were raining down. The shots are not special but I include them to try and give an impression of what was there. The scale is impossible to judge and I also had plenty of reflections from the cockpit glazing but here they are anyway.

We buzzed around a number of these valleys always surrounded by lush, steep slopes. This is not an area for the faint of heart. We then headed back towards the west up another valley climbing towards the ridge ahead of us. As we popped over this ridge the green foliage was almost instantly replaced by the dry, brown landscape we had originally come from. The transition was instant and rather surprising as, while climbing up, you had no idea what was ahead. Then it was a straight run back to our base.