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One of My Better Encounters with the Dreamlifter

I have had some mixed luck with the Dreamlifter. Light failing at the wrong moment or the sun setting just before departure are two examples. On this occasion, though, things worked out pretty well for me. I was visiting Future of Flight so I was on their viewing deck when the jet departed. I watched them start up (including some nice puffs of smoke as fuel and oil burned off at ignition) but they were partly obscured by a hangar.

Pushback made everything easier and they then taxied right towards me. It is true that you are looking into the sun at this point but it was still not a problem to get shots of the plane without a problem. They taxied out past the parked IL-76 and then held in front of us for a moment. The wind was good for northerly departures so they taxied across the threshold and then down Alpha to the other end of Paine Field.

Take off had to wait for a couple of Cessnas and then they lined up and headed our way. I was definitely not alone on the viewing terrace at this point! Little areas of snow alongside the runway were apparent when the outboard engines disturbed them. Then they were rotating and climbing towards us. Finally I got some decent conditions for some shots. Now, I guess, this will happen a lot and I will wonder why I ever was bothered about not shooting the jet in nice light.

Qantas Celebrates Aborigine Art Again

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Qantas has decorated previous aircraft with liveries that encompass aborigine art. Their Wunala Dreaming aircraft was well known around the world and, in an age when airline liveries tend to be rather bland, these colorful jets are a welcome change. They have taken a similar route with one of their new Boeing 787-9s and I saw it at Paine Field during test flying. It came in from the south and executed a go around from relatively low level.

Then they caught me out by heading north to turn and make an approach from the opposite direction. This required some rather swift repositioning by me. In fact, I got to the parking lot as they were on final approach and, rather than park, I just pulled to the side, ran up the bank, grabbed the shot and then got back in the car to park properly. It was tight but it worked out okay.

An Antonov Departs in the Murk

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The IL-76 departure was not the only Volga Dnepr jet heading out that morning. An AN124 was also in and they scheduled their departures within 30 minutes of each other. I wasn’t passing the Ruslan up given that I was already there. The weather was still crummy but this did mean that there was a lot of moisture showing up as the pressure dropped. The 124 was loaded up a bit more so ran a lot longer on the takeoff run and rotated not far from where I was. The moisture in the air resulted in some nice puffs over the wing surface and it was trailing vortices from rotation all through the climb out until it disappeared into the clouds. It actually was pulling its own cloud for a while as it neared the cloud base and I thought it had gone into the cloud at first but it cleared up again for a moment before it did finally enter the clouds.

NOAA Gulfstream

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The appearance of a Gulfstream GIV is not something that would normally be sufficiently unusual to justify a trip out. However, this GIV was a bit unusual. It belongs to NOAA and they use it for tracking weather systems. It was operating out of Paine Field and I only got to see it once. It would launch and head out over the Pacific for six or seven hours before coming back. The return was always in the evening after dark so never an opportunity to get a shot. The rear radar installation is pretty conspicuous. However, the nose radar is also a modification. The radome is a different shape and the additional air data sensors around the radome may either be because of the change of shape or could be related to its mission.

Sadly, it departed to Florida before I could get a chance to see it on the ground. It would have been nice to see it close up (or even in halfway decent weather – not something I was given this time around) but that was not to be on this occasion.

Volga Dnepr Arrives and Departs in the Crummy Weather

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The presence of the IL-76 in the Pacific Northwest showed up in a previous post of mine here. I wasn’t aware of one being back here until I was up at Paine Field and one was parked up at the Boeing facility. It had come in during the night and didn’t go back out again until I was at work. I actually saw it fly by my window as it headed out. I figured it was done but I was wrong.

The message got out that it was due back in to Paine Field during the weekend. The weather forecast was not great (again) but it was too good a chance to pass up. I was not the only one either. A lot of people had shown up to see it come in. The cloud base was pretty low and the plane was quite close in before it popped out of the murk. As it came down the approach, it was easy to see. Aside from the plane itself, the trailing vortices from the flap system were streaming behind the aircraft with the moist atmosphere making them very conspicuous.

As they floated across the threshold, the vortices were still very conspicuous and they floated a good way down the runway streaming all the way. In fact, even after touchdown, the vortices were still visible. They taxied back in to the north entrance to the Boeing ramp where the waiting committee were ready. That will be work another post of its own.

A day later the departure was scheduled. Of course, the weather was still pretty crappy. Nevertheless, I wasn’t going to pass it up. The flight was only a short one though. They were heading to Dallas and I don’t think they were carrying much. Consequently, they were lightly loaded and got off the ground quickly. The climb was steep and they were up into the cloud base before too long. Still, I managed to get a few shots of them as they went off. I wonder if I will get to see an IL-76 in the sun at some point?

A Caravan on Floats (Despite My Previous Comments)

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When I watched a Cessna Caravan on floats landing in Vancouver Harbour, I was rather critical of its water handling characteristics. It wallowed horribly and didn’t look like it was supposed to be there at all. However, the Caravan is not a bad plane and it is quite a rugged workhorse so I don’t have a gripe with it per se. Another float equipped example took off from Paine Field while I was awaiting something else and the combination of the afternoon light and the closeness to the plane meant I was rather pleased with the shots that were possible.

Korean Air Dreamliner on Test

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I had a couple of encounters with the same jet while it was on test. (It’s brake dust already showed up in this post.) This 787-9 is, by now, part of the Korean Air fleet. I saw it depart from Paine Field one evening in pleasant light. The low sun angle really brought out the shape of the underside of the wing in a way that normally you just don’t get to appreciate. It showed up a second time while I was out to get the farewell flight of the Delta 747 which I wrote about here. It came in at a similar time and the wet weather helped to make the pale blue color scheme pop a bit more.

Filming With a G650ER

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I missed the best of this event. I got to Everett towards the end of a filming session with a Gulfstream G650ER jet. An Astar was being used to film the jet as it flew some approaches. I had actually noticed the jet online earlier in the day because it had been flying orbits over some of the islands and showed up on FlightRadar24. I didn’t know what it was at the time but, once I got to Everett it all became clear. I didn’t get anything of the Astar as I didn’t have the camera out when I first arrived but I did get a shot or two of the Gulfstream near the end of the flights. Looked like a fun sortie to be involved with.

Qatar Cargo Recycles the Seahawks 747-8F

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Boeing announced the sale of a couple of 747-8F freighters to Qatar Cargo and then immediately delivered one of them. I was confused at the time as I thought it would be a while before the deliveries took place, but it turned out that they had sold a couple of jets that had been previously built but had not been delivered. The second of the jets was recently in flight test. This jet is quite well known as Boeing had painted it up in Seattle Seahawks colors for a Super Bowl appearance and then for a few follow up flights. Now it has been repainted and, when I shot it one weekend afternoon, it was close to being ready for delivery.

Smoky Brake Dust on a New 787

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This Korean Air 787-9 Dreamliner is seen taking off one Saturday afternoon from Paine Field on a production flight test. It was lightly loaded so it was off the ground pretty rapidly and was already cleaning up the gear as it came toward me. The wheels are braked before the gear comes up to stop them spinning before they enter the bay. This can result in a burst of brake dust that blows clear in the slipstream and the shadow of the brake dust showed up clearly. As they continued the climb out, they actually lowered the gear again. I think this was to cool the brakes given they had done a high-speed taxi run prior to the takeoff.