Tag Archives: washington

Are These Globals Twins?

Within the space of a few minutes, two Bombardier Global Expresses took off from Boeing Field. This type is a regular feature at BFI so this is not unusual. What did catch my eye was that they appeared to have the same color scheme. If they were NetJets aircraft, that would make sense. However, they didn’t look like a fleet operator I know (not that I know them all). Is this just a standard scheme that Bombardier will finish the jet in if you don’t have a preference or were they connected? If so, was a group of people taking two jets at the same time to go to the same place? Who knows?

Aerial Views of Seattle

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My brief trip to the UK was concluded by a flight back to Seattle from London. I ended up in a seat on the right side of the plane and, as we came across the city, I had a good view of the downtown. The seat was rather low compared to the window but LiveView came into its own and I could hold them camera above me pointing down and frame the shot using the rear screen. Technology is a wonderful thing. The Space Needle and the football and baseball stadiums both stand out from above.

How to Get Your Family to Stand in the Middle of the Road

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We visited Bothell to look at the trees as I mentioned in this previous post. We weren’t the only ones though. As we came around the corner, a row of the trees was very intense in their red colors and plenty of other people had come out to check this too. Families were all over the place taking pictures. The best place seemed to be in the middle of the road. Consequently, groups of people were standing there taking their shots and, hopefully, avoiding getting run down!

Kenmore Rush Hour

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The floatplane activity of Kenmore Air is busy on Lake Union in Seattle. The end of the day means a lot of planes are moving from Lake Union back to the home base at Kenmore. It makes for a rush hour of planes coming back in good light. I wandered out to the pier at Log Boom Park which gives a great view of the incoming planes. Then I just waited. You know they are all going to be back before sundown so it is pretty predictable.

The inbound traffic is a combination of Otters and Beavers. De Havilland Canada’s finest show up further down the lake as they come across from Lake Union and then they head up the lake. On this occasion, the wind was from the north so they made straight in approaches, landed and continued straight in to the base. On another day I was there without a camera and the wind was a southerly. They then overflew the base and made a tight turn coming back onto the lake with the evening light on the nose. I will have to try and get that before too long!

P-3s May Be Going But There Are Still Some

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A trip to Whidbey Island for me and Paul was aimed at seeing whatever we could get there on a random weekday. In truth, though, what we really wanted was P-3s. With the Orions rapidly being replaced by P-8s, they are getting harder to find and will soon be a memory. Consequently, our fingers were crossed for some of Lockheed’s aging subhunters. It turned out we were lucky.

It wasn’t a busy day for the turboprops but we did get to see a few. A departure early on meant we were pleased to have had some success. We also got arrival traffic later which certainly was pleasing. Our only disappointment was that one of the planes was operating with a rare canoe under the fuselage. We saw it in the distance (when the shots are horribly distorted by heat haze) but it was operating off a different runway from that which we were near, and we never were in the right place. However, we did get some of its buddies so a successful day out.

Fall Foliage in Bothell

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The area around where I work has a lot of trees and they have turned out to be the sort of trees that get very colorful in the fall. It is really nice to be able to look out of my window and see such vibrant colors when the sun pops out (which it does do in the Pacific Northwest sometimes). I had driven down the road in the opposite direction to normal one evening and saw even more color so, when the sun was out one weekend evening, we diverted to the area so I could get some shots.

The richness of the colors is sometimes hard to represent with photos. They don’t always have the impact that being there had but hopefully some of these shots will give you an idea of how pretty the street was.

Off to Warsaw

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If you buy a car, you go to the dealer to pick it up. If you buy an airliner, there might not be a dealer but you will still go to pick it up. After the production test flights have been completed, the customer gets to carry out their own test flights. If all squawks have been dealt with, time to pay and take the “keys”. Then a crew from the airline will fly the plane to their home base. This 787 had been handed over to LOT and the crew were flying it back to Warsaw. Delivery flights are often obvious from the takeoff roll. Fueled up for a long trip, they use a bit more of the runway than the test flights do. In a short while, this jet will be busy plying the LOT route structure.

That Rare Beast, the 109

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The Bf-109 was built in huge numbers but a very small number of them survive. The Hispano Buchon was a 109 fitted with a Merlin engine and they served after the war and ultimately made their way into collections in bigger numbers but real 109s are a lot thinner on the ground. They also look so much meaner in my mind courtesy of the thicker nose for the DB engine. FHCAM has a 109 and it flew during the European Theater Day.

It went out for a run in the morning and I got a couple of quick shots of it then. It flew again in the afternoon, this time paired with the Mosquito. Sadly, there were limited times when they were alone and the Mosquito was a priority for me that day so the 109 did not get my focus. I did get to shoot a few frames of it and, with a sunny day bringing out the camouflage nicely, I was quite pleased with the results. Obviously there are better conditions to shoot it but I had very few 109 airborne shots before this day so I expanded the collection quite a bit.

Django Fest Random Groups

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We didn’t realize it when we planned our trip to Langley but it was in the middle of a music festival. Called Django Fest, this brought a range of musicians into the town to perform a series of concerts. However, the concerts were not all that they were doing. Throughput the town, little impromptu gatherings of musicians took place and they jammed together. At various times, one musician might pack up and head off ad another might later show up (With a different instrument) and replace them. The musicians would adapt each tune to the new additions, some of which fitted easily and some of which required a little more accommodation.

The first group we came across made us think this was just some locals sitting outside playing. However, when we came across a couple more of the groups, we began to get what was going on. When a shop assistant asked if we had come for the festival, it all became clear.

The quality of the play and the smoothness of the integration varied from group to group but they were all clearly skillful musicians. Watching them join a new group and just play was impressive and also made me rather envious of their talent.

BA 747 Formation with a Cessna?

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The path of jets into SeaTac from the north takes them right over Boeing Field. Sometimes, when you are watching something on one path, something going into the other field gets in your field of view. Either that or a British Airways Boeing 747-400 decided to sneak up on a Cessna. Knowing some guys who fly for them, I wouldn’t rule it out.