Tag Archives: 757-200

Grab It While You Can – Or Will I Be Wrong?

UW had some success with their football program this year which meant a few charter flights took place.  Some of the charters that they arranged were with New Pacific Airlines.  This is a relatively new airline that originally was going to be Northern Pacific until BNSF Railway, which owns that name, objected to their using it.  Their plan has been to operate transpacific flights via Anchorage in a similar model to that of Icelandair.  Things have got off to a slow start.  They are doing some domestic US flying but those routes have been erratic too.  The fleet is a pair (I think) of Boeing 757-200s so hardly cutting edge.  I think they might not last long.

Consequently, when their jet showed up at BFI, I figured I should definitely get photos since I might not get the chance again.  Winter conditions are not going to be the greatest, but I was able to get a few that I was pretty happy with.  I don’t wish the airline any harm at all, but they don’t seem to be giving off the vibe of a great success story.  Let’s hope the charters can fill in until they get something more solid going.

Veep Comes To Town

The Vice President made a visit to Seattle a while back.  Much of the discussion was about how the traffic downtown could be disrupted but the first thought that I had was that there would be jets visiting.  I was unable to see anything of the visit of Air Force One and the Marine Corps support when the president came to town but I was able to catch the Veep’s jet.  For this visit, Air Force Two was provided by a USAF C-32.  It arrived while I was elsewhere but I was able to catch it depart.

It was parked over near Modern Aviation and, when the motorcade arrived and delivered everybody, they were swiftly on their way.  The taxi route came out towards me and then direct on to the runway to backtrack.  Since a TFR was in effect, no one else was flying so no need to use the taxiway.  Just straight back down the runway, do a 180 and power away.  I think the 757 is a good looking jet and the C-32  certainly looks great.  They were off the ground swiftly and climbing away.

National Geographic/Icelandair 757

One weekend, I saw an early arrival of an Icelandair 757 was scheduled for Boeing Field.  The weather was not looking great but it was an unusual arrival and I didn’t have any competing things top do so I went across.  Icelandair has some charter aircraft and this one turned out to be one of those.  I have shot the Abercrombie and Kent jet before.  This is a high end tourist operation that takes people from exotic location to exotic location.  On this occasion, it was something similar.  This time the operation was National Geographic.  When I saw the plane, I was quite surprised but not so much that I could grab a few shots!

Icelandair 757 For Abercrombie & Kent

I got a notification of an Icelandair 757 coming to Boeing Field.  It was not one of the regular airline jets but one of their charter fleet.  It has winglets but not the scimitars that their mainline jets have.  Indeed, it isn’t even painted in their colors.  Still, as something unusual and having the time to go to get it, I figured why not?  When it came down the approach, I could see that it was carrying some markings.  It was labeled Abercrombie & Kent.  That is a travel company that focuses on higher end trips.  I guess it is being used to provide transportation for some of these premium vacations.  I hope it is a bit more interesting on the inside than it is outside!

Honeywell Testbed and a Very Rainy Day

Over six months ago, the Honeywell Boeing 757 testbed ferried from Phoenix – its home base – to Paine Field for maintenance work at ATS. I don’t know whether there were mods to be done too but, with a jet like this, that wouldn’t seem to be a stretch.  I only found out it was there when I saw it outside the ATS hangars one time.  I figured this was one to watch since it would have to go home at some point.

Whether there was a ton to be done or whether COVID delayed progress, I don’t know.  However, it stayed at ATS for a long time.  I had an alert on it should a flight plan be filed but nothing happened.  I talked to other people up there and we all wondered when it would move.  Then, finally a flight plan was filed for a flight coming back to Paine Field.  This was good news since it would mean taxi shots, departure and arrival.  I headed up.  First flight after a long layup is not likely to go smoothly and the time for departure kept slipping and slipping.  Eventually, later in the day, the flight disappeared off FlightAware.

A few days later, up it popped online again.  Unfortunately, this time it was a flight direct to Phoenix so redelivery.  That was unfortunate.  So was the fact that we were experiencing some torrential rains.  However, this is a rare one so I headed up.  As per the last time, the departure time slipped a bit but then it pulled on to the taxiway heading for the runway.  Amazingly, the rain had abated and it looked very promising.  I got out of the car and walked to the bank to get some shots.  At some point, I began to feel some rain drops.  Then I felt what seemed to be the stream from a fire hose.  The rain came pummeling down and I was instantly soaked.  At this point, I was wet so no point heading back to the car.

When they got to the hold point, they stayed around for a while.  Then someone came to the door on our side and opened it.  I imagine they were getting pretty wet doing this since I was.  As it sat there at low power, it was still pulling a vortex into the inlet of one of the engines.  Maybe there was a door open warning but they closed it again and then pulled towards the active runway.  The plane is covered in graphics pointing at parts of the airframe that have Honeywell technology installed.  Its most distinguishing feature, though, is the pylon mounted on the side of the front fuselage on which turboprop engines can be mounted for airborne testing.  No engines are there at the moment but the pylon itself is pretty substantial.  Coming towards us and then lining up, we had the pylon on our. Side.  They powered up and disappeared in to the gloom as they climbed out heading home to Phoenix.

Air to Air With United Jets – Or Is It?

When putting together some images for a group online that I am involved with, a dug out a couple of shots of jets departing O’Hare I shot years back.  When coming off 22L, some of the jets make an early turn to the south and you can get a view of them that is either quite level with the wing line or slightly above.  When shooting them, they are climbing so it is obvious what you were shooting.  However, as I looked at these shots, it occurred to me that they looked a lot like an air to air position except the angles were wrong because of the climb.  Since I had shot quite tightly, re-cropping the shot required some Photoshop work.

Taking the image out of Lightroom and in to Photoshop, I selected the crop tool and rotated the image to be the sort of angle that an air to air shot might be.  Doing this crops off the nose and tail of the jet.  However, one feature of the crop tool in Photoshop is that, if you then drag the edges of the tool back out, you can expand the canvas size.  You now have the whole plane in shot but have added some white space in each corner where no image previously existed.

It is a simple task to then use Content Aware Fill to add sky back in to these areas.  The result is a shot that looks almost as if you had been flying in formation at altitude.  Would you have spotted it?  Having done it with an A320, I then had a go with a 757.  The light angle makes it look a bit like we are flying along towards a setting sun.  I was rather pleased with the trick.

Aer Lingus 757 at Newark

In the UK, I have seen plenty of Aer Lingus A320 family jets.  In the Midwest and on the west coast I have seen their A330s a lot too.  One type of theirs that I have not seen before is the 757.  These seem to be used for the shorter transatlantic runs.  While taxiing out at Newark for a flight back to Seattle, a Shamrock 757 taxied out too and departed ahead of us.  I have to admit I was quite surprised.  I guess I knew they had 757s but this was the first one I had seen.

FedEx Canadian Style

I saw something at Vancouver that I hadn’t seen before and that was a FedEx jet that was not registered in the US.  I had assumed that all of their fleet was N registered but, apparently, that is not the case.  A number of the jets are on the Canadian register and the 757 that departed while I was there was one of them.  My first commercial flight was on a 757 with British Airways and many of those jets ended up with FedEx.  I don’t know the origin of this example but it was good to see it still providing good service.

Has the Catfish Escaped Me? NO!

The first Boeing 757 built was kept by Boeing as a test aircraft and never went to an airline.  When Boeing became a partner in the F-22 Raptor program, a new use was found for the aircraft.  It was fitted out as a flying testbed for the avionics suite.  A test crew could ride in the cabin and they could try out a number of different configurations of software changing things as they go without having to have the software flight qualified.

To make the whole ensemble work appropriately, the aircraft was fitted with F-22 sensors.  This included a radome on the aircraft nose with the F-22’s radar.  In addition, because a number of sensors were embedded in the wings, a wing structure was added about the cockpit.  This unusual configuration resulted in the aircraft gaining the nickname “Catfish”.  It flew a lot during the development program but I only ever saw it on the ground at Boeing Field and then it was partially obscured.  I did also look down on it from an airliner approaching SeaTac.

I knew it didn’t fly often but I hoped that, in moving to the area, I would finally get to see it airborne.  Then I discovered that it had flown to St Louis.  The rumor was that it had been retired.  Indeed, on a flight across the country involving a plane change in St Louis, I did see it parked up in an open-ended hangar.  I figured that might be as close as I got.  Then I got a notification that it was heading west again.  Better yet, it wasn’t going direct to Boeing Field but to Everett first.  It is a short drive from the office to Everett and the flight plan meant it was coming in during lunch.

The harsh lunchtime light and the prospect of heat haze notwithstanding, I figured this was too good a chance to miss.  It showed up pretty much when expected so I was able to get some shots of it coming down the approach and across the threshold.  The heat haze was really bad as it was over the runway but actually slightly less of an issue further out.  I don’t care.  I finally got to see it fly and that is what I was after.  It headed back to St Louis from Boeing Field the following day.  I have no idea when it left Everett for Boeing Field though.  If it comes back again and I can see it, that will be a bonus.

Why Travel North if the Aurora Comes to You?

Icelandair painted one of their 757s in a scheme that portrays the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights.  It is named Hekla Aurora.  It was painted a long time ago but, since they didn’t operate anywhere I lived, I hadn’t got to see it.  Then I had my first sighting when landing at SeaTac when it was parked across the ramp as we taxied in.  I certainly didn’t get a shot of it.  Moving to Seattle meant I would have a chance to see it in action but that was dependent on it operating here on a day when I could actually be there.  Turns out my luck was in – and it was sunny!  (In fact it had been a crummy day but I had a feeling it would clear up and, while it was raining as I drove down, the sun came out on cue.  Hurrah!)