Tag Archives: 767-300f

Air Tanzania Cargo 767F At Last

Air Tanzania Cargo placed an order for a 767-300F and it recently came off the line at Everett.  I saw various shots of it from local photographers, but it never flew when I was able to shoot it – i.e., when I wasn’t at work.  When I did get up to Paine Field, it had been parked off at the back of the ramp and didn’t look like it was going anywhere soon.  Then, I saw that it had become active again.  I figured that meant it would be delivered soon.  Fortunately, one of the flights was during an afternoon and it was due back late in the day – after work!  I was able to get up to Paine Field after leaving the office and be there for the return.  Just as well I did as it got delivered shortly afterwards.

Fill Of FedEx Freighters

Portland is a big base for FedEx it seems.  (I think, at this point, I should called it FedEx Express but, since I am old enough to remember when they were called Federal Express, having Federal Express Express seems a bit redundant.  I know, I am grumpy old git!  Back on topic…) They had a ton of movements when Mark and I were there.  On our first day, it was the afternoon and the southern runway was not ideal for photography given the light angles.  Still, it was not terrible and the freighters provide a fair bit of variety.

The following morning, the light was move favorable for a while so we were able to get plenty of shots.  The freighter traffic is usually busy at the beginning and end of the day for the express parcel business so we had enough to shoot.  The big jets were operating with plenty of 767s on the move.  They also had the feeder services with a steady stream of Super Cargomasters (Grand Caravans) and ATR72s to handle the local distribution.  Good to take advantage of them before the replacement for the Cargomasters arrives.

UPS But Not The Best One

The shot you didn’t get.  How many of those do we have.  It’s easy to get blasé about something and decide not to bother.  Of course, many times, this will be just fine, otherwise we wouldn’t be blasé in the first place.  A couple of UPS jets had arrived.  One was an MD-11 and one was a 767.  A second 767 was on approach and I figured why bother.  As it touched down abreast my location, something looked decidedly odd about the radome.

I talked to Nick, who had been next to me and had photographed it and asked him to take a look at his shots.  Sure enough, the radome was a complete mess.  Presumably a bird strike had smashed it during the flight although whether it was early on or during the approach we couldn’t know.  It was quite the scene of destruction and I didn’t get a photo of it.  99 times out of a 100, it wouldn’t have been anything but this time…  Oh well.

The Latest FedEx 767 On Test

I wasn’t close to the FedEx 767 as it came in and shot a missed approach but the low sun angle on the underside of the jet looked quite nice.  The crew flew a tight pattern back to make their approach and landing.  They did run reasonably long so I got to see them as they turned off the head back to the ramp.  They were going to take an earlier exit but something was in the way so I got a bit lucky.

Tampa Prime Freighters

I had a short wait at Tampa for a flight home after a work trip.  The gate I was waiting at did not have a lot of traffic nearby.  Indeed, judging by the total lack of lines at security, maybe none of the gates at Tampa have a lot of traffic!  The view from our gate was towards a cargo ramp and there were two 767 freighters loading up.  They both finished loading and taxied off while I was there.  One was in Amazon Prime colors but the other was unmarked.  However, a quick search tells me it is also a Prime jet but I guess they haven’t got around to painting it yet.

Another FedEx Test Flight

Our visit to the Boeing Factory Tour at Everett with our visitors not only included the escapees from the hurricane that I covered here but also included the ongoing production test flying activities.  The 767 line is only producing freighters and tankers these days and the majority of the freighters have been going to FedEx.  This one undertook a test flight while we were there.  We saw it head out and, when it returned, it flew a missed approach before landing.