Author Archives: Rob

The Lifespan of an Airliner

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.

Rainbows Over the Sound

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In a previous post, I mentioned working from the car on the waterfront at Mukilteo. It was a lovely sunny day while I was there – at least for the most part. However, I did see a rain squall off in the distance across the water. It didn’t stay too far away for long and, at one point, I was sitting in the car as it was pelted with heavy raindrops. It didn’t last long but the rain, combined with the sun, did result in some rainbows over on the sound. Having recently posted photos of rainbows near the house, I seem to be on a bit of a rainbow theme. Here are some shots I took from the parking lot where I was working.

My First Lakota and it Looks Brand New

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The US Army has been taking delivery of a lot of the UH-72 Lakotas in recent years. Despite the number that they have acquired, I had only a single shot for some reason. Then I happened upon one as it visited Boeing Field. It was one of the newer versions – the UH-72B is fitted with the Fenestron anti torque system that dates back to the days of Aerospatiale along with a five bladed rotor. I don’t know how long it had been since this airframe was delivered but the paint was gleaming when I saw it and looked like it could have been fresh from the factory. Either that or they just really look after them!

Mole Destroying My Lawn

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Having struggled to keep rabbits out of the backyard to help the grass grow without weeds (and lost that battle), things took a far worse turn this year. Moles moved in and they managed to destroy things far more effectively than any weed could manage. I tried pushing down the ground where they had been but they soon came back and made things worse. One afternoon, I had barely finished treading down the ground when I saw it moving again. I decided to film the motion of this mole under the lawn since it had clearly won the war.

Reusing an Old E170

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An Embraer E170 might not sound like the sort of plane that would be worth a special trip. Would that trip be more likely on a rainy Saturday afternoon? You might think not but this one seems to have found a second life after an airline career by joining a bizjet charter company. Best Jets International has a fleet of corporate jets but it includes two E170s fitted out in a low-density configuration. One came to Seattle on a charter and, since I wasn’t doing anything else on that rainy day, I figured I would go see if it was marked up in any special way.

The answer to that question was, kind of but not really. A fin that had some markings but otherwise a rather anonymous looking jet. It arrived from Oregon in some gloomy conditions which just make it so easy to get a nice shot. They headed to the FBO where a coach was already there with whoever the passengers were for the onward trip to St Paul MN. While everything was loaded, they fueled up and then it was taxi time for departure. I was hoping they would have to cross the runway to taxiway bravo but apparently the 170 is not too large for the alpha taxiway.

There was a Citation Sovereign ahead of them for departure, but they were soon lined up and rolling. The damp day meant there was a lot of spray as they accelerated and, since they were going a fair distance, the takeoff run was not short so I could get a reasonable shot of rotation. Then they climbed away and were gone. I wonder if we shall see this operator back here again soon. I probably won’t rush back out but it might be nice to get the jet in better conditions.

Hints of Color in the Cascades

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We took a trip into the mountains to see whether the color in the trees was good. We have actually had some lovely colors in our town but a trip into the Cascades is always nice anyway. While I have seen some really colorful shots from up there, our route did not seem to be as vibrant. The leaves were actually more impressive lower down as we were driving to the mountains. However, when we were up at Washington Pass, I decided to use a longer focal length to isolate some of the areas that had color in them.

It is fair to say that things were a little less colorful than I had expected but the little bursts of color that were scattered around the hillsides did make for an interesting contrast. Only a couple of weeks later, the snow had shown up and WSDOT had closed the pass for the winter, so it was good to be there when we were!