Tag Archives: turboprop

The Avanti Just Fails to Catch the Light

I was having a really lucky day.  I had caught a few really cool photo subjects and the lighting had been really good.  I was about to pack up and go when my friend reminded me of something I had forgotten.  An Avanti was scheduled in at the end of the afternoon and I had figured I would have been gone so had let it slip to the back of my mind.  Since a couple of other movements had got delayed, I was there later than expected and now the Avanti was on the approach.

The light was looking amazing, but it was still some distance out.  The Avanti is pretty fast, but I was watching the hillside beyond the field start to lose the sun and I knew that it wasn’t going to last long enough for my Avanti.  Sure enough, as it came into sight, the light was gone.  We had a gloomy look to things as it buzzed past.  Not as it could have been just three minutes earlier, but its an Avanti and it rounded out an excellent day nicely.

The Old Horizon Fleet

The departure of the Q400s from Horizon’s fleet means that they are now fully equipped with Embraer E175-E1s.  I know some people didn’t like the Q400 but I actually found it to be perfectly fine when I flew in them.  Not a ton of space but not the longest flights.  Certainly nothing as long as I have done in the Embraers!  However, before the Q400s, there were other aircraft in their fleet.  I was scanning through some shots for some other reason and came across shots of Dash 8-100s and CRJs.  I figured I would remind people of some of the older times that Horizon operated when I was shooting stuff.  Of course, there are far older types that they would have had but they are before my time.

A Dash 7 Almost Catches Me Out

We saw a variety of planes in Kenya and Tanzania.  This one I didn’t get too close to but I was really happy to have caught either way.  Dash 7s are pretty few and far between these days.  There are some up in Canada that I would love to get up to see but the last ones I saw were in Toronto and looked stored.  This one flew overhead and I grabbed a few quick shots.  Oh to have seen it touching down on one of the rough strips.

A More Dynamic Angle on Lynden at Last

I have had various encounters with the C-130s of Lynden Air Cargo over the years, but they have usually been a relatively normal side on type of shot.  I saw one of the aircraft had gone into Paine Field and I was fortunate that the departure was scheduled for a weekend day when I could get up there.  I decided at the last minute to make the trip up and, as I pulled up at my preferred location, a quick check of the phone showed the aircraft was already at the hold.

I got set up as rapidly as I could and then they were rolling.  The advantage of this location is that the plane will have rotated and is climbing out towards me.  The Herc is able to get out of short strips just fine, but it isn’t climbing too rapidly so I knew I should get something different to what I have taken before.  I quite liked the front quarter shot but the others were fine too.  I was then back in the car and home in a short time.  It was almost like I hadn’t been away, but I had got the result I wanted.

Another Epic Encounter

Nothing too special about this one.  It’s just because Epics are a pretty rare type and a rather unusual looking plane so, when one shows up and I am lucky enough to be able to catch it, I think it is worthy of note.  The fuselage of this type has a strange shape with a slightly humped look to it.  It goes against the “if it looks right, it flies right” idea but it might just make for a more useful cabin for the occupants.  Until I fly in one, I’ll never know.  Would be good to get one air to air, though.

A Chinese Plane in Nairobi

Our flight from the Maasai Mara back to Nairobi took us in to Wilson Airport.  This is not the main international airport but a smaller domestic airport that is closer to the center of the city.  No terminals and jet bridges here.  We disembarked from our Dash 8 on the ramp and walked to the building to get out of the airport.  The ramp was packed with all sorts of aircraft.  One caught my eye immediately as it looked unfamiliar to me.

The marking showed it belong to the Republic of Djibouti’s Air Force which only served to increase my level of interest.  It wasn’t something I had seen before so I had to look up the type.  It is a Harbin Y-12 which is a Chinese designed and manufactured aircraft.  That was quite a turn up for me.  Not sure how happy anyone would be about me getting photos on the ramp but no one seemed bothered at the time.

A Turbo Mentor Seems Like a Nice Runabout

Beech built the Mentor trainer for the military with a piston engine before coming up with the more powerful turboprop version, the T-34C Turbo Mentor.  This saw extensive service with the US Navy.  Now there are plenty of them on the civil register including this one I saw one day departing from Paine Field.  The dark blue paint enhances the look of the plane and it looks like it has plenty of oomph.  I imagine it is a ton of fun to have.  I think it would be great to shoot air to air as well!

Wandering Around an Avanti

The Avantis that had been operating at Paine Field have relocated their base to Arlington instead.  I think they are getting maintained there and so it is the new base of operations.  One of them arrived while I was up that way and it parked up on the main ramp.  I wandered out and chatted to the owner as he put the plane away for the evening and then, once he had gone, I continued to get some shots.  The airframe is a selection of interesting shapes so I was trying to find good ways to shoot it.

The fuselage shape tapers aggressively, there is the front wing, the main wing and the tailplane and then there are the engines and their props.  Lots to try and work with.  The engines are interesting in that the exhaust from the PT-6s blows right on to the roots of the props.  This heat must be a form of deicing but it also must require something of the blade construction to manage the heat.  There is some sign of the particles in the exhaust in the dirt patterns that form across the blade roots.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.  The Avanti is an amazing looking aircraft.  The combination of cabin size and performance is unmatched by turboprops (and a lot of jets too).  I wish it was more successful.  Lots of people focus on its noise but that doesn’t bother me.  However, having looked at those props in more detail, I can’t help but wonder how much of that noise is from the exhaust interacting with the blades rather than just the blades themselves.

Wichita’s Finest is Everywhere in the Parks

Kenya and Tanzania have many small airstrips scattered around the countryside including in the national parks.  These provide quick transfers between locations if you are willing or able to pay and don’t want the long and bumpy road trips.  There are a variety of types that are used for these services and I shall show some others in upcoming posts.  However, one type does dominate.

The Cessna Grand Caravan is everywhere in the region.  It has the right size for many of the trips, it has sufficient capacity for luggage with the baggage pod beneath he fuselage, it is fine with the rough surface strips that are in most places and it is PT-6 powered so very reliable.  We saw tons of them during the trip and also got to experience a flight on one.  I was surprised to find it was a 1×2 configuration.  I had assumed that they were 1×1 but not in this case.  It got a lot of us in there but getting in and out was not an easy process.  The aisle was minimal!

I have no idea how many Grand Caravans there are in use in rural Africa but I imagine that Cessna has delivered a ton of aircraft from Wichita to the region.  I suspect that the best replacement is another Caravan.  The Islander might once have been this sort of workhorse but the efficiency and reliability of the Caravan must be what has made it so ubiquitous.

Sun on the MU-2

Regular readers of the blog will know that there are certain types that I seem destined to struggle to shoot in decent light.  It might be the nicest of days, but the sun will go behind a cloud just before the intended subject appears.  I thought the Mitsubishi MU-2 was one of those types but, a few months back, I finally got lucky.  One came into Boeing Field on a day with good sun.  Not the perfect conditions but it was still a relief to finally get some shots when it wasn’t overcast!