I recently took an EasyJet flight from Glasgow to Southampton at the end of a work trip. I boarded from the front of the plane and, as we lined up on the steps, I found myself staring into the inlet of the CFM56 engine on this A320. The blade designs on this older generation of engine are not as complex as the newer LEAP engines but they are still interesting to me. The fan blades still have snubbers on this design and the textures of the metals and the inlet look cool.
Category Archives: aircraft
The Skyvan Lurks in the Distance
Last year, when a group of us made the trip to Sproat Lake to see the Martin Mars one last time at their home base, we did get lucky and saw Hawaii Mars fly. While we were on the ground (or the water), some others were up above us ready to get some air-to-air shots of this mighty aircraft. They were using a Shorts Skyvan as their photo platform because it provides a good rear ramp from which to get some great shots.
Once the Mars was airborne, it headed off to do some local flying. Meanwhile, we saw the Skyvan off in the distance as it flew around awaiting the Mars to join up. Sadly, the Skyvan never came too close to us. My only shots of it were from afar. I think it is the same airframe that the group had used for the show at Abbotsford in the preceding days.
Looking Down on Boeing’s Flightline
The first flight a Boeing 737 makes will usually take it from Renton where it was assembled to Boeing Field – a short distance away – where the flight test facility is located. Here the jets will undergo production flight testing and acceptance testing before delivery to the customers. Given the rate of production, that means there will always be a lot of jets parked on Boeing’s ramp.
Last summer, when I was up the tower at Boeing Field, I had a good view straight along the flight line. Further up the ramp were the active jets while the spot closer to the tower (where there used to be a viewing area before Max problems meant Boeing needed to park jets wherever it could find space) tends to be used for jets that are likely to be stored for longer – planes that were going to a customer that went bust for example.
I Finally Caught the Carbon China Airlines A350
China Airlines has a livery which is fine but not terribly exciting. When they started taking delivery of their Airbus A350s, they had one delivered in a special scheme that had a blue carbon fibre style of design, similar to that which Airbus has painted on one of the development aircraft. This plane had been elusive to me. I had wanted to photograph it for a long time.
My frustration mounted further when I had been in LA for work. I was walking from the hotel to the airport to return home when I looked to my right and saw the jet on short final just a little way north of me. I had my camera with me (in the bag!) and, if I had paid attention, I could easily have got a shot. Instead, I was caught off guard and missed the opportunity.
All of this led to me being really pleased when I was waiting in Heathrow’s Terminal 5 for a flight for work and I saw the plane was on approach. Shooting through windows is never ideal but I wasn’t going to miss the chance this time. The light was nice, and the plane was easy to catch so I finally managed to get a few shots of this cool looking jet.
Reflection Removing – Choose Settings Wisely
A previous post had looked at what was, at that time, a development feature in Photoshop that removed reflections from images. Adobe puts development items in Photoshop first to get user experience with them before rolling them out to the software suite. Since Camera Raw and Lightroom’s develop module are basically the same, once it becomes a production item, it also makes it into Lightroom. Such is the case with the reflection removal tool.
I have used it a few times on shots, and it does work pretty well. It isn’t perfect but can be effective. I tried it out on a Typhoon that was refuelling from a Voyager. Shooting through the windows of the Voyager can be a bit tricky and the reflection removal tool can really help. I gave it a go, and the reflection was swiftly taken out. However, when I checked the rest of the image, I saw that a lot of detail in the shot was gone. It was at this point that I realised that the tool has three settings. I was on Preview. I switched to Best and, while the processing took a lot longer, lo and behold the detail was restored.
I have the overall photo above with the before and after versions for a comparison. Beneath I have two crops of the larger image with the Preview and Best settings. I won’t say which is which, but I think it should be pretty obvious. The tool defaults to Preview when you use it so, if you give it a try, don’t be put off if the initial results are disappointing. Make sure to experiment with the settings.
Paint Finish on the Other Bucc
When I visited The Buccaneer Aviation Group’s event at Kemble, the second airframe was in the process of being prepared for repainting. That is well advanced at the time of writing but, on this day, the airframe had been rubbed back to prepare it. The resulting finish gave a mottled look to the jet, and I thought it could have made a cool idea for a camouflage scheme of its own. I found the patterns it made really appealing.
The jet no longer looks like this so it will be in a historically accurate scheme when next I see it. However, some of these details of the paint are definitely worth remembering.
Amelia, You’re Breaking My Heart
Okay, maybe it should be Cecilia, and you aren’t really breaking my heart, but I just liked the thought of the song. I had never heard of the airline called Amelia. It is a small French airline that does a bunch of charter and government work as well as operating some wet lease services. They had an A320 parked up on a gate a couple down from my departing flight from Lyon. I know someone whose daughter is called Amelia, and he is quite partial to aircraft. Surely, he didn’t name her after an airline? At least he didn’t name her EasyJet!
My First Encounter with an Emirates A350
The history of Emirates and the A350 is one that probably doesn’t make anyone in either Emirates or Airbus happy. They were an early customer for the type but, when Airbus decided to go for a larger engine for the A350-1000, Emirates was really unhappy and cancelled its orders. It was a long time before they decided that the A350-900 should indeed be part of the fleet.
There is still a debate going on about whether they will take the A350-1000 based on engine durability issues in Middle East conditions so who knows what will come. Anyway, all of that is a long-winded way of getting to the fact that the first of their jets have now been delivered. I went to Lyon for a quick work trip and didn’t know that Emirates was using its new jets there.
As we landed, I saw one holding for departure and got some shots through the window of the plane I was on as it departed. A couple of days later, I was departing, and the inbound Emirates had just landed. It was taxiing in as we took off. Some sort of symmetry there. No doubt I’ll see loads of them over time.
Tip Toe the Dragon Rapide in the Crosswinds
I’m pretty sure that, over the years, I have posted about the Dragon Rapide. It was the first plane I ever flew in, and I have seen a few over the years. When I went to Shuttleworth’s show recently, there was a Rapide undertaking pleasure flights. I suspect I might add more pictures of it to this blog before too long, but I am going to start with some images of it landing. There was quite a strong crosswind when I arrived at the airfield and the pilot was quite busy bringing the plane in. A nice bit of wing down technique and she kept this old taildragger under control. A little later the wind was really making things interesting, and it was the other wheel that was brought down first!
Myrtle Avenue on a Windy Saturday
My plans for a Saturday had changed as a result of something outside our control and I was free in the afternoon. With nothing I needed to do, I was tempted to make a trip to Heathrow to get some shots at Myrtle Avenue. I thought my sister might be tempted to check this out too and that proved to be the case. She was persuaded to tag along and so we headed off aiming to be there just before 3pm for the runway switch over. I wasn’t intending to be there for too long – dinner was definitely a necessity! However, there would be plenty of time to get a few different types arriving.
The wind was strong but there was quite an overcast so not perfect conditions for photos but it still offered opportunities. 3pm came and the switch happened. We were not the only ones with the idea and there were plenty of people on the grass when the first jet showed up. It was almost as much fun watching the people that were there as it was the planes. Some families had come out as had photographers and spotters. The ice cream van showed up a few times while we were there so clearly, he was doing a good business.
I did move around a bit to see the different angles. It is a short walk along the A30 to be right on the centreline amongst the approach lights. Having the planes come directly overhead gives some interesting shot possibilities. The overcast conditions were not making this easy and the shadows were dark and the clouds, while not as bright as a clear sky, do actually have way more light than the undersides. Still, it allows some playing around.
There were a few interesting types coming near the time we needed to go. I packed up the stuff but, as we walked back up Myrtle Avenue to the car, we did wait around to catch some different shots. Looking back down the street as the planes appear over the rooftops gives exactly the sort of context that is lacking when just shooting from the grass. I doubt I will go there many times, but it was a fun way to kill a couple of hours.