My layover in Dallas was followed by a flight to Oakland. The departure from Love Field takes you directly towards the heart of Downtown Dallas. It was a bit of a cloudy day so there was neither an unrestricted view nor the greatest of light but I did get a good look at the city as was passed overhead and then turned around to head west. Here are a few quick shots I grabbed as we went.
I was actually looking for something else when I headed to Livermore. An interesting aircraft had come to the field from Denver and a friend had given me a heads up about it. I went over to see if I could see it. As it turned out, the tail was just visible in a hangar across the field but there was nothing much to see. I decided to hang around for a short while before heading home.
As I was wandering along the fence line, a light twin came in to land. I got some shots as it landed and could read the DA62 logo on the aircraft. This is Diamond’s newest product and this appears to be the first example to show up in the US. I had just been reading the flight test on it in Flight International. It turns out the wife of the pilot was standing nearby. They were due to head off but we chatted for a while about their training operations and now the role of distributor for the type.
The DA62 has a change for Diamond in that it can be painted in colors. Previously, the airframes were white and all you could do was add stripes to customize them. They have done something new with the composites and this example was in a really nice metallic gray finish. They soon loaded up and headed out. This is a cool plane and a comfortable seven-seater. If you are in the market, give these guys a call!
I was recently drawn back to something I had experimented with a long time ago but had since forgotten about. I was at SFO when the wind was strong enough to require all departures to operate from the 28s. This resulted in a long line of jets along the taxiway beside the runways as they waited their turn to take off. I shot a very wide panorama shot of them all lined up. It didn’t help that they weren’t bunched too tightly but, even if they had been, the pano that results is very wide and shallow.
There is nothing much you can do with this unless you have a long wall waiting for a mural (which I don’t). However, I still liked the shot. What to do with it? Then I remembered Zoomify. This is an output format embedded within Photoshop that creates a web page that you can zoom in and out of and pan around. It allows someone to explore a large image in more detail if they want to do so. Not quite on the scale of Gigapan images but still a neat tool when you need something slightly different.
I have mentioned the LCS ship that was part of the Parade of Ships for Fleet Week. It was one of several warships to take part in the parade. Most were US Navy ships but there was also a Coast Guard ship and a visitor from the Royal Canadian Navy. They entered the bay under the Golden Gate Bridge before parading in front of the spectators arrayed along the shore and in the boats out on the water. The first ship was led by a fire boat that sprayed water from its cannons in greeting.
These pictures are a sample of the different ships that were on parade. Another warship was part of Fleet Week but it remained tied up during the parade which was a shame as I would liked to have seen it. You could tour it if you wanted but I had other plans that meant that wouldn’t work out.
When Southwest bought AirTran, they inherited a mixed fleet of 737s and 717s. AirTran had been a 717 only fleet for a while but had expanded to include 737s as they grew and the production of the 717 ended. It didn’t take too long for Southwest to announce that the 717s were going away. Where to was the question. That was soon answered when Delta picked them all up. Consequently, there has been a steady stream of 717s showing up in Delta colors recently.
I have come across a few of them recently on both sides of the country. Despite the age of the basic DC-9 design, the updates introduced and the chunkier profile of the more modern engines means that there is something slightly different about the appearance of the jet. I quite like the look of it. Previously, the majority of the examples I had seen had been Hawaiian (including those I had ridden on). It is nice that the type has found a new home which means they shall be around in the US for a while to come.
Water speed records need two important elements. A long, straight section of water on which to get up to speed (and stop again) and calm conditions to avoid getting out of control. Windermere is a body of water that fits these criteria and that is why Sir Henry Segrave chose it as the location for his record runs. (Later runs would be carried out by other on Ullswater and Coniston Water.) First thing in the morning, Windermere has the appearance of total tranquility if the weather is nice. While the coast in the UK is publicly accessible by law, lakes are not similarly restricted so the majority of the shore is privately held and not terribly accessible. However, there are some spots where you can visit and we checked the water out as we were heading south. You can also take the ferry across the lake if you want a far closer view!
The weekend I was in Madras was the weekend that the Airshow of the Cascades was scheduled. The show was supposed to be a two day affair. An evening show was planned for the Friday evening and the Saturday was supposed to be a day show. Friday went ahead as planned. There was a great crowd attending the flying with the aircraft using pyrotechnics to highlight themselves in the dark.
At the end of the evening, they wrapped up with a fireworks display which provided a nice conclusion for the evening. Sadly, Saturday dawned with nice skies but incredibly strong winds. The hope was that the winds would abate in the afternoon but, unfortunately, that did not work out and they canceled the show. These shots were a few that I took when there was something to watch. I am sorry for the organizers that so much effort goes into a show that doesn’t end up happening. I hope the lack of revenue will not have a negative impact on future shows.
Our Lake District stay was based out of Ambleside. It is only a short trip up the road to get to the pretty village of Grasmere. Home to William Wordsworth, it was also a good starting point for a walk through the surrounding hills taking us down to Rydal, around Rydal Water and back up to overlook Grasmere before heading back down into the village. Grasmere is a very picturesque lake which makes it pretty standard fayre for the Lake District where everything is picturesque. Even by Lake District standards, though, it does look great.
Our walk took us up on to the hillside overlooking the lake and with a view up towards Dunmail Raise and on to Thirlmere. While it started out a bit overcast, the sun started to break through as we walked and the sunlight on the hillsides amongst the shadows of the clouds made the place look magical. These pictures do nothing to share that feeling with you. The village of Grasmere is a very popular tourist location but, thankfully, most people stay close to the village and our walk, while not devoid of other people, was pretty quiet. We did come across the same three people at various times but managed to pace ourselves to allow them to head off leaving us with a bit more space. Having people around was not so much of an issue but, since I am a bit out of shape, I don’t like to see other people while I am struggling with a climb. I have to maintain the pretense that I am in good shape!
Much as the light aircraft movements at King County don’t get much attention, there is so much corporate jet traffic that it can also get overlooked. The bigger jets like the Globals tend to be more interesting to me. However, there are plenty of different types coming through. As with the light aircraft, here is a selection from a recent trip.
By now, if you have been following recent blog posts, you will have seen a bunch of pictures of the Isle of Wight taken while flying with Pete in his Arrow. Our trip around the Island included a fair few other spots that I photographed so these shots are some of the other things we saw that didn’t fit into an individual blog post.
