Tag Archives: california

Lyon Air Museum

A weekend in Southern California for work was not my idea of fun but I did have a few hours free on the Sunday morning so I headed down to Santa Anna to the Lyon Air Museum. It is located on the opposite side of John Wayne Airport from the main terminal building and is not terribly obvious unless you look hard. Even the entrance road is a bit obscure and could be easily missed. However, once there, it was definitely worth the time.

The museum is in a modern structure and has an impressive collection. Supposedly the planes are all airworthy and they have some interesting ones there. Some of the collection will get their own posts. For now, here is an overlook of the museum and a few of the side exhibits that don’t get their own story.

Etihad 777-200LR in its Last Days

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When Boeing developed its updates to the base versions of the 777, it came up with the higher capacity long range 300ER and a lower capacity but ultra long range version, the 200LR. The 300ER sold very well but the 200LR was more of a niche product and, while it sold, it never went in the same numbers as its larger sibling. Etihad was one of the customers but they have now decided they have no further use for the type and it is being retired. I was glad to catch one at LAX in the days running up to their retirement.

Ice Emphasis to Structure of the A330

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An Aeroflot Airbus A330 landed at LAX while I was shooting there. On plenty of occasions, I have seen ice on the underside of the wings of landing aircraft where the cold fuel remaining in the tanks has caused condensation and freezing in the warmer damp air lower down. However, I haven’t ever noticed it on the fuselage structure. On this jet, though, I could see ice on the surface and the patterns of ice reflected the underlying fuselage structure. Maybe this is there more often and it was just the paint finish that made it show up this time.

Gull Wing Mercedes

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Here is one for those of you that know your vintage cars. How much is a Gull Wing Mercedes worth? This one is kept in the Lyon Air Museum in California. It seems to be in great condition and I assume it is worth quite a bit but I have no idea how much. It was tucked in amongst lots of valuable aircraft so is not the most expensive thing on display. Since the planes are generally airworthy, I would guess this is a runner too.

Smoking the Nosewheel of the A380

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Touchdown of an airliner almost always results in a big cloud of smoke as the rubber burns off the tires when they spin up to speed after first contacting the runway. Lots of tires can mean even more smoke and the 20 main tires on an A380 should mean a lot of smoke. Less often noticed is that the same thing happens when the nose gear touches down. As I shot this A380 landing at LAX, I happened to catch the smoke from the nose gear as it hit the ground.

Clouds Over the Valley

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My trip to Rainbow Canyon gave me plenty of time to enjoy the scenery as the jets only showed up infrequently. It was a cool and clear day on the whole but there were some times when clouds moved in. This caused me some concern since I didn’t want to wait for a long time and then have jets show up when the valley was socked in!

Fortunately, the clouds did not get in the way of the main focus of the trip. We did get some clouds drifting over the valley far below us. We also got little puffs of cloud working their way up the canyon. One bank of cloud rose out of the canyon and across the ridge on the opposite side from me. I watched it drift across the surface gradually obscuring areas that had been clear a moment before.

Another small cloud formation drifted up the canyon towards me. It was an isolated little cloud and it drifted in my direction and floated up over the edge of the ridge and to one side of where I was standing before it dissipated. Then it was all clear again and I could go back to waiting for the jets.

El Al 777 Overwing Vortex on Takeoff

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Engine nacelles are optimized for cruise performance. At high angles of attack, their shape results in some rather awkward flow properties which can influence the wing performance above and behind them. In order to control things, you will see small vanes attached to one or both sides of the nacelle that generate a vortex that stabilizes the flow somewhat. As an aircraft rotates at takeoff, the strength of this vortex increases and it will often become visible as moisture in the air condenses within in. This vortex will stream back up and over the leading edge of the wing.

When you are inside the aircraft, this is pretty easy to see provided the conditions are right. From head on or aft they are also quite conspicuous. It isn’t often that you get a good view from above. When I was flying over LAX in the helicopter, the aircraft departing from the north complex had better light on them. However, the runways are offset so the rotation point is further west and beyond the area in which we are allowed to fly. However, you can get a view from above and behind as the jets get airborne. An El Al 777 took off while I was up and I managed to get some shots of it as it rotated and climbed away and the vortices were clear to see as the angle of attack increased.

Gulfstream from Above

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Getting the airliners coming in to LAX was what I was aiming for but I was pleased to get a bizjet bonus. A Gulfstream made an approach to the northerly runway complex. This was a surprise to me as the facilities for corporate aviation are on the south side of the airport so an approach over there would seem to have made more sense. As with some other arrivals, I wasn’t complaining. An aerial shot of a Gulfstream was very welcome.

NASA’s DC-8 Is Watching Me

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While hanging out at Rainbow Canyon awaiting the next jet, someone was flying high above. They were pulling a contrail at their altitude so you had a really good idea of their flightpath. They were flying regular extended orbits above us. The racetracks they left in the sky made it all pretty simple. A look at an ADS-B tracker told me that this wasn’t a tanker waiting for trade. It was NASA’s DC-8. This is a rare beast indeed and, while still a long way off, I was glad to get a shot of some sort of it.

Lufthansa A340 and His Buddy

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Heading back to Hawthorne after my flight over LAX, another plane was coming in to the southern complex. I had forgotten it was due and, after moving to the south of the field, we could have got a good shot of it landing. Never mind. This Lufthansa A340-600 beat me but I was able to get a shot of him from a distance as we headed in and, since there was a parallel approach on the northside, I got his little cousin in the shot too.