Category Archives: corporate

An Epic Skirting the Sun

Epic E1000s have shown up on the blog before and in less than ideal conditions. Sometimes you just have to work with what is available. It doesn’t stop me trying, of course, and when another one was due in to Boeing Field and the conditions looked promising, I headed out. When I was in place and they were getting closer, the sun was playing games with me. I would have some nice light for a while and then the clouds would drift back in again. They wouldn’t stay long and then sun would be back but the question was, what would it be like at the critical moment. At Boeing Field, I have often had good light further up the approach (and too far away), cloud over the ideal location and then sun again as they get to very short final but again too far for a decent shot. Would this be one of those days?

No! On this occasion, the conditions played ball and, as the E1000 came zipping down the approach, the sun was out in all the right places. I grabbed some shots and the blues in the paint really did seem to pop. I was quite satisfied. I did get one more Epic encounter at BFI before we moved away which was from the other end providing a different type of shot in good light but, after that, while there were lots of movements to BFI before we left, I didn’t have the chance to see them.

A Pair of PC-24s Overhead

I was out of position one time when at Boeing Field. Being down near the museum, departing aircraft tended to be quite high by the time they got to me. This didn’t stop me trying some shots since it was something a bit different. I was pretty happy when I got a Pilatus PC-24. They are quite popular and not a rarity at BFI but still pleasing. Then I was rather surprised to get a second not too much later. The PC-24 has great short field capability and can land on grass strips too. From the underside, you get a good look at the wing planform that delivers this performance.

Chichester Miles Leopard

The late 80s and early 90s was a time when a lot of unusual planes were being developed and, much like the later time when VLJs were the trend and now with the EVTOL craze, most of them never made it past the test phase and in to service. One such plane was the Chichester Miles Leopard. I originally saw this plane at a Farnborough air show when it was displayed by their test pilot – a guy that also flew our Jetstream when I was on my Cranfield flight testing course as part of my degree.

Even at the time, I thought the thing looked ridiculous. It had this angular fuselage shape and was a tiny thing. The prototype was powered by a little turbojet by a company called Penny and Giles. I had never heard of them before, and I imagine the engine came from some sort of missile or other. Supposedly the plan was for it to be replaced by some (slightly) larger turbofan which would have improved performance, reduced fuel consumption and the noise! I don’t think that ever came about.

The Bournemouth Aviation Museum has an airframe on display. Looking at it closer up than I was able to at Farnborough showed just what a strange concept it was. I remember it looking spindly when I saw it previously but now it looks so fragile as to be hard to believe. The fuselage is stripped out, but it doesn’t look like it would have made for a comfortable ride. I will have to do some reading on how the testing went. All I can ponder when I see this is that someone thought it was worth spending a ton of their own money on. I wonder how those around them felt about it.

Still Don’t See Falcon 6Xs In the Air

BFI has had a bunch of Falcon 6X visits over time and I have seen them on more than one occasion. Yet again, I found one on the ramp, this time at Modern. However, I continued my duck when it came to actual flying shots. It stayed on the ramp while I was there. Sooner or later, I will catch one flying.

Look at the Wing on a Sovereign

I think I have posted previously about the wing on the Cessna Citation Sovereign. It is not a jet I particularly like the look of but I am amazed at the wing span of this thing. This example was on short final to SEA and I decided to shoot it head on and then from underneath as it passed overhead. It does show just how long that wingspan is. I don’t know whether the wing is that advanced but it is long!

More of the Vision in Nice Light

I did include a shot of this Vision from a nice afternoon at Boeing Field when the light was really nice. As I was including it in that post, I was looking at a number of the shots I took of it and thought it was one of the better times I had shot the Vision so it might be worth a post of its own. Hence this post. The head on view of the Vision is pretty good at a distance as the distinctive V-tail configuration is shown off well.

Add to that the nice colors that Visions are often painted in and the soft and warm light, you get some good results. I don’t know whether the Vision is a good jet to own but they do seem to have sold well and are pretty common at Boeing Field. I will miss them even though I did seem to struggle getting the right conditions for them. At least I had a good encounter before I left.

Lovely Light if Only for One Day

I think it is safe to say that we have had a pretty gloomy winter in the Puget Sound region. The grey and damp conditions have predominated, which shouldn’t come as a great surprise since the area is rather known for that sort of thing. However, there are occasional days when the sun has shown itself and they are all the more special when they arrive as a result of their rarity. Even better, I was able to spend some time at Boeing Field on one day when the sun appeared. It was later in the day which, of course, is beneficial from the point of view of getting the better light. The flow was southerly, which is not the best since it is only sky-based shots rather than something with a background but, in the middle of winter, beggars can’t be choosers. Whether it was a Boeing Max on test of a Cirrus Vision, they looked great in the soft winter light.

I Wish This Praetor Had the Thrive Livery

I have seen a couple of jets in the Thrive fleet and they have a really cool livery that they use for some of the planes. When most jets are rather blandly painted, a cool paint job is a great change. Thrive was bringing one of their Praetor 600s to Seattle and I was hoping that it might be in the company colors, despite previous pictures of it online being in something a little less cool. Sadly, they have not spent the funds on updating the look of the jet. The livery is not a bad looking one anyway but it would have looked better in the full paint job. Oh well…

Global 7500 Sketchy Takeoff

For the longest time, I struggled to photograph a Bombardier Global 7500. Over time I have seen a few of them but that initial drought makes me still feel as if it is something special when I catch one. They have sold really well and there are loads in service so they really aren’t something I should be so excited about but apparently my brain hasn’t worked that out yet. I was happy to get one at Boeing Field when it was taking off.

It taxied out and headed to the north end of the field for departure. I was not expecting a lot because they have good field performance and are likely to be well airborne before they get near where I was going to be standing. Sure enough, they did get off the ground quite quickly but, as they rotated, there was quite a roll that developed. Not sure whether it was a big gust or that they weren’t anticipating the crosswind, but I imagine it must have spilt a gin and tonic or two. They quickly recovered the situation and climbed out without any further problems, but I hope there wasn’t much clean up required onboard.

Bizjet Departures from Airside

I was kindly given some airside access when some F-15s were operating from Boeing Field for flyovers in the city. While the fast jets were our primary interest, they took off and landed in amongst some of the more familiar movements at the airport. Business jets are a constant part of Boeing Field ops and being so close to the runway made it easy to get some interesting shots of the bizjets. Fortunately, the amount of the runway that they needed coincided well with where we were for the F-15s. Here are some of the shots.