Working back through some old images, I came across a couple of shots of a British Airways 787-10 Dreamliner as it was climbing out of Heathrow. The departure routing includes a turn out to the south and the angles made for an interesting view of the upper sides of the plane. Not sure which of these two shots I prefer (setting aside the softness from heat haze), so I have included both. You decide if you have a preference.
For its 80th anniversary, Cathay Pacific painted one of its A350-900s in a retro livery. It makes you feel a touch old when you remember their whole fleet having been painted in these colours but then again, I am a touch old! This plane has been in to Heathrow on a number of occasions but combinations of time of arrival, weather and my availability have meant I have never seen it until recently. It was due on on a Saturday late in the afternoon. It was not going to be too close to sunset so, any delays should not be an issue.
The forecast was for overcast but, during the majority of the day, it was really sunny. I was hoping that this would stay but, unfortunately, the forecast was not wrong. I was watching the sun descend behind a cloud layer hoping that it might pop out below in time for the arrival. Sadly, this didn’t occur, but the lighting was not too bad, and I am pretty happy with the shots that I got. It really is a nice livery. The only discrepancy from the original is the the Union Flag is gone since Hong Kong is now back under Chinese control.
The glossy paint finishes on airliners tend to make the fuselages look uniform to the naked eye – particularly when at a distance. Of course, when you get closer – particularly on an aluminium fuselage – you can see the joints and reinforcements that go into the detailed design. A British Airways A380 was on one of the gates at Heathrow early one morning as we taxied by. I assume it had been there for a while because there was a lot of condensation on the skin from morning dew. This served to highlight the different parts of the structure including where the skin was thicker and were there was an overlap of skin layers. I thought it was interesting to see how it made a normally uniform fuselage look so much more complex.
Virgin Atlantic’s jets usually look pristine. Getting the red of the nacelles and the fin to show up in images properly is a bit tricky, but they do tend to look pretty smart. Consequently, I was surprised when looking at some images I took of one of their A350s while taxiing in at Heathrow to see that the paint on the fin seems to be peeling off in chunks. No idea whether that is from the original paint when built or following a repaint, but it looks rough and I imagine that a repair will be demanded at some point soon.
After landing back at Heathrow from a work trip, we were taxiing back towards T5 and passing a variety of parked airlines. These two 787-9s caught my eye. Both are in Norse livery but one is labeled IndiGo. This Indian airline has been leasing jets from Norse. I guess only one got the change in titles. At the time of writing this, I understand the lease arrangements have ben terminated so maybe this was a lucky break to catch this before it wouldn’t be seen again.
Sometimes, when I get the window seat at the airport, there is really nothing much to see. I am on the wrong side, and everything is out of the other windows. However, on this recent flight, I did have a good view of the parallel taxiway as well as the runway for departing jets. Sure, it was backlit and sometimes taxiing jets could block the view of the runway. Also, windows looking into the sun are not great for clarity. Even so, an A380 from Singapore or a Virgin Atlantic A350-1000 is worth a look and whatever shots the phone can manage.
Another morning flight for a work trip meant another stop at the Pod Parking. Since the traffic had been light, I was there a little ahead of schedule so it would be rude not to get some shots of the arriving traffic on the northerly runway at Heathrow. Had I been there at sunrise, the sun would have actually been right around on my side, but I was a little later in the morning, so it had come around on the nose.
A Virgin Atlantic A350-1000 was nice to have but I got some short haul types from across Europe. The really interesting surprise was a Loganair ATR42. There are lots of poles in the pod parking and they make getting an unobscured shot tricky. I will confess that some AI removal tools in Lightroom have been exploited to remove some of the distractions. I have not taken out anything that was actually over part of the airframe, even though that can actually work quite well. These are just tidied up to allow the airframe be the focus.
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?
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!
A work trip had me at Heathrow just as the sun was peaking above the horizon. It was very low and, as I drove along the perimeter road to the car park, it was right in my eyes. I suspect that wasn’t too much fun for the arrivals that were on the runway aligned to the east. It did mean that the light was right on the nose of the arriving planes. I had brought the camera along because – well when don’t I?
The traffic in had been quite light so I was a touch early arriving and had about ten minutes before I needed to head into the terminal. Consequently, I got a few shots of some of the jets arriving from locations around the world. The light was almost on my side of the planes which, given I was to the north, tells me that we are getting towards summer. Here are a few of the arriving planes.
