Tag Archives: civil

Thai Delivery

Before the time changed, it was possible to get some evening departures from Everett in nice light after work. I saw that a delivery flight was scheduled for a Thai 787 and a Dreamlifter was due out shortly afterwards. I figured this was a good one to go for. The Thai delivery actually slipped a bit from its scheduled time and I was more than happy for it to do so as the light was getting better and better. By the time the jet started rolling, the light couldn’t have been nicer. It was also a heavy jet and rotated not far from me so I got a great angle on the takeoff and, as it climbed away, the purple in the livery seemed to glow.

Bye Bye United 747s

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The disappearance of passenger 747s from service continues. Today is the last day for the United 747 fleet. I do not have anything of their earlier versions of the jet but I have seen the 747-400s in service a lot and have flown on them a couple of times too. I won’t be doing so again. A flight from San Francisco to Honolulu will repeat the first service and was sold out a long time ago. The planes have been heading to the storage yards in recent weeks and after today, there is one more to make the trip. Now the 777s and 787s will be responsible for the long-haul services.

Off to Warsaw

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If you buy a car, you go to the dealer to pick it up. If you buy an airliner, there might not be a dealer but you will still go to pick it up. After the production test flights have been completed, the customer gets to carry out their own test flights. If all squawks have been dealt with, time to pay and take the “keys”. Then a crew from the airline will fly the plane to their home base. This 787 had been handed over to LOT and the crew were flying it back to Warsaw. Delivery flights are often obvious from the takeoff roll. Fueled up for a long trip, they use a bit more of the runway than the test flights do. In a short while, this jet will be busy plying the LOT route structure.

Sunset BA Arrival

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My friend, Mark, suggested we head to the north side of Vancouver for a couple of the heavy arrivals. The light was not on the right side for shooting there but you can get a good angle on the arriving jets and, rather than fight the light, you can embrace it. The sun is behind the planes and on the other side so it is very backlit. It is the end of the day, though, so the sky does look nice.

The British Airways A380 was on the approach when we got there so a quick run from the car got us in place. The A380 is large enough that you often think you need to hurry more than you actually do because it appears closer in. Let the heart rate settle a little and be ready to get some shots. With the backlighting, it looked pretty impressive. Once it was off the runway, it did need to taxi back to the terminal so that brought it into some better light.

HeliJet S-76s in Two Locations

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The Sikorsky S-76 is not a new design any more although it does continue to be upgraded. When I first saw the type in the 80s, I was taken with the elegance of the airframe and also the size of it. It can carry a substantial number of people. This is the reason the HeliJet chose it to operate their service from the waterfront in Vancouver to Victoria I imagine. I have seen them in service a number of times but I have never gone down to their heliport by the water to try and shoot them.

While I was at Brockton Point, a couple of their departures and arrivals came by. These were a bit far away but still worthy of a shot. This wasn’t my only chance though. When we were at Vancouver International, one of the S-76s arrived at the HeliJet facility there. It flew low and slow past where I was standing so I was able to grab a few extra shots of these sleek type. I would love to take a ride in one sometime to see whether it is as smooth as it looks.

BA 747 Formation with a Cessna?

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The path of jets into SeaTac from the north takes them right over Boeing Field. Sometimes, when you are watching something on one path, something going into the other field gets in your field of view. Either that or a British Airways Boeing 747-400 decided to sneak up on a Cessna. Knowing some guys who fly for them, I wouldn’t rule it out.

FedEx Canadian Style

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I saw something at Vancouver that I hadn’t seen before and that was a FedEx jet that was not registered in the US. I had assumed that all of their fleet was N registered but, apparently, that is not the case. A number of the jets are on the Canadian register and the 757 that departed while I was there was one of them. My first commercial flight was on a 757 with British Airways and many of those jets ended up with FedEx. I don’t know the origin of this example but it was good to see it still providing good service.

Anyone Know a Paint Shop Around Here?

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Portland International is home to a paint facility owned by Boeing and operated under contract to them. It provides additional paint capacity for their jets assembled up in the Seattle area. One of the jets landed at Portland while I was there for the ANG open house. It was a 777 freighter. It landed on the runway closest to us and turned on to the taxiway just in front of where we were standing. It then taxied back to the opposite end of the field where the paint facility is located. The only clue as to what airline it was destined for was the rudder which had a small element of the future colors. My guess is Qatar but I’m sure someone can put me straight if that is wrong.

Row Faster, He’s Gaining on Us

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One evening after work I headed down to Kenmore. It is a short distance from my office and, sitting at the top of Lake Washington, it has a nice waterfront park including a pier. I walked out on the pier to see the arrivals of the Kenmore floatplanes at the end of their workday. They are not the only arrivals, though. Various boats were out on the lake including some rowing crews carrying out their training. One of the crews was heading in when a floatplane came in to land. I suspect they had plenty of space but the plane did seem to adjust its course a bit to avoid them. Taxiing in after touchdown (landing seems to be the wrong word) they did seem to be chasing the crew down a bit!

A Change of Location Makes for Locals That Are of Interest

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I made a stop at Vancouver International on my way to the city for a few days. It was the end of the day when I got there and I met up with my friend Mark who gave me a few pointers of what to look out for. The arrivals were in the opposite direction to that we had expected which messed up things a little but there were still options. Besides, I hadn’t shot there before so I was keen to see what was going on.

When you live near an airport, you can get blasé about what comes and goes. The same things every day can be a bit dull. For someone who has never been there before, though, all of this stuff is new and interesting. WestJet may be a familiar sight in Canada but I don’t see them very often. Dash 8s may be very old hat but they have largely vanished where, replaced by the Q400 derivative, so I am pleased to see them. It is this variety that makes somewhere new so interesting. These shots are some of the items that sparked my interest that day. Some more specific planes will get their own time on the blog in due course.