Tag Archives: Boeing

UPS Movements

Boeing Field is a busy location for UPS. FedEx run their Seattle operations from SeaTac but UPS has made King County their location of choice. You get a busy period in the evening with arrivals and departures in a pretty narrow window. Provided there is evening light, you can get a lot of movements.

I have shot a bunch of their jets over the course of various visits. Usually I get them arriving and departing from the same location. I did get some familiar shots this time but I also decided to head to the other end of the field and shoot the departure head on. They do get airborne pretty quickly and climb quite fast so they rotate a long way off and are well above you by the time they cross the fence. Not ideal but still a bit of variety for me.

KLM 747

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I have posted a bit in the past on disappearing types and, in particular, the reductions in the number of 747s in service with airlines these days. Of course, there are still a number of carriers that are making use of the 747 and United is one that has a substantial number still in service. Operating from SFO, I see a lot of them if I am there. British Airways and Virgin Atlantic also come into SFO. However, I was pleasantly surprised recently to see KLM bringing an example in to the airport. They have seasonal variation with their types. The MD-11s have given way to the A330s during the winter months but the summer still has sufficient demand to require the capacity of the 747. I imagine they will soon be making way for the A330s but, hopefully, next summer will mean they are back on the route. KLM are one of the few airlines that bucks the trend to boring color schemes so there are doubly welcome!

Sneak Pass

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I have seen a large number of displays by the Blue Angels over the years. Their display is a good one generally (although the ground portion is a little time consuming in my opinion). The sequence does not vary much from year to year but it works well enough so that is probably no big surprise. One of the fun parts is the sneak passes. The four ship head off in one direction to distract you and a solo jet streaks in from the left at low level and high speed. This catches a lot of people by surprise.

Just as everyone is getting over this, the other solo jet does something similar from crowd rear to make you all jump again. The displays that are held over water provide an added option for the first sneak pass. With no obstacles, the aircraft can end up very close to the water. This makes things look even more impressive. Also, the high speeds can result in some impressive vapor formations in the shock waves.

The Fleet Week display on the Friday had great weather conditions but, surprisingly for the Bay Area, the humidity levels were not terribly high. Consequently, while the sneak pass had its usual surprise impact, it did not result in any vapor on the jet. The upside of this was that the optical distortion caused by the shock waves was visible in some shots when a reasonable amount of background was included. Not what I was aiming for but not a bad alternative.

DHL Freighters

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DHL planes are hard to miss. The bright yellow livery they carry is not one that you are going to miss easily. They may not have the wide reach of FedEx or UPS in the US but Boeing Field is a regular stop for them. The 767 is one of their staples, much as it is for all express carriers. They also make use of the 757 which pleases me given my fondness for the first airliner I ever flew on.

Evening light is the best for getting a DHL jet since the yellow positively glows when the low sun gets on it. I had a bit of traffic during this visit and these are the jets I saw.

Air Force One

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I have had a pretty poor run of luck when it comes to Air Force One. I have seen it overflying in the distance, I have seen the VC-25 on the ramp at Davis Monthan but was thirty seconds from being parked when it took off and I had a failed effort to get it at SFO which I mentioned in this previous post. It was back in San Francisco recently and I decided I was going to have another go.

I tracked the TFR online and, this time, it didn’t change. I, therefore, got to SFO with plenty of time before the departure. The weather was not fantastic but there was generally a clear spot over the airport so I was a little optimistic. As the intended time for departure approached, the cloud rolled in. Of course it did! Nothing I could do about that. Meanwhile, departures off 01 had stopped (I am not sure whether that was related to the Fleet Week air show or not) and a bunch of planes were lined up to depart from 28. Then they all stopped.

I assume the President had come by road as there was no helicopter activity other than a police chopper over the highway. The beacons were on as I heard the sound of a jet going around. It briefly appeared through a gap in the clouds and was a United 737. I guess they had just timed it wrong. I have no idea whether they held or diverted. Suddenly the VC-25 was rolling. It taxied rapidly along the northern taxiway by 28R with a couple of Secret Service vehicles following close behind. Without a pause it turned onto 28R past the waiting airliners and powered away. The Secret Service chased it for a while down the runway but it was airborne pretty swiftly. I guess it was lightly loaded. A few minutes later everything started moving again. Another ten minutes and the sun was out. Typical!

Preserved American Airlines 727

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The Museum of Flight in Seattle is currently in the process of building a new facility. While the work is underway, a number of airframes have been moved from their previous location to alternative spots until they can be moved to their new home. Most of them are still near the museum itself. However, the 727 seems to have drawn the short straw and it was parked up on Clay Lacy’s FBO ramp while I was visiting. It was near Joe Clark’s Learjet as well. Some cool stuff to look at for any visiting jets at the FBO!

Is That a Crosswind?

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Unless you are on the center-line of the approach, you rarely get to see the aircraft directly head on. If there is a crosswind from your direction, though, you can get the planes pointing straight at you for a while. Sadly, this usually is while they are further out on the approach. If you are closer to the runway then you can get a shot that is more interesting because there is some ground to provide context to the angle of the plane. With a strong enough crosswind, you can get a head on shot until close to touchdown.

There is a location that I shot at once that is no longer available. It provided a good opportunity to get shots on a strong crosswind day. A Cathay Pacific 777-300ER demonstrates what I mean. A long airliner like a 777 emphasizes the effect even better when it swings around just before touchdown. The photos don’t demonstrate that as well as a video would but it did look cool. It wasn’t the only one either!

What is Happening on This 767?

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Every once in a while you see something and you have no idea what is going on. As a United 767 climbed out from O’Hare, it was streaming something from the fuselage. I saw it through the viewfinder at the time and figured it would be obvious what it was when I looked at the pictures. It turns out I still don’t know what was happening. Anyone reading this that has any ideas, please let me know what you think.

Nextant 400XT

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The smaller end of the corporate jet market has taken a pounding in recent years. The downturn in the economy hit that part of the market particularly hard. One company that has been doing well, though, is Nextant. Their first product is the rebuilding of the Hawker 400 jet. They re-engine it, upgrade the cockpit and completely rebuild the interior. The result is the 400XT. This example showed up at Boeing Field while I was there. It looked pretty nice in its new paint scheme. I was never terribly bothered by the Hawker 400 (or Beechjet or Mitsubishi jet if you go back a while) and the shape isn’t much changed. However, the paint job on this one made it look better than average. Nextant are now working on a King Air rebuild program.

I Guess Humid Days Are Useful

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If you want to get some nice vapor from an aircraft, start with a good, humid day. The hours after a storm are perfect since there is plenty of moisture in the air and the ground is wet meaning it will keep feeding the moisture for a while. Now you just need a big jet to climb out at high power settings. Enter an ANA 777-300ER stage left.

The engines were filling with inlet vapor as the beast hauled itself into the sky and the tip vortices were also doing their bit to pull the water from the air. The fact is was late afternoon so the sun was in a good position too meant that the combination was pretty ideal. We got a few like this for a while but eventually the humidity levels dropped and things returned to normal. Still, it was good for a while and there were other benefits to come.