I had never heard of a Vashon Ranger before I looked up the registration of one I saw flying up here in the Pacific Northwest. On this day, a couple of them were out flying and, while it isn’t the most sleek shape or the highest performer, it is a different little beast and therefore worthy of attention. I will have to do some research about the company behind them and how many there are but I imagine I shall see more of them around.
The Epic E1000 is a development of a kit built turboprop aircraft called the Epic LT. It has been around for a while and the development from kit built to certificated production aircraft has been very drawn out. While many similar projects falter, this one seems to have hung in there. I think there are a only one or two of the production E1000 aircraft at the moment and one came to BFI. I caught it rolling out after landing and then taxiing to the Modern ramp. It is a curious looking airframe.
It later departed but it was hard to get a good shot. It got airborne early and there was quite a crosswind so they nosed in to that and towards my position. I effectively got head on and underside shots only so barely identifiable. Still, it was good to see it. I have seen some of the earlier airframes in California and at Oshkosh but not for a while!
If I see a GIV these days, it barely gets any attention from me. Sure, I’ll take a shot, but I am not getting excited. Go back a generation, though, to the G-III and suddenly I am definitely paying attention. One came to BFI recently and, while I was at the wrong end for an arrival airborne shot, I did see in the distance on final (no heat haze thankfully) and then as it rolled out and headed to the ramp at Modern. It was also in a nice dark paint job and it looked pretty cool.
It didn’t hang around too long. I watched it taxi across the field and up to the departure end. Then it was time for the long lens. The old Spey engines don’t have as much grunt as the later Tays so I anticipated a longer takeoff run and was not disappointed. I then watched it climb out with the Speys belching smoke. The engines are hushkitted but are still noisy beasts. As it climbed away, I got a clear view through the hush kits including the lobes of the exhaust diffusers. What a fun thing to see.
Arlington has a gliding club and they were active on a Sunday visit. They had two gliders in action while I was there. Both are Let gliders, one a Super Blanik and the other a Solo. The tug was their Pawnee and it was busy getting them up. Neither glider was spending long airborne. They towed up to the north and were released and seemed to be straight back in to downwind and then landing. Sometimes, they beat the Pawnee back in.
They were a long way from me on the other side of the field but, with cool winter conditions, the heat haze was only an issue close to the ground and, as they climbed away, you had a pretty clear shot against the mountains.
This Cessna 185 looked in great condition and any plane on floats is going to get my attention anyway. The buzz saw sound of a 185 as it takes off will definitely get your attention but it is not so intrusive when it returns. Having some nice winter light on it was a good thing and floats just make any place look better.
Korean Air’s fleet of bizjets come through Seattle quite frequently. Their BBJs are not uncommon. They use the airfield as the departure point for the trans-Pacific route to Korea. Unfortunately, they often arrive in the middle of the night and head straight back out again. I timed it well when they were making a daytime stop. I got the arrival and the departure this time.
Conditions were not great but, last time I shot one of their BBJs, the high sun made the livery glare a bit. Flat lighting avoided that this time. The departure was a good one for me. The route across the Pacific is a long one so the plane was pretty heavy. This meant it rotated a long way down the runway and closer to me and was still only just climbing when it was level with me. I went with a long lens which meant things got large quickly. It did give me some shots I was pretty happy with, though.
Stopping for lunch at BFI, I was happy to be informed by someone already there that there were a couple of Super Hornets from the US Navy that had departed earlier and were due back shortly. I was able to munch on my sandwiches and do a little work while I waited but it wasn’t too long before they arrived. Initially, they appeared to be making a section approach but, as they got closer to the field, the separated and came in with about a 30 second spacing. One of the jets had some squadron colors which is always welcome these days. Not a dynamic approach but still a nice surprise.
But of course it is! This Pitts lives at Arlington and I got to get some time watching its owner doing some pattern work. He ran it up near where I was prior to getting airborne and then proceeded to fly around the circuit for a while. Generally the approaches were a continuous turning descent which made for some top side views. Of course, the Pitts is not a large plane so, even with a long lens, it was still a bit small in the viewfinder but enough to get some reasonable shots.
The forecast for the day of the Amazon lift was not ideal. It was going to be cold and rainy. Just what you want for photographing something and even better when the helicopter you are most interested in is grey! Oh well, what can you do? Things were scheduled to kick off at 7am so I headed up to Arlington early to be ready.
Naturally, like many things aviation related, it didn’t start on time. I suspect there were other things that they had as part of the plan, but we weren’t privy to that so were just waiting for a helicopter to lift off. It was not very cold, but it was definitely cold enough and damp. I should have dressed warmer and trying to get shots at a low shutter speed when you are shivering is not ideal.
One advantage of a crummy weather day is that you can roll the shutter speed right down and not have silly apertures. That means less need for dust spotting later! On the 100-400, I would have just used a polarizer, but I don’t have one for the 500 so was okay with shooting that at the speeds I wanted to try for.
The Astar was the first to lift. The initial lifts were very slow, but things improved a little as the crews on the roof got into the groove. The Astar was obviously doing the smaller lifts, but it still has significant capabilities and was taking up some big pieces of equipment. Watching it bucking around in the turbulence over the roof as the wind picked up was quite eye opening. I got stills but, since the conditions were not great, I instead went with a bunch of videos. The stills just won’t be that exciting, but video gives you more context.
It was quite a while before the S-61 started up. We had a few false starts when the Astar appeared to land but it was just swapping out lifting lines. Finally, the S-61 got airborne and it started lifting the heavier loads. We had heard that about 50 lifts were planned for the S-61 and 30 for the Astar. After getting some shots and footage, I headed to a few different locations to see whether they had a better angle on things. You never know which bit of the roof will be the site of the next load so a location might be good for a bit and then too far away and obscured. More importantly, I was getting pretty bloody cold. If conditions had been nicer, I would probably have been inclined to hang around a lot longer, but I just couldn’t be bothered. I figured I had enough, and it was time to head home and get warm. I think they extended the NOTAM so things must have taken longer than intended but I was long gone by the time that they finished.
National Airlines has a single A330 and, with their livery being far from dull, it is a neat looking aircraft. It was coming to Boeing Field to drop off a bunch of troops. Why it didn’t go to McChord, I don’t know and I don’t care. I was able to get it on approach and then move down the field to see it parked up on Modern’s ramp. A bunch of coaches arrived to collect the troops and you could see them lining up to grab their kit from the hold.
With everyone on their way, the A330 headed off to its next destination. They had to cross the runway to get to the taxiway on the southwest side of he field since it is the only one able to accommodate widebodies. Then they were heading my way for departure. I stuck with the long lens to get a better rotation shot and then went for a close up of the gear retracting and the National logo on the underside of the plane. Shame the conditions were a bit dull for such a nicely painted plane but still a nice catch.
