We get a lot of Kodiak 100s in the Seattle area. Both Boeing Field and Renton have them based or passing through. With the factory across the mountains in Idaho, we aren’t that far from their origin. Recently, Daher announced the creation of the Kodiak 900. This is a larger airframe that has been cleaned up to improve performance. I don’t know whether it retains the short and rough field capabilities of the 100 or not but it is still a rugged looking type.
I had not seen one until we got a visit from one at Boeing Field. Others have been through but I had not caught them. When I saw this one was on its way, I was looking forward to comparing it to the original aircraft. I saw a picture of the airframe online which suggested it was plane white which was not great but you can’t have everything can you? Well, I guess I was lucky as they had painted the aircraft up in a type of faded camo look. They seem to be aiming it at some sort of surveillance role judging by the markings on it. They will probably become very common before too long as have the 100s but, for now, it was a nice thing to get a chance to shoot.
The Concrete Fly In this year was a little different. Our friend Bob couldn’t make the trip because he was not in good shape. Little did we know it at the time, but Bob was going downhill and would not pull out. Knowing this now makes the visit to Concrete without him feel very different. However, on the day, it was a lot of fun. Plenty of interesting planes, some rather hot weather, finding spots in the shade to take it easy, watching the usual bunch of slightly awkward approaches and landings alongside plenty of perfectly normal ones. There is nothing quite like being able to be so close to a runway while planes come and go with everyone happy to be there. If you haven’t gone, do try and get there at some point.
On the trip the guys made to see the Martin Mars fly, we stopped by Victoria International Airport on Vancouver Island. Round the back of the field, there were two S-61 airframes sitting doing nothing in particular. One was in the markings of British International Helicopters. It has been a very long time since I last heard of that operation. Apparently, the company has gone through various incarnations over the years. It did operate scheduled flights to the Scilly Isles off Cornwall with S-61s so maybe this airframe came from that service. Has it been sitting here ever since?
I was working through some shots of the 777X development aircraft as it landed at Boeing Field and I noticed a couple of the front windows were blanked out. One was a conspicuous sensor of some sort but not far behind it is one blank that looks a lot more normal but also seems to have some sensor protruding from it. No idea what they are sensing but I imagine it is important.
The arrival of the Starlux A350 has already appeared in a previous post. I got there a little ahead of its scheduled approach and, since I was playing around with using my longer lens, I decided to try shooting some of the preceding arrivals with the same lens from head on to get some tighter compositions and see just what would work before the planes got chopped off by the limited field of view. I had a variety of types coming in from the little E175s to 777Fs. They gave me some things to work with and I quite like how some of them came out. A bit of variety is good when the subjects are very repetitive.
GlobalX (also known as Global Crossing Airlines) seems to have a variety of ways in which it paints its airliners. Not sure what the strategy is with the liveries. Maybe they are used for different roles or clients or maybe they just can’t make up their minds. Whatever it is, there are some interesting ways to brand the airline. Here are the ones that I have seen so far.
A while back, I was wandering around the Kenmore Air base at the top of Lake Washington. I saw a camouflage painted Otter on the parking area and grabbed some quick shots. More recently, it was operating on the lake with a new registration and Kenmore’s own markings. I guess they have taken it on charge. Not sure where it came from, why it is painted in this scheme and whether it was always the plan for it to be added to the Kenmore fleet but here it is!
The increase in air traffic post the pandemic has been significant and international travel has been boosted. Seattle Tacoma International Airport has been adding to its international destinations with new operators on a pretty regular basis and the most recent new addition has been Starlux. Starlux is a Taiwanese airline operating services to Taipei with its fleet of new Airbus A350-900s. I had seen that they were operating to San Francisco and was a little jealous of not getting to see this new fleet but, now they are coming here, I can see them too. Here is one of their jets on approach to SEA to inaugurate the service.
The retirement of the Martin Mars firefighting aircraft of Coulson took place about eight years ago and the two remaining aircraft have been in storage at Sproat Lake on Vancouver Island ever since. I have previously swung by when en route to Tofino to take a look at them but I had never seen them in the water. Recently it was announced that they were both moving to their final resting places. Hawaii Mars was to go to the British Columbia Aviation Museum in Victoria with Philippine Mars heading to Pima. The flight of Hawaii Mars was to include a bunch of flybys at significant locations in the area before ending up at Victoria.
This got a ton of attention in the aviation world, but it was just as big a deal for the local population. It was interesting to discover just how important these planes were to the people in the area as everyone I met was interested in them and had something to say about them. A bunch of us decided to head up the weekend that the move was supposed to take place. The original plan was to go on the Saturday which had been suggested as the move date. As things got closer, it became clear the move would be on the Sunday instead.
In the week before, the plane had been out on the lake doing taxi trials and then getting some flying time in. It became apparent that another flight would probably occur on the Saturday for some photo work. We had settled on a plan to head to Sproat Lake and rent a boat to go and see it in the water. The potential for some flying was a nice bonus.
When we rented the boat, the guy at the rental facility suggested to us that we should check out the flying boat while we were there. We explained that was the only reason we were there at all! It wasn’t far from the dock to Hawaii Mars at its mooring buoy. We were not the only ones interested. The plane was surrounded by boats, kayaks, paddle boarders and even some people swimming up to it from whatever they had come up on. As we worked our way around the plane to get images, it was a constant effort to be aware of who else was nearby and coming in or out of the shot. Some boats were going under the wings which took them perilously close to the props but, thankfully, nothing went wrong. We were still hoping for a flight, of course, but more to come on that.
Vancouver and Vancouver Island are busy with floatplane activity. It should have occurred to me that, when we were staying in Nanaimo, that there would be floatplanes to see. It didn’t, though. When we took a walk along the waterfront, I had only taken a camera with a short lens attached. This was not ideal for getting images of the planes in motion but it worked out just fine when they came in close. We walked along one of the breakwaters surrounding the harbour and, when one of the planes taxied in, it came right by the end of this breakwater. Sometimes a short lens will do the trick!
We get a lot of Kodiak 100s in the Seattle area. Both Boeing Field and Renton have them based or passing through. With the factory across the mountains in Idaho, we aren’t that far from their origin. Recently, Daher announced the creation of the Kodiak 900. This is a larger airframe that has been cleaned up to improve performance. I don’t know whether it retains the short and rough field capabilities of the 100 or not but it is still a rugged looking type.
I had not seen one until we got a visit from one at Boeing Field. Others have been through but I had not caught them. When I saw this one was on its way, I was looking forward to comparing it to the original aircraft. I saw a picture of the airframe online which suggested it was plane white which was not great but you can’t have everything can you? Well, I guess I was lucky as they had painted the aircraft up in a type of faded camo look. They seem to be aiming it at some sort of surveillance role judging by the markings on it. They will probably become very common before too long as have the 100s but, for now, it was a nice thing to get a chance to shoot.
