Category Archives: aircraft

Crop Duster Conflicting Arrival

The traffic at Eloy was mainly light aircraft on training flights or jump ships for the sky diving operation. As one of the Twin Otters was lining up to depart, we saw a crop-dusting aircraft approaching the field. He seemed intent on landing from the opposite direction to that which the Twotter was going to use. We wondered how this would play out but they clearly had done this before. The jump ship got swiftly airborne and then turned left and directly towards us. This gave it separation from the inbound plane which then landed quite happily on the now vacated runway. It also meant we got some different angles on the departing plane which was welcome.

Sadly, the AMXs Are Gone

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The Italian Air Force recently retired their AMX fleet. I remember seeing early AMX demonstration flights at Farnborough, so this is another one of those moments when you realize you are old enough to have seen the entire life cycle of an aircraft. The “joys” of aging, I guess. Anyway, I figured that, while I hadn’t seen a lot of AMXs over their time, I would reflect the few encounters that I had with them.

HondaJet Shapes Are Fascinating

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This HondaJet had come from outside the US, so it had to clear customs at BFI after landing. That put it right in front of me while I was waiting for something else (although I can’t remember what it was). I find the jet very interesting although I am frustrated by the way in which all the ones I see have the same paint scheme with only a change in what color is used. Since this one parked up near me, I got to look at it from a variety of angles and that is a good way to appreciate the unusual shapes the airframe has.

The pylons are cambered and the way in which the nacelles sit on the wing is more easily appreciated from behind. It is great to have something different. I look forward to seeing the big brother when it makes it into service. A shame that Honda seems to have given up on their own engines but not a massive surprise.

Indian Rafales Testing PNW Weather

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I may have worked on the Typhoon/EF2000 in my younger days and have a strong affinity for that plane, but I have always appreciated its competitor from next door, the Dassault Rafale. The Rafale is a very elegant-looking airframe, and it has recently started to sell very well on the export market. One of those customers is India and the Indian Air Force brought some of its jets to Alaska for an exercise. They routed across the US with an overnight stop at McChord AFB (JBLM) before continuing on to Alaska.

I went out with a bunch of friends to see them arrive. They came in two waves and the first arrived in some quite poor conditions. This resulted in them making straight in approaches to the field. This was a bit of grey jets and a grey sky, but it was still worthwhile. There was a fair time between them showing up and the second wave and, by that time, the weather had improved considerably. This allowed them to do a run in and break to landing. Four jets came in but one was clearly offset – presumably getting some shots of the others. They tightened up before the break, though.

The final turns varied in how tight they were but, since the earlier jets had allowed me to get some more standard side-on shots, I decided to get closer to their approach path. I moved in a way for the first jet and then proceeded to sprint closer between each arrival in order to try and vary the angles a bit. If there had been more jets or time, I might have gone for directly on the centerline to get a head on shot but that wasn’t possible. What fun catching something very different to the norm for this area.

T-38s Including Some Color

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Mesa Gateway Airport is a popular spot for cross country flights by various military aircraft. T-38 training jets are particularly common apparently so, while it was my first time visiting the airport, catching some arriving Talons was not a surprise. What was unusual was that one of them was in a retro paint scheme in a green camouflage design. It was looking very well finished as it taxied in and parked. The various student trainees parked their jets and walked into the FBO. Many of them appeared to be overseas students training in the US.

T-45s at El Centro

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My involvement with the T-45 program was back when the aircraft were just coming into service. Now I am reading articles discussing the US Navy’s plan for the replacement of the Goshawk fleet. Another type I have been involved with that is going to disappear from service before too long. Since the jet was never exported, when the Navy gets rid of them, that will be it. Consequently, while I have shot T-45s at various places and times before, getting some more shots while on our trip was worthwhile.

We made a detour from our Arizona locations to El Centro to catch the Harriers. El Centro is a regular haunt of the T-45s with the training wings sending jets out to use the ranges just north of the base. Since it is not too far to travel, you can watch them launch and know it won’t be too long before they return. Getting the departing jets as they break towards the south with the last jet cutting the corner the most to catch up with the first ones is easy enough. The returns give you an option at both ends with either the overhead break with speedbrakes out at one end or the final turn at the other. Managed to catch both. I am sure I will see more T-45s in the coming years but here are some shots from the recent visit.

Twotter Jump Ship

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One of the sky diving airfields in Arizona is at Eloy. A small field in a very small town, Eloy has a lot of customers for the jump ships and the vertical wind tunnel. During our trip, I had seen some Skyvans operating as jump ships, and I was quite looking forward to the chance to shoot some Skyvan ops from close range. When we got to Eloy, it turned out that things were different on the day. The Skyvans were nowhere to be seen. Instead, it was Twin Otters providing the lift and, once we were there, only one of them. However, there were a couple of locations around the field that gave us options to photograph the Twotter with it taking off to the north and recovering in a southerly direction. There was even one departure when it turned right over us but the reason for that will show up in a future post.

Doesn’t Everyone Have a Hornet by the Front Door?

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When deciding on what garden furniture to have, there are many options. You could have some garden gnomes, maybe a stone lion, all sorts of possibilities. Most of these are because most people don’t have access to a fast jet. If you do, and the California Science Center does, you’d stick a Hornet outside the front door. It was in the shade from the building in the morning I was there, but I thought it provided just the right amount of gravitas.

Vistara Flying at Last

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With so many stored 787s at Everett in recent years, I have seen a bunch of Vistara jets on the ground. However, I hadn’t really done very well in catching them moving. Not very well is generous – I hadn’t got anything worthwhile. Then I was up at Paine Field earlier in the day for something else and a Vistara jet taxied out for a test flight. Thankfully it ran reasonably long on its takeoff roll and I was able to get some good shots of it.

A-4 and F-8 Airframes Aren’t Going Anywhere

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Arizona is packed with old airframes. You can go to any number of airports and find some old military aircraft stacked up in spare locations. Marana Regional Airport is a great example. Wander along the fence of the airport by the road and you come across a bunch of A-4 Skyhawks and F-8 Crusaders tucked away. The weather is ideal for preserving an airframe and they look like they are in great condition. No idea what state they were in when they arrived and what bits are missing but they do look like they could be so close to being useful even if they are really never going to move again. Oh to see a Crusader or two back in action.