Tag Archives: airplane

A Better Perspective at BFI

Oh how good it is to know people that know people.  My friend, Annie, called to ask a favor.  In return, she would be able to get me on the tower at Boeing Field on the Sunday of Seafair.  Her friend, Reed, was king enough to allow me to tag along and the lift Annie needed hardly seemed that much of an effort when compared with getting to spend an afternoon on the tower walkways!  I have photographed at many locations around and on Boeing Field over the years but the tower just provides a better view of things.

The arrivals and departures of the performers are obviously the high points of being there but it is also great to get a different perspective on the airfield as a whole.  The stockpile of Boeing jets either in production flight test or stored awaiting a customer delivery is great to see from there.  Looking across the various ramps and hangar areas is also cool.  Even looking at the locations I might otherwise be occupying was fun.  Was I looking down on the other photographers?  Literally, yes.  Metaphorically, well probably yes too!!

I will post a variety of shots of specific performers in future entries but, in the meantime, here are some shots of a more general nature.  The team from the tower were very welcoming.  I spent quite a while chatting with the boss and hearing about the various things that they do.  I would love to go back and see the operations rather than just to photograph (although let’s not kid ourselves, photography from there is definitely welcome!).

Tango Really Does Like to Get Those Jetpipes Close

Those that have seen photos from the air show scene in 2024 may well have seen the spirited departure that the Royal Canadian Air Force Hornet demo includes.  The CF-188 gets pulled aggressively to the vertical and the speed of rotation is chosen carefully so that the engine nozzles get very close to the ground, but the airframe is already lifting and climbing so that no contact is made.  It makes for some cool shots.  At Abbotsford and Comox, I was nowhere close enough to get a good look at the moment of rotation, but Bremerton provided a better chance.  Rather far away so a bit hazy but still pretty cool.  Shame the special demo jet broke again, and we had the twin tub instead.

Erickson Makes the Bremerton Show Interesting

The Bremerton Air Show had some interesting displays, but the biggest contribution came from the Erickson Air Collection.  Aside from the Grumman Duck about which I have already posted, they brought a P-47 Thunderbolt, a P-40 Kittyhawk, a Bf-109 and an F4U Corsair.  The Corsair was for the Legacy Flight at the end of the show, but the others went up together for a sequence of passes.  Great to see these different planes out and about and congratulations to Erickson for having added so much to the show.

What Sensors Are Behind These Panels?

I was working through some shots of the 777X development aircraft as it landed at Boeing Field and I noticed a couple of the front windows were blanked out.  One was a conspicuous sensor of some sort but not far behind it is one blank that looks a lot more normal but also seems to have some sensor protruding from it.  No idea what they are sensing but I imagine it is important.

Shooting Deliberately Tight on Arriving Airliners

The arrival of the Starlux A350 has already appeared in a previous post.  I got there a little ahead of its scheduled approach and, since I was playing around with using my longer lens, I decided to try shooting some of the preceding arrivals with the same lens from head on to get some tighter compositions and see just what would work before the planes got chopped off by the limited field of view.  I had a variety of types coming in from the little E175s to 777Fs.  They gave me some things to work with and I quite like how some of them came out.  A bit of variety is good when the subjects are very repetitive.

Burning the Runway Surface

I got a sequence of shots of the F-35B as it was taking off for its display at Seafair.  I was a long way down the runway from it so the image quality is not all I would like but what caught my eye was the effect of the afterburner plume on the runway surface.  From shot to shot, there was either this red glow or nothing.  I was wondering whether it was a function of material on the runway like rubber that was burning in the efflux of the engine.  Interesting effect, whatever the reason.

Getting the Collection of GlobalX Liveries

GlobalX (also known as Global Crossing Airlines) seems to have a variety of ways in which it paints its airliners.  Not sure what the strategy is with the liveries.  Maybe they are used for different roles or clients or maybe they just can’t make up their minds.  Whatever it is, there are some interesting ways to brand the airline.  Here are the ones that I have seen so far.

After Many Years, I Finally See a Duck Fly

My aviation interests are varied but my favorites are modern and recent jet fighters if I am pushed.  However, vintage aircraft and warbirds are still pretty cool even if they are not something I know a huge amount about.  There will be occasions when such a type might be enough to get me out and about.  I was on the fence about going to the Bremerton Air Show but, when I heard that Erickson was bringing its Grumman J2F Duck to fly at the show, my interest was piqued.

I have seen a few of these amphibious planes in museum collections but I have never seen one airborne.  It is such a quirky looking airframe; I was really interested in getting some shot of it flying so that tipped me over the edge with regard to heading down to Bremerton National Airport for the show.  This is the sort of thing that then results in the plane going tech and me being disappointed.  However, that was not to be the case this time.

Mike Oliver flew the display in the Duck.  We were seated in a location close to where it was parked so got to watch it from start up to shut down.  No great aerobatic performances for a plane like this but the nice thing was that they got their whole collection airborne together and then everything else went off to hold while the Duck took center stage.  A few nice passes and then it came back into land.  The light could have been better, but it was still pretty good.  I finally have ticked it off.  I guess now I’ll see them everywhere!

I’ve Seen This Before

A while back, I was wandering around the Kenmore Air base at the top of Lake Washington.  I saw a camouflage painted Otter on the parking area and grabbed some quick shots.  More recently, it was operating on the lake with a new registration and Kenmore’s own markings.  I guess they have taken it on charge.  Not sure where it came from, why it is painted in this scheme and whether it was always the plan for it to be added to the Kenmore fleet but here it is!

Evening Raptor Demo at Last

The “at last” in this title is not that I haven’t seen an F-22 demo in the evening.  I saw one once at Chino and it was very cool.  This is more about the fact that the Raptor demos in recent years have not strayed far west very often.  They did a demo in Australia but only had one demo west of the Mississippi for one season.  However, Canada did attract the team, and Abbotsford provided a chance to see them for me.

The pilot for the demo for the last two years is a guy that was a regular attendee of air shows in the Midwest when I lived there.  I know some of his friends, but he was quite young then and I can’t claim to know him.  Even so, it is rather cool to see him have made it to his chosen airframe of the F-22 and then to become the demo pilot.  Only near the end of his second year did I finally see his routine and it was a good show.  I know he has used flares at a number of events, but warm dry weather probably has meant that the fire risk precluded that.  Even so, the evening light made for a great show.

Nicely done, Sam.  Excellent performance.  Hope you have enjoyed it for the last two years.