Tag Archives: cargo

Cargolux Turns on to the Approach

The joy of the 200-800 lens is the ability to get some really distant shots of something when a spontaneous opportunity presents itself. I was in Seattle at the locks in Ballard when I saw the familiar shape of a 747 approaching. Since passenger 747s are few and far between these days, I figured it would be a freighter and, sure enough, the Cargolux colours were on this example. It came close overhead as it headed for the approach path to SEA.

It was well beyond our location when it started to turn south on the approach but, courtesy of the long reach of this lens, I was able to get a decent shot of it as the topside came into view during the turn. It was a bit of a gloomy winter day, so the conditions weren’t ideal. However, no big heat haze issues to reduce image quality too much – although you aren’t getting great clarity at that range. How nice it is to see a 747 these days.

Caught Off Guard by an A340 Overhead

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A walk in the New Forest one weekend was a very pleasant way to spend a day. This was not supposed to be an aviation related time but, as we walked across some open grassland, I noticed something large and four engined coming towards us at pretty low level. It was clearly an Airbus A340-600. European Cargo picked up a few of these jets and is using them from the nearby Bournemouth Airport for freight runs to China. I don’t believe they are a full cargo conversion but instead load the cargo through the normal passenger doors.

I only had the 24-105 on the camera so was a little limited in what I could get. However, when I went to the Bournemouth Aviation Museum a week later, I could see a couple of their jets on the ground at the airport. One was being loaded for another flight while an all-white jet with a registration that might be Maltese, seemed to be stored. Another time, I did try getting a shot of one departing, but conditions were far from ideal, and the location is not great for photography, so things were a bit compromised. Even so, it is cool to see some A340s still in use aside from the Lufthansa examples that have been my only other recent examples.

Rainy Mad Dog Departure

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The MD-80 fleets rapidly disappeared from passenger service, but they did find a small secondary life as freighter conversions. The majority of freighter conversion activity has been around the 737 and more recently A320/321 families and the MD-80s have not been widespread. They seem to be popular with operators that already were using DC-9 freighters so maybe the transition is easier to manage. USA Jet is one that has picked up the type. When I saw one was at Paine Field, I figured I would try and catch it departing. Sadly, the conditions were far from ideal. It was a gloomy and rainy day but I went for it anyway. New there was little likelihood I would see one again.

Twisting the Clouds

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I posted some shots of the Ethiopian Cargo 777F in another post. What I didn’t include in that was the lovely effect as it came down the approach. There was some low-lying cloud to the south of the airport and, as it came through this, the trailing vortices twisted the cloud up beautifully. Stills down’s always show this as well as you would like so I did shoot some video to try and capture the effect.

Sunset Ethiopian Cargo Return

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Shortly before we left the Pacific Northwest, I made one of my final visits to Paine Field at the end of a day. Boeing was testing a 777F that was due to go to Ethiopian Cargo and the jet was due back at the end of the day shortly before sunset. I was hoping that I might get some stunning colours at that time of day but, by the time the jet came on to approach, the sun had slipped below the low cloud on the horizon.

Even so, the remaining light did provide some nice illumination on the jet as it was on short final and touching down. I was about to pack up and head home when I heard the sound of the engines coming back our way and, sure enough, they were taxiing back for a high-speed taxi and abort. There was a fair bit of moisture on the runway surface and, as they powered up, they were spraying clouds behind them. This time they were done and headed back to the ramp. I shall miss seeing the interesting variety of operators that you get from the factory.

Maersk Delivery Day

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The dire situation with Boeings 777X programme means that Boeing hasn’t delivered a passenger 777 for a very long time. The only jets getting delivered from the line are freighters. The good news about freighters is that you get some different operators to the norm. Maersk is a shipping company that has taken some 777Fs and, while I missed the first one that they took, I was able to catch the next one although only just. I was there on the day it was delivered. It was heading in a northerly direction which isn’t my preference for Paine Field departures but, because it was a delivery flight, you had the advantage of it being pretty heavy with a decent fuel load to take it home. That blue paint scheme is a cool one to catch. Maybe I will see one in service at some point.

A300s Are Now Quite Rare Here

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The holidays have been known to introduce some interesting freighters to Seattle as UPS buys in additional capacity. This year was a touch disappointing with only a little bought in help and nothing too unusual. However, it did mean UPS brought more of their own fleet into Boeing Field including A300-600Fs. These are not normally used on services to Seattle so they were a welcome addition. I don’t know what UPS’s plans are for the fleet but the A300 must be getting towards the later stage of its life. I know that UPS and FedEx have been struggling a little recently so maybe the jets will be used longer than I had anticipated but we shall see.

Gloomy Day for a National Arrival

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It was a wet and gloomy weekend morning up in Everett and so might not have been worth heading out. However, National Airlines was bringing a 747-400 into the Boeing facility and that was worth a trip. The plane emerged from the gloom as it came down the approach and, as it came across the threshold, the vortices could be seen streaming off the flaps. A grey jet on a gloomy day is always a tough one but I think this was definitely a result.

Let’s Experiment with Silly Shutter Speeds

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I have mentioned this in previous posts but the frame rate capabilities of my R3s have encouraged me to play around with some more aggressive settings. When something is a more important subject and not something I want to risk failing to get, I will be more cautious but there are plenty of other planes that I wouldn’t otherwise care about that provide a good subject to be a bit more ridiculous with. I was going down to 1/50^th of a second shutter speed. With this, I would go to the 30fps setting on the frame rate or even, occasionally, the 194fps setting just to see what might yield a sharp shot. The parallax issues are going to be an issue at this shutter speed but when you are directly abeam, you can get a good outcome. Here are some of the results from experimenting.

The Second Freighter Conversion Finally Arrives

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Alaska Air Cargo has been having a tricky time with its new freighters. These are conversions of some of its older 737-800s and will provide more capacity than the current 737-300BDSF fleet. I got the first of the jets not long after it arrived, but it then was out of service for ages. They have finally got it in regular use now but the delivery of the second aircraft was delayed while they sorted things out. It is now delivered and operating regularly, and I caught it climbing out of SEA one weekend. The second shot is the same airframe back when it was in passenger service a few years ago.