Tag Archives: district of Columbia

Flying Into Washington National

For the first time in two years, I made a work trip by plane.  I was heading to Virginia for some meetings and was flying into Washington National Airport.  I picked a seat on the left side of the plane in the hope that we would make a river approach.  That gives a good view of the Mall and the surrounding area as you are on final approach.  The weather was lovely with a sunny day and low sun angles as we were arriving later in the day.

At first, we appeared to be heading the right way and then we were too far to the south.  I thought we were going to approach from there but then we made a 180 and headed back towards Dulles before starting down and turning on to the river approach after all.  I could see the area around the mall coming in to view as I looked forward obliquely, but aircraft windows are not good enough to get a shot like that.

I waited until we were closer in getting shots of Georgetown, the Watergate complex and the Kennedy Center.  Then everything was in sight and I was trying to get shots as quickly as I could.  Of course, we are not moving slowly at this point so it is not long before any shots have been missed so it was a question of getting as much as you can.  I was a little hinder because I was shooting on the back screen of the M6.  To see this clearly means taking off my glasses but that isn’t ideal for seeing where to look out of the window.  I think I made it work well enough though.