When on the ramp at a modern air base, you might not expect to come across a pair of aging turboprop twins. However, on Brize Norton’s ramp, I saw a pair of Shorts Skyvans. They belong to a company called Summit from Canada. I assume they are being used for parachute jump platforms but don’t know for sure. Quite a surprise to see them there.
As I may have already written, our return journey from Barcelona was undertaken with plenty of contingency in getting to the flight. Consequently, we had a bit of time to kill waiting for the gate to board our flight. What is a guy to do while waiting at an airport? I guess I will have to just look out of the window. The taxi route from the terminal on the north side of the airport to the southerly departure runway took everything passed us.
Not a lot of variety of angles but a variety of airlines. I think this is the first time I have seen Air Baltic with its A220s. Westjet is not a novelty with a 787-9 having seen plenty and ridden on at least one but seeing them in Spain was new. Transavia planes used to make it to the US when Sun Country would lease them, but I don’t think I have seen them operating for themselves. Add to that Egyptair, Wizzair, Air Arabia and I got some interesting variety.
One weekend afternoon I was photographing at Heathrow watching the inbound airlines. I heard a bit of noise from above and looked up to see what it might be. It was an Islander passing overhead the airport at some altitude. I grabbed a few shots at significant distance. A bit of research suggests this airframe is used for a variety of surveillance missions of a more formal nature. I wonder if they got anything of me while I was photographing them?
If you have read the posts on this blog diligently – and surely you have – you will know that I am both interested the Honda HA420 HondaJet and that I seem to attract clouds whenever one is nearby. However, apparently, I am not a total cloud magnet. I did have one show up at Boeing Field on a sunny day. In fact, rather harsh sun which made getting a shot I was happy with a touch more difficult. However, it is true that I can see one when clouds aren’t around!
I have always been a fan of the liveries that Royal Jordanian Airlines adopts for its planes. They provide a welcome change from the variations on white that most airlines use. While at Barcelona, this Airbus landed from Amman. The livery looks great but is a bit disrupted by the radome that has been swapped off a jet that has a different generation of the paint. I wonder whether it will get swapped again or repainted at some point.
The airlines have adopted the practice of writing their name on the underside of their planes. I am not sure if it was Emirates that started it but that was who I first noticed doing it and now others have followed suit. I haven’t seen the type written on the underside of the plane before, though. This bizjet flew over home on approach to Southampton. I can safely say I would have known what it was but apparently the owner wants to make sure no one is in any doubt about what type they are operating.
On our return trip from Barcelona, we gave ourselves plenty of time for the flight back given that there was a lot of discussion about the immigration delays. Things worked out pretty well, so we were through to the gate in plenty of time. What a tragedy that I have extra time at an airport!! Level is a low-cost operation that IAG owns. It was originally set up using Iberia aircraft and crews before it got its own AOC. Now it is a standalone operation.
There were a few Level A330s in view at our part of the terminal. Some were undergoing maintenance before their next flights while others were loading up and departing. I got a variety of shots of them as I walked through the concourse and one of them departed for Los Angeles while we waited to board. While most departures were going off the southerly runway which was the opposite side to us, the long-haul flights that needed longer runways came from the northerly runway which meant we got to see them.
I had a short work trip to Scotland that involved a flight from Heathrow early one morning. The morning light was pretty good, and my gate was at the north end of Terminal 5 so I got to see a few of the arrivals while waiting to board. The Air India A350 was a nice catch but I got a variety of other arrivals. Aside from the regular British Airways short haul types, I did get and A380.
Add to that, there was an Air France A220 and a KLM A321neo. United also had an arrival. Shooting through the windows is not ideal and I was using the M6 which is really a step down from the R3 but has the advantage of slipping into my work bag easily so earns its place. I would really like to find something modern that has a similar form factor but is as responsive as current cameras. Sure, I really need another camera!
Something brought me to some shots of a jet now sadly gone. The MRJ has shown up on the blog in the past. I saw one at Paine Field which showed up here. That wasn’t my first encounter with the Mitsubishi developed aircraft, though. While they were built in Japan, flight testing was undertaken at Moses Lake in Washington. Ferrying the jets across the Pacific meant choosing the route and one of the jets was routed from Hawaii to California. It landed at San Jose and, since I was living in the Bay Area in those days, I went to see it arrive.
San Jose has pretty reliably good weather and the conditions were about as good as you could hope. The light can be a bit harsh, but it wasn’t too bad. The arrival gave a good chance to get a shot. The stop was not a long one. Clear customs and refuel and then they were on their way north to Washington. Departure shots at San Jose are a little limited. The spot I had was a bit far down from the point the planes get airborne so they can be quite high by the time you get a good look, or the heat haze is bad when the angle is better. Still, I did get some shots that are okay.
I recently saw this Dornier 228 which was carrying markings indicating it is used by the RAF’s parachute display team – The Falcons. I hadn’t seen the plane before, so it caught my eye. What left me a bit confused was its registration. It is on the Canadian registry. I have no idea why the RAF would need to use a Canadian registered plane. If anyone knows, please share the reasoning.
