A work requirement needed some photos of a project in which we are involved. We provided he pictures but the team requiring them had an issue with the images we had an wanted something new. When we couldn’t find any more, the easiest thing was to take some. I was heading in the right direction one day so stopped off to take some shots of the Sound Transit Link light rail system. I figured I would share a little of them here too for the rail fans amongst you.
Until recently I had never heard of Miami Air International. Then I photographed this rather unpleasant yellow 737-800 that landed at Boeing Field. Only FlightAware (and a squint at the text on the fuselage) let me know who operated the jet. The Scimitar winglets hint at the previous owner since they clearly didn’t get repainted! A couple of days after this, another of their jets went off a runway in Florida and ended up in a river. Now I know who they are!
Boeing Field does occasionally get military transient traffic at weekend but recently it has had some heavies show up. I saw that a C-5 had been passing through which would have been really cool to see. I was heading down that way not long ago when I saw a KC-46 depart towards me as I drove shortly followed by a C-17. I was a bit disappointed to have missed both of them. I did not anticipate that the C-17 would return.
However, a while later, I heard something call up on final but it wasn’t showing up on FlightRadar24. I took a guess it might be military and moved to the arrival end and, sure enough, the C-17 was coming down the approach at a leisurely pace. It was a Travis jet. I was told that McChord is being resurfaced so that might explain why this jet ended up at Boeing Field rather than down there.
The grounding of the 737 Max fleet worldwide means that they have been coming off the production line and going in to storage. A few of them were scattered around the Boeing ramp at Paine Field. One was particularly interesting though. It seemed to have the front fuselage wrapped in something while the rear fuselage windows were not covered but had individual panels sealed across them. No idea what this was all about but it did look unusual.
This HondaJet was on an FBO ramp at Paine Field. I have seen one close up at Oshkosh and a few at a distance while flying but this was the closest I had got to one in the wild. It is certainly a curious looking jet. The engine mounts are the focus of a lot of attention but I am also a little put off by the front fuselage shaping around the cockpit windows. Having only one product doesn’t seem like a sustainable approach but maybe Honda has ideas for more to come. If they do, we shall see if they continue with this design philosophy or go in a different direction.
Sometimes you find the oddest things by the road. Just outside NAS Whidbey Island, there is a drop tank sitting by the road. I have no idea what it is doing there. It seems to be on someone’s yard. The shape was not something that looked like a Navy tank (which you might expect). I thought it looked like something from an F-111. Fortunately, It had a data plate which showed a serial that seems to suggest a Fort Worth General Dynamics product so I guess F-111 is probably it. Anyone know the story?
My inability to see a Boeing T-33 jet in nice conditions continues. I was at Boeing Field when one of the T-33s was taking off in support of a Pegasus test mission. The weather was crappy with rain and a heavy overcast. I thought that this was not going to work well but sometimes bad weather provides good opportunities so I gave it a go. Besides, I don’t see them enough to pass it by. As it turned out, the flat conditions and the dampness made the jet show up nicely against the background when it was still low on climb out. Once it was against the sky, things weren’t so great but it turned out a lot better than I expected.
I am regularly fascinated by the way in which a fallen tree will be the source of food for new plants. The decaying wood releases nutrients and provides a great base for the next generation. Of course, as it decays further, the base may gradually disappear from under them. In the interim, though, any number of plants will sprout and develop. I came across one such log in Meerkerk Gardens. It seemed to be home to any number of new plants (and that ignores the insect species that were, no doubt, hard at work on its surface).
I was out one evening at SeaTac awaiting one of the British Airways special 747 schemes – see this post. The preceding heavy jet was an Aer Lingus A330. It was the test for me to make sure I had the exposure set up the way I intended. The evening light was getting good and the green on the jet looked pretty good.
The cherry blossoms were the reason for us visiting the campus of the University of Washington as I covered in a previous post. Since we were there and it was a lovely day, we also figured a bit more of the campus was worth a look. We strolled around for a while and checked out the different styles of building that make up the university.
There is a wide variety of building types. The oldest buildings are generally pretty nice looking. Some of the most recent ones are also architecturally interesting. There was some Art Deco to see and then there is a bleaker phase. UW is a bit like other campuses I have seen. There is a phase of concrete and plain brick. This style was very much of its time but sadly, I don’t find it has stood the test of time too well. The concrete particularly is harsh with the style having been to avoid making any effort to finish the surface. They just poured at different times and the joins are left to see. It probably seemed like a good idea at the time but I don’t care for it. I’m sure in architecture classes they still discuss its merits but it’s not for me.
