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.
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.
My last time shooting at SFO, I got
shots of a Virgin Atlantic 787 arriving.
Crossing shots are not unusual at SFO as the jets on approach will often
have departing jets in the background.
The Virgin jet had this. It also
had a second crossing shot a little earlier on the approach. A jet heading over the bay to pick up the
approach further down was directly behind the 787 just after it passed Coyote
Point.
On our day trip to Fir Island, one of
the first birds we came across was a heron that was standing in the water near
the parking lot catching lunch. I am
guessing that the fish in these waters were pretty small because he seemed to
catch a lot but always was after another.
Must have been bite sized portions!
With the water so calm, his reflection was very clear giving a nice
emphasis to the shape of the body.
The Boeing T-38 chase jets are
something I have not had much success in hunting down. I have got some shots but they were not in
great conditions. I did have another
chance recently when at Boeing Field but, guess what, the clouds rolled in at
just the wrong time. The T-38 flew nicely
down the approach and provided a great opportunity but the light was not really
playing ball. Still, at least I got some
shots, even if the colors are hardly popping.
There is a direct ferry from Port
Angeles to downtown Victoria operated by Black Ball Line. Their boat is an old ship called the
Coho. We have taken this route on a
previous visit but didn’t use it this time.
However, the regular arrival and departure of the Coho meant we saw it
frequently during our stay. The ship has
loading apertures on each side of the hull through which the cars can be
loaded. Otherwise it looks like a pretty
normal ship.
It wasn’t hard to know when they were
leaving as there would be a blast on the ship’s horn. This was followed by swinging the boat around
in the main harbor in order to be able to head out through the narrow passage
to the open sea. The Coho first entered
service in 1959 so is clearly not a new vessel.
I have no idea whether there is any plan to replace her or whether, with
regular refits, she will continue in service for years to come.
The current generation of wide body
jets are being built at rates that would have been hard to imagine a few years
ago. Fourteen jets a month is so much
more than would have been contemplated before.
That is the sort of build rate that the 787 and the A350 are
achieving. The result is a lot of jets
being in service not that long after the fleet first appeared. Boeing recently built the 787th
787. It was a jet for China Southern and
I got a shot of it returning to Everett.
I’m glad it was an Everett jet rather than a Charleston one. I wonder who got to make that decision!
