Tag Archives: washington

Tacoma Narrows Bridge

Any engineering student will be familiar with the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Built in the early part of the twentieth century, this bridge was susceptible to wind induced oscillations which, in certain conditions could set up a resonance condition. Not too long after it was completed, this got out of hand and the bridge bucked and twisted in dramatic fashion until the materials could take it no longer and the structure disintegrated crashing down into the water below. If you want to see this because you are unfamiliar with it (or because it never gets old watching it), the video below will show you what happened.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-zczJXSxnw

The bridge was rebuilt and has lasted since that day although it could no longer manage the volumes of traffic so was joined by a second bridge alongside it relatively recently. I have been over both bridges. However, as we flew past Tacoma, I could see them off in the distance. No great architectural photos here but just something for you engineers out there!

Tacoma

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When landing at SeaTac on the northerly approaches, you come across Seattle’s southern neighbor, Tacoma. The approach routing brings you just to the east of the city so, if you are doing this in the morning as I was at some point recently, you get the city nicely illuminated in the early sunlight. The usual issues with shooting through an airplane window still apply but you are lower so the shots can be more forgiving.

The city is home to one of the west coast’s major container ports. The view from above clearly shows how the harbor dominates the area. The container terminals and the cranes that make them work are clearly visible along with the transportation connections that take everything out of the port an on to its final destination.

The city also has a large dome which is home to many events. It is close to the main freeway from north to south, I-5, and when you drive past it seems to be pretty huge. From the air, it is still clearly seen but somehow it doesn’t have the same impact.

Marine Week

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En route from a day with a client to the airport I had a spare hour to pay a visit to Boeing Field in Seattle. I figured that my time window would mean there was nothing much to see and I didn’t have anything longer than the 24-105 with me anyway. However, when I got there I could see an interesting collection of USMC machines on the opposite side of the field and the Blue Angels were parked up near the Museum of Flight.

I took a ride around to where the Marine helicopters and V-22 were parked and got chatting to one of the crews. He explained it was the start of Marine Week and offered a chance to walk around the ramp with one of the crew. I was not going to refuse that. Mario kindly showed me around and let me shoot anything external. They had three UH-1Y Venoms and three AH-1Z Cobras along with a single V-22. One fof the Cobras was marked up in special squadron colors. I took a walk around all of them and grabbed a few shots while chatting with Mario about what it was like to support these machines. He had worked on the UH-1N before converting to the Venom so he had some interesting perspectives on the relative reliability of the two.

These machines were going to be progressively moved across to the other side of the field as part of the public displays for Marine Week and the first of the Cobras actually was towed while I was there so my timing was excellent. However I did have to go and then my timing let me down as, while I was driving away, I saw an AV-8B Harrier II coming down the approach. Oh well. I still did better than I had expected.

Moonrise and Sunset

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An evening flight out of SeaTac was my way home on a recent trip. We were due to take off after sunset so I hadn’t anticipated having the camera out. As we taxied out, the sunset looked pretty nice and I did get a couple of shots with the phone. However, there was a small moon also heading towards the horizon and I figured I should get out the real camera to make a better shot of it. The moon was just about to go down while the red of the sky still remained courtesy of the now-set sun. It was a bit of a dark shot and through the window of the 737 but it turned out pretty well.

Boeing Field

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No great story for today’s post. I got some time to shoot at Boeing Field in the evening after a day of meetings and travel. Some of the interesting subjects got their own posts. Here are just a few shots of the other traffic that was coming in to the field. The evening light was fantastic and it was fun to watch the movements including some of the Boeing production traffic. Mongolian was a new airline for me. Sadly my timing was off and I didn’t get to see the Indian Navy P-8 on test. Never mind.

SeaTac

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I had an early flight out of Seattle on my way back to the Bay Area. It was a nice morning and the planes were departing to the south. The terminal that Southwest operates from is towards the southern end of the airport so you get the aircraft passing you as they get airborne. I had given myself some margin for getting to the airport, checking in the rental car and getting the shuttle to the terminal and everything had gone smoothly so I actually had a bit of time on my hands. Also, on the shuttle I had seen an Alaska 737 in 75^th anniversary markings on a gate so I thought I might have a chance to get a shot of it if it wasn’t going straight out.

There is a kink in the pier as you head to Southwest’s gates that gives you a good view across the field and is not obstructed by jet bridges. Moreover, it isn’t a busy part of the terminal so waiting there and getting some shots is practical. Of course, you are shooting through some thick glazing but, even so, I was pleasantly surprised that the shots were not too badly compromised. The only problem was that the Q400s that Horizon operates from the central part of the terminal throw of some exhaust distortion which ruins what could be some good angles.

I had to make sure I didn’t forget my own flight but I did get some nice shots. The Alaska anniversary jet did time its departure well for me and I was even more pleasantly surprised when one of their 737s came by sporting the new scimitar winglets from APB. That was the first time I had seen some for real. A nice bonus before heading home.

Boeing 787-9

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One evening I arrived at Boeing Field to see what was moving. Just as I got there, a 787 was rolling out on landing. Since the wind was in the opposite direction to my previous visit, I didn’t see it land but it rolled down to our end of the field. Interestingly, the gear doors were down and the RAT was deployed. These RAT is usually tested on early production test flights so I suspect this was the reason but the gear doors being down is one that had me wondering. The aircraft, which was finished in the livery of All Nippon Airways, taxied off the runway and turned on to the taxiway where it promptly shut down. It hadn’t even straightened up and the nosewheel was still at an angle. I have no idea whether this is normal practice or if something unusual had happened.

Whatever the reason, it sat there for quite a while until a Boeing team showed up to recover it. Interestingly, they brought an ambulance with them although there didn’t appear to be any need for one. This could also be a standard procedure or maybe something unusual had occurred. I doubt I will ever know. In all of this time, it never occurred to me that this would be other than a regular production 787. However, checking into this later, this was in fact one of the 787-9 and so something new for me. In truth, it wasn’t entirely new. The previous evening one of the dash 9 test aircraft had come back in while I was there so this trip got me my first two airborne dash 9s. I had seen a test aircraft on the ground before but that seems like a bit of a cheat in comparison.

Blue Angel

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A surprise visitor at Boeing Field timed his arrival perfectly. I had just pulled up at the field when I saw something running in on the approach at speed and not descending. This had the look of a military break. I didn’t have the camera out but, fortunately, given that it looked like they would break downwind to land, I had some time to grab the camera. Sure enough, it was an F/A-18 that broke overhead. More interestingly, it was a two seater from the Blue Angels.

I was ready by the time it was on the approach and managed to get a few shots as they landed. They then taxied over to Clay Lacy’s FBO and parked up. Not sure what they were in for but it could involve the planning for Seafair later in the year. Whatever the reason, a nice surprise.

Small Corporate Jets

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While the big jets were an interesting target for me at Boeing Field, there is a good trade in smaller corporate jets too. The regularity of Citations and their ilk makes them a little less exciting but they can still be interesting if painted up nicely. However, one that caught my eye was an older Learjet. This is operated by Boeing Flight Test as a support and chase aircraft for their programs. It taxied by before departing over my location.

Also we got a Dassault Falcon 10. Quite a vintage type of jet these days so that was a nice surprise.

L-100

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My Boeing Field visit also included a very nice surprise. The evening was drawing in quite quickly but a view off to the south showed a lot of smoke coming from something on the approach. At first I had no idea what it was but soon the familiar shape of a Hercules came into view. This was a civilian model, the L-100. It was operated by Lynden Air Cargo delivering something large!

They were heading for a ramp close to the threshold so the crew were not shy about thumping the aircraft down right on the numbers. A decent cloud of tire smoke let you know they were down and then they put the props into reverse and were soon off the runway and taxiing back to the stand. An interesting aircraft and a lucky break.