Author Archives: Rob

Old Power Station Buildings (Still in Use)

The falls in Spokane are a perfect spot for a hydro power station and there are two rather than one. The first provided power for the developing town and a second was needed as the demand increased. The larger building is lower down and is a most impressive brick structure. It has an imposing look to it. The upper station is a lot less dramatic. A pale concrete structure but it has some architectural features to it, so it is not totally innocuous. Both of them are still providing power to the region and I imagine will for a long time to come.

Another Experience of Northwest Regional Aviation Consortium

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This year I did make a return trip to Arlington Municipal Airport for the Northwest Regional Aviation Consortium emergency exercise. This is a gathering of various operators from the region that would be called on in the event of a major incident. There are aeromedical operators, helicopters from the local counties and local military units. Search and rescue teams participate along with first responders.

Plenty of helicopters come and go during the day heading off to remote locations for parts of the exercise. Some drills are conducted on the field including one of the cooler elements when a helicopter carries teams up on a platform that can be used for lowering them onto the roof of buildings should that be needed.

I was not covering the event for anyone so didn’t have any preferential access. I stayed a safe distance away to watch as the teams were at work and, in the downtime between movements, I could get on with some other work I had to do. I was pleased this year that the Navy Sea Hawk was a around more. The previous visit, it had come in and then departed again, never to return. This time I had a bit more of a chance to photograph it. I don’t know whether the exercise was a success or not, but I am sure they all learned a lot from the training it provided and can tweak things to make them better if that is needed.

Be Careful Coming Ashore on These Islands

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While looking down on Diablo Lake up in the Cascades, the light angle combined with the clearer water at that time of year meant it was possible to see the rocks beneath the surface of the lake around some of the islands that are in the lake. I hadn’t really paid much attention to these on previous visits. A long focal length allowed me to focus in on these islands and the hazards that lurk beneath the surface for unwary boaters. Better make sure that you are using the right landing areas and approach them appropriately. Otherwise, things look like they could get soggy quickly!

Why Land When a Flyby Would Be Better?

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The view from the tower at Boeing Field is excellent (which makes sense, of course) but, when planes are landing from the south, they will have touched down long before they get close and so are not going to give the best photo opportunities. A small price to pay for having such a good spot to hang out so no complaints from me. However, I was rather pleased with the USAF F-35A demo when it completed its show.

It came in on a curving descent towards the runway but, as it got lower, up came the power and the gear was cleaned up. Keeping it low, the pilot gave us an impressive show as they blasted along the length of Boeing Field’s runway before pulling up aggressively into the downwind. The second time, they did actually land. I would have been fine with a few more of those passes but I guess I shouldn’t be greedy.

Swans in the Overhead

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I was up at Mukilteo one afternoon when I looked above me when I heard the sound of birds. At first, I thought it was a flock of geese, but a closer look led me to think they must be trumpeter swans. They were flying south, and Paine Field was in the direction of their travel. A flock of swans would be suboptimal for an airfield that doesn’t want to have a Sully moment, but I imagine that they didn’t cause any trouble. Their echelon formations looked very cool as they flew over me. I will have to go to Juanita to see if swans are back in residence at this time of year. A trip to Skagit must be on the cards too.

The Lifespan of an Airliner

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Recently, Eastern Air Express brought a 737-300 to Seattle. They had not long had the airframe, and it was freshly painted in their colors. Before they had it, this aircraft had been operated by iAero. They ceased operations so I guess Eastern picked up the airframe as a result of the asset disposal process. The registration is one that shows the history of this jet having been originally with Southwest. I knew I had shots of iAero operations and thought I might have this jet and, sure enough, I do have some images of it.

The thing I didn’t anticipate was that I also shot this plane when it was with Southwest. Just a single shot of it landing at Midway in snowy conditions and the image quality is far from impressive. No winglets fitted at this point either so just the original wing configuration. I am pretty sure that Southwest was the original user, so it is now on (at least) its third operator. Did it go anywhere else before iAero? I don’t know. Will it have another owner after Eastern before it becomes spare parts? We shall see!

Almost Paragliding on the Shore

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Another post from my time on the shoreline at Mukilteo. I was working away on the laptop and a bit oblivious to whatever was outside the car when a flash of color caught my eye. Looking up, a guy was standing across the lot with a paraglider inflated above him. I have no idea what his plan was since he was about as low as he could be and launching somewhere seemed unlikely. Maybe he was testing something. Whatever the reason, this was one of the more unlikely things I have seen in a parking lot!

Sentry Heading Overhead

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Another overflight video to follow on from my A380 video from a while back. I saw a USAF E-3 Sentry show up on FR24 heading directly towards Seattle. I did have some hope that it might be coming to us on its flight from Alaska (with a Denali call sign) but, as it got over the Olympic Peninsula without starting its descent, it was clearly going further afield. I was scanning the sky to see if I could pick it out and, fortunately, it was pulling a small contrail which made it easier to pick up.

As with the A380, I decided that video was the better bet. I did switch to get occasional stills every once in a while, but mainly focused on the video. The motion of the contrails is so interesting to watch and only video allows that to be seen. As it got closer, you could also see the motion of the rotordome on the pylon about the fuselage since the black and white finish makes the slow rotation apparent. It wasn’t long before it had passed overhead and disappeared behind the cloud layer that was to the east of me.

Are Crows My New Cormorant?

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Cormorants have appeared many times on this blog, and they are clearly my favorite. However, I have noticed more and more that I am photographing crows as well. When the light is right, the feathers on crows really show off interesting colors – colors you never think of for a bird that is effectively black. I saw these birds down by the shore one afternoon as the sun was out and they looked so cool that I couldn’t resist a few shots.

More Starlux

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Seattle Tacoma International has been adding a few new airlines in recent times and one of those is Starlux. A Taiwanese carrier, Starlux is not operating to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle with its new A350-900s. It’s already a plane I like to photograph and the Starlux livery is a cool looking one too. I have seen their planes coming in a few times since they first started service (which had its own post) and usually on nicer days which helps make the images a bit better. It’s always an interesting question when new airlines show up as to how well they will do. We shall see whether Starlux has the business model worked out well or not in due course.