Tag Archives: Portland international

Portland Eagles

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The first stop on our Oregon odyssey was Portland International Airport.  Aside from being a commercial airport, PDX is also home to an Air Force Reserve unit of F-15 Eagles.  I have visited the base before for their open house but I have loved the F-15 from my childhood so I was hoping to see their jets in action again.  They were done for the day when we arrived but the following morning we were optimistic that we would get a launch before we headed off on our further travels.

The aircraft were parked up under the shelters when we arrived but they are quite regular with their launch schedules so we were listening out for the whine of low bypass turbofans kicking in to life.  We were also joined by our friend, Bill, who works locally and is familiar with what to expect.  As we scanned the flight line, we noticed one of the jets had a sharks mouth painted on the front fuselage.

The airliners and freighters were busy with their operations when we finally heard the noise we had been hoping for.  Sure enough, first two jets and then a third taxied out.  Even better news was that one of the jets was the shark mouth jet and another was the one with unit colors painted on it.  They taxied to the last chance, got checked out and then went to the departure hold.

I decided to be safe with the first jet to make sure I got a shot so I kept the shutter speed high.  It was not configured with external tanks so was airborne as it passed us and tucking the gear up as it accelerated.  For the second jet, I dropped the shutter speed a little to try for a more dynamic image with a blurred background.  For the third, I dropped it even further.  I figured it was time to get brave.  High frame rates are your friend in this case and I was happy to get some acceptable shots of all three jets as they departed.  With them on their way, it was time for us to depart too.  Plenty more to do on this trip.

Open House at the 142nd

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The 142nd FW of the Oregon ANG is based at Portland International airport.  They held an open house one Saturday morning and I figured a trip down was worth it.  I put together a piece for Global Aviation Resource on the visit which you can see here if you want.  The event was aimed at sharing the work the unit does with the local community that is probably well aware of their presence courtesy of the regular launches of F-15s from the runway at the international airport.

They had a couple of the jets for people to take a look at.  One was out on the ramp and you could walk around it.  Another was in the hangar with an access ladder to the cockpit (devoid of ejection seat, just to be on the safe side).  They also had missiles and engines available to look at with people on hand to talk about them.  Meanwhile, the unit launched a few waves of jets.  They taxied out from the shelters a short distance away and, given the distance to the threshold of the runway, the F-15s were airborne well before they even came in to sight.  Fortunately, they did keep them low and fast until they came by our location.  Then they pulled up rapidly.  Each departure was appreciated by the spectators!