Tag Archives: jet

Can Even More Harriers Be Allowed on Here?

After posting about the possible last encounter I would have with Harriers, I have since posted more shots of them coming through Seattle on their way to Alaska. Of course, they had to come back at some point and Boeing Field was the stopping off point again. Consequently, I have even more shots of them. The arrivals were pretty straightforward, and I was pleased with the results. When it came to departing, they were going early in the day and so I had to try something different for a location. As it turned out, they weren’t going home when I took these shots. They recovered back to BFI after I had left. They did eventually head east, though. Maybe that is it at this point?

My First USMC F-35B Demo

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The Marine Corps F-35Bs have been in service for plenty of time now and I have had the opportunity to photograph them on quite a few occasions. However, I had not, until this year, seen their air show demo. I have seen the RAF F-35B at RIAT on an occasion, but it was not a full demo but a brief flyby and hover. Consequently, when the jet was slated for the Seafair schedule this year, I was interested to see the performance. It turned out to be an interesting combination of things although maybe not intentionally.

The displays at Seafair are a bit tricky. The alignment of the lake and the populated areas means the show box is a bit distant from the shire. Consequently, the flying takes place quite a way from the crowd. This is not ideal for photos. However, the Marine demo did seem to approach the box from some interesting angles that included coming almost along the shoreline at one point. Not sure if this was intentional but it did make for some closer shots.

Sadly, the hovering portion was quite a way offshore. I had hoped that this might be closer in given the lack of speed but that wasn’t to be. Even so, it was fun to watch the jet doing its thing and looking to see how much the surface of the lake was being disturbed by the efflux. Hopefully, I’ll get to see the demo again at a location that allows some closer passes.

IL-78s to Support the Rafales

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A little while ago, I posted some images of the Indian Air Force Rafales that transited through JBLM on their way to Alaska. They didn’t come alone, though. They had some support aircraft with them including some tanking resources. I’ve seen the occasional IL-78 in the past, so this wasn’t a first for me, but they are still a relatively rare occurrence so catching this was a nice result and the light showed up enough to make the images a bit nicer.

Top Aces F-16s

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Luke AFB has some contractor operated jets that we were hoping to get a chance to shoot. The ATAC Mirage F1s did launch while we were there but, despite waiting for quite some time, they never returned. However, Top Aces launched their F-16A aircraft and we were more lucky with these guys. They did do as requested and recovered before we left. Contractor operations are usually with old jets of previous generations so it is hard for me to accept that early model F-16s are now sufficiently old to fit that model. How can that be? These ex-Israeli aircraft are still in their desert colors and it was nice to get a chance to shoot them.

Practicing Angles Before the Westwind Arrives

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A previous post covered a recent Westwind arrival at SEA one weekend. As I mentioned in that post, I was shooting from a new location for me. Having not shot there before, I didn’t want to make the Westwind the first thing I photographed. I used some of the preceding airliners to try a couple of spots to see what the angles were like and how much the surrounding trees obscured things. These shots are from the experimenting.

Canadian Air Force 100th Anniversary Hornet

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The Comox AFB air show was the first public display of the special anniversary painted CF-188A Hornet for the Canadian Air Force’s 100^th birthday. There had been some photo sorties undertaken in the weeks before the show to support some upcoming appearances, but this was its first public outing. They pulled the jet out to the center of the crowd line for crewing and start up and it returned there after its display was complete.

The paint scheme is really impressive, and I hope the aging jet can stay serviceable throughout the season, so air show attendees get to see it in the air. It does look very good. The RCAF does seem to have a good history of painting demo jets really well and they must be very pleased with this one. The light was a bit variable while it flew but I was happy with some of the shots I got of it. One the ground it also looked great, particularly close up.

Korean Air’s Unusual Dreamliner

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A Boeing 787-8 showed up at Boeing Field a while back. It is listed as operated by Korean Air, but it is not in their markings, and it is identified as being used as a corporate transport. I don’t know the details about it, but I doubt I will ever be needing to charter it, so it probably isn’t an issue. I went over by the terminal to see it arrive in the morning. I hadn’t anticipated where it would park but it did need to clear customs first and they parked it at one of the larger ramp areas near the customs pad. This meant it taxied back to where I was which was handy. Plenty of people were on hand to handle it when it taxied in. I don’t know how long it stayed for.

Singaporean F-16s

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While Luke AFB is now predominantly an F-35 base, there are still some F-16s based there. The Singaporean Air Force has its US based jets at Luke, and we were glad that they were active on the day we were there. Their two seat jets have the enlarged spine and so stand out compared to US aircraft. They also have some special paint jets on base, and we did get a look at these. One of the jets did a low approach followed by a go-around which resulted in it passing by low with the gear up, which was a welcome piece of action.

The light was bright and harsh, which isn’t ideal for photographing dark jets, but you go with what you have. Trying to get the most of the markings of the jets meant playing with the images in post quite a bit. If the high clouds make for a bad backdrop, nothing much you can do about that.

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.

A Westwind Is as Rare as Rocking Horse Poo!

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The older and less common that planes get, the more interesting they become. The IAI Westwind is definitely in that category for me now. I have only seen a few over the years and I have even less that I have photographed. One was coming to SEA one weekend and that was too good to miss. It was going to be landing at a time of day which meant I needed a new location to try and get reasonable shots of it. Being close was also a good thing since heat haze was going to be a problem.

I found a spot I thought might work along with some backup options. I was able to experiment on the other arrivals to see whether things would work out before the Westwind showed up. Fortunately, the location proved to be adequate to the task and this low-slung little rocket was soon in my viewfinder and then gone. This one looked in great condition.