Tag Archives: washington

Zero G and, Ironically, It’s Not Raining

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I last saw this jet on approach to Oakland.  I blogged about that event here.  On that day, it was pouring with rain.  I got the shot but it was rather dreary.  This time I saw the jet parked up at Boeing Field in Seattle.  Ironically, the sun was out on a lovely day – not Seattle’s reputation.  Sadly, it wasn’t moving while I was there.  I don’t know why it was in town but I heard there was a big software conference underway so maybe it was a fun trip for some big cheeses in the software business.

Are Baby Reindeer Cute?

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There is a school of thought that baby animals are a lot cuter than the fully-grown versions.  I guess cuteness is in the eye of the beholder so there may be some that find reindeer to be cute.  They are fine as far as I am concerned but probably not the cutest animal there is.  This herd had a number of babies (anyone know the name for a baby reindeer?) and some of them were more adventurous sniffing their way around the enclosure although the mother was never too far away.  They did look pretty sweet as the walked around the place, occasionally looking a little unsteady but generally showing that skill of instantly being mobile that humans clearly lack.

Honeywell Test Convair

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An older airframe is always a pleasant surprise.  While I was at Everett, Honeywell had some people making a visit to Paine Field and they came in the company’s old Convair.  This is not the sort of plane you see around much anymore so I was rather pleased to see it show up.

What Happened to the Old Bridge?

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Walking across the bridge from the overflow parking to the top of Snoqualmie Falls, I looked down the river to the top of the falls just beyond the barriers to stop errant boaters getting too close.  I also noticed something in the water below us.  For a while I was trying to work out what it was.  Then, courtesy of polarizing glasses, I could see through the reflections and make out the shape of some structure.

It looks to me like this was a previous bridge.  It sits just below the current bridge alignment and looks like it would have been the right size and shape to be a bridge span.  I wonder whether it collapsed or whether, when the replacement bridge was being built, it was simpler to dump the old span into the river than to take it away.  There could be another explanation of course and maybe it isn’t even part of a bridge.  However, it clearly is something man-made sitting on the bed of the river.

View from the 24th Floor

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I had a meeting in downtown Seattle that was on the 24th floor of an office block.  As a result of traffic being better than expected, I got there a little early so I had a little extra time which was spent waiting in the lobby for the meeting to start.  Their lobby had a large window view of the south end of the city looking towards the stadiums.  It would have been churlish to not get my phone out and to grab a quick picture and doubly churlish not to share it with you!

Unloading the Wings

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The wings for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner are not built in the US.  They come from Japan and they make the journey in the 747-400LCF Dreamlifter.  The process for unloading them is very well practiced.  The aircraft lands and is parked up.  The tail is then swung open to expose the cavernous hold.  A transporter pulls up behind the lane and elevates its deck to level with the aircraft.  The wings are in a cradle that then slides out of the plane and on to the transporter.  It then backs away and lowers down before driving the wings into a storage building.

While this was going on, other fuselage parts could be seen inside.  With production running at a high rate, this process is repeated every few days.  I have never yet seen the Belugas at work for Airbus doing the same sort of thing but I would like to some day.  Their new aircraft are currently being assembled so they will soon have more capacity.  I don’t know whether Boeing will need more of the Dreamlifters at some point but the current fleet seems to be kept busy.

Snoqualmie Falls

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Our exploration of our new territory included a trip up into the foothills to see Snoqualmie Falls.  The town of Snoqualmie is quite a way from the top of the pass but it is still a nice increase in elevation from the more populated areas to the west.  The views are very nice from up there.  The water running off the mountains has already formed a pretty decent sized river by this time.

Because of the time of year, I was not expecting a very heavy flow over the Falls.  They provide a guide to when the flow is strong and when it is light and we were not visiting at a time of year when it is expected to cover much of the lip of the Falls.  However, some heavy rain in the preceding week had obviously resulted in some run off and things were actually looking pretty forceful.

We had lunch in the hotel overlooking the Falls and got a window seat that provided a great view.  Then we walked around the ridge to see the Falls from different angles before taking the trail down to the river level.  Things look very different when you are level with the base of the Falls and they feel far more powerful.  It was a warm day and the climb back up to the top made me feel rather toasty.  It was certainly worth it though.

Zoomify the Boeing Flightline

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Everett is a busy production facility.  787s are being built at a fair rate while 777 production continues, albeit at a reducing pace.  There are some 747s and 767s coming out as well.  The flightline for their testing is consequently rather full.  I figured a panorama was a good idea but they are hard to put on the blog without making them too small.  Time for zoomify again.  You can pan around and zoom in to see what was on the line this day.

Consequences of a Doolittle Style Takeoff

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Grumpy got airborne using the Doolittle technique I posted about here.  During the takeoff, there were some puffs of smoke from one of the engines.  Initially I thought this might just be some oil blowing through but, as they climbed out, the output from the engine was clearly not as it should be and the one engine was clearly not healthy.  They cut short the flight (although not as short as it could have been) and brought the plane back down.  I saw Grumpy fly a few weeks later so I guess they dealt with whatever the issue was.