Tag Archives: 777

Air France Tries Everything At SEA

Airlines seem to be consolidating their fleets these days with less and less types showing up.  I am sure that this is true for Air France too but, recent experience at SEA feels like the opposite.  We seem to have been the destination for a lot of the Air France long haul fleet.  We have had 777s coming in here for a while.  I imagine that they will be the ones we won’t see much of again but you should never bet on that.  The 777-300ERs are likely to be around for a while, even if the -200ERs go away.

Then we have had the A330s and the A350s.  I like the look of the A350 so was pleased to see them bringing that on this route.  I had wrongly assumed that, with the A350 being deployed here, that was going to be a regular feature.  Instead, we have now got 787s coming in.  I was north of the airport when I got to shoot a 787-9 lining up for approach.  When I have looked more recently, that is the jet showing on the schedule.  Who knows what we will get next?  I am pretty certain it won’t be the A380!

Hail Damaged Radome?

This 777 pulled onto the gate in front of my while I was at Haneda.  The radome seems to have taken a bit of punishment.  It looks a bit like some of those shots you see of jets that have gone through a hail storm.  I don’t know whether that is the case for this one and it has, no doubt, been checked and found to be airworthy but it certainly looked out of keeping.

Zoomify the Boeing Flightline


Everett is a busy production facility.  787s are being built at a fair rate while 777 production continues, albeit at a reducing pace.  There are some 747s and 767s coming out as well.  The flightline for their testing is consequently rather full.  I figured a panorama was a good idea but they are hard to put on the blog without making them too small.  Time for zoomify again.  You can pan around and zoom in to see what was on the line this day.

Centurion Freighter

 

wpid13522-AU0E0213.jpgI was in the vicinity of SeaTac when I saw on Flightaware that a freighter operated by Centurion Cargo was inbound.  This was not an operator I had seen much of and, since I had a few minutes before I was heading to my next appointment, i thought I would try to catch it.  Getting arrivals at SeaTac in the afternoon when they are coming from the north restricts the options for shooting.  however, there was a place I had been before for departures that I thought I would try.

wpid13528-AU0E0175.jpgI got there with a few minutes to spare so was able to get an idea of what was possible with some other arrivals.  The location was not ideal with a lot of trees in the vicinity which, even though it was winter, tended to obscure things a bit.  There was a view through the trees up the approach and then along a road as they passed by.  Neither was very good.  I got a British Airways 777 which gave me a clue as to where the Centurion jet would appear and how much free space there would be.  Not much as it turned out.  However, I did get a brief view which will have to do for now.

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