Category Archives: civil

Why Am I Excited By a White Jet?

I have mentioned A340s and their gradual demise a few times in the blog. Sometimes it has been that I have got ahead of myself. However, I recently was genuinely surprised. Apparently, during the summer, an A340 makes a single flight a week into Oakland from the Azores. I had no idea about this until I read something about it online. A direct flight from Oakland to an island in the middle of the Atlantic? Who would have thought it?

I managed to be in place for the arrival one time. The airline is HyFly. I am guessing you have never heard of them. The jet is chartered from another operator but the whole operation is Portuguese controlled. (The Azores are Portuguese if you didn’t know.). The aircraft is totally unbranded. An all white A340-300 sounds really dull. I guess it really is. However, the novelty certainly caught my attention and I am both pleased and annoyed that I had no idea it was a regular visitor so close to home.

A Surprise Private 757

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If you spend a day somewhere, you can get absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. Alternatively, you can be somewhere for a short time and get a really lucky break. I was down in Hayward awaiting an unusual Airbus movement as I headed to something else and, in the short space of time I was there, someone else showed up. This was a Boeing 757 that has been converted for private charter use. I have actually come across this aircraft before but, when it showed up heading in to Oakland, I was rather pleased with my good fortune.

Norwegian East Bay Arrivals

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Norwegian Airlines have been flying in to Oakland for quite a long time now. They started out with flights from Oslo but they now also have flights from London Gatwick. Despite them having been coming in for a long time, I have never got good shots of them. I have often seen the jets while standing on the BART platform at Bayfair but that is not a time to get a shot. I have also seen them across the bay from the SFO side. Finally I got to see one coming in from the right side of the bay and on the side of the jet that had light.

Norwegian has famous people from that country on the fins of the jets. This one was Edvard Munch. I don’t know how many different people they have on the jets but, with this being the first one I have shot, I don’t have what you would call a collection. It was nice to catch it later in the day as the sun was getting lower. Maybe I shall catch more in due course. However, there won’t be a lot because Oakland is a bit quiet unless you are after Southwest or FedEx jets so I won’t be there often.

Pinal Air Park

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Pinal Air Park is located northwest of Tucson. A number of business operate there. It used to be a location for Evergreen International. They carried out a number of programs of a spooky nature which meant there was strict security controlling access to the area. Evergreen have gone bust so now the airport is a lot less restricted. The hangars and ramp areas are still controlled but the roads around the field are now freely accessible.

The airport is used for active operators but also for storage of airframes. Some of these are planes that are clearly not going to be making it back into the air again. They are either old enough to not be in demand or of a type that has more value in the spare parts they contain than as a complete airframe. That isn’t the case for all of them though. Many of them are stored awaiting another operator finding a use for them. Consequently, you see a variety of aircraft from old TWA 747s to unmarked A330s.

While I was there, a Pratt and Whitney 747SP engine testbed was visible on one ramp while the Global Supertanker 747-400 was not far away. There were also some stored Grumman Goose aircraft (should that be Geese?) that looked like they weren’t moving for a while. A turbine Caribou was on the ramp obscured by a CASA 212. Plenty of variety. This would certainly be a fun place to tour with someone that has good access.

KLM’s New Toy Comes West

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The arrival of the Boeing 787-8 on the scene got a lot of attention. It was a new generation of aircraft with a lot of new technologies. It also was a major disaster for Boeing. Years late, massively over budget and with a grounding, it did not go according to plan. The next version was the 787-9 and, with this one, Boeing really got it right. The -8 was not a bad plane but the -9 is so much better. It carries more and goes further. They also fixed a lot of production issues. The result is a jet that Boeing is happy to sell and airlines want to buy. Boeing does not like building the -8 anymore and you will notice that not many have been sold recently. The -9 is going to be the core product and the -10 stretch will be the second option.

Airlines have been adding the -9 to their fleets in good numbers. Entry of airlines that didn’t order the -8 did pick the -9 and KLM is one of them. They have started spreading them out on services across the world. The demise of the MD-11 in their fleet meant that the 777-300ER and the A330 were their staples. Now the 787 is becoming a big deal and the SFO run is one that they have started using the jet on. I was pleased to see it show up. They still send 747-400s to SFO but the 787 is part of the future. The 747 will be gone before too long. Meanwhile, I enjoy the novelty of the new jet. Soon I shall be glad to see the 747 before it disappears.

Shots from the Flightpath Museum

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On the south side of Los Angeles International Airport is the Flightpath Museum. Charting the history of the airport, it has many artifacts that show how the airport and the airlines that serve it have developed. It also has a terrace area. You can’t be out there without someone being aware of you and what you are doing because you have access to a live ramp area but you can get some good views of the operations in the southern runway complex. Whether it is the arriving aircraft or those taking off, it is a great spot to be to watch what is going on.

There is plenty to see. Off to one side is the freight ramp. You can see some of the freighters loading and unloading before they continue on their way. The arriving jets land a bit away from you but you have a good view of them as they roll out. The departing jets get airborne very close to or a little before you. This provides a different perspective on the aircraft to that you can normally achieve. No fencing in the way. Not too much distance. It is definitely something to check out if you are visiting LAX.

I Never Expected a Sabreliner

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Corporate jets show up at SFO on a regular basis. They will be the usual Gulfstreams or Bombardier jets. However, every once in a while something really unusual will show up. I would love to say that it was part of my planning that this worked out but I was very lucky. I saw on Flightaware that something unusual was coming but I didn’t recognize what it was. I am glad I didn’t because the surprise was more fun. A Sabreliner showed up. I didn’t realize anyone was still flying them. Great stuff.

I Thought I Wouldn’t See This Again

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I have been figuring that the A340s would soon be gone. The original versions are certainly not young jets anymore and there are plenty of newer options for airlines. Consequently, they have been disappearing from service with many airlines. That does not mean that they have all gone though. Interestingly, the A340-300 is still actually a pretty efficient jet while the 600 series, while able to carry more and go further, are less efficient for many services. Still, I see plenty of routes now using 777s that used to have A340s.

Consequently, I was quite surprised to see the return of the Philippines A340 on the SFO route. The 777 is also on this route but they have a second rotation and the 340 is currently making this trip. I was really glad to see it show up again. It can’t be too long before these jets are on their way to the desert. Since it is a summer trip, it isn’t a great time to shoot it but the later arrival does reduce the heat haze. It will be cool if I get it again in better conditions but I am glad to have shot it already, just in case I don’t get another chance.

How Low Can You Go?

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The high ISO capabilities of modern cameras are a constant source of discussion whenever a new camera comes out. It was quite funny to see everyone get so excited about the multi-million ISO range on the Nikon D5 when it was announced, only to see that the high ranges were nothing more than moose with a bit of an image overlaid on them. Not a big surprise but still funny to see how much everyone was going nuts about it before the reality set in.

Consequently, I was interested to see what the new bodies I bought were really capable of. I have already posted a little about some of the shots I took as the light faded at SFO. I was shooting with a tripod and a gimbal mount to make things easier but I was also working within the ISO range of the camera. I went with auto ISO and exposure compensation while shooting in aperture priory and wide open to get what I could. However, I really wanted to see what was possible so I changed to manual mode, exposure compensation and auto ISO to see what could be done. Auto ISO is not going to use the extended ranges of ISO.

I don’t know about the Nikon cameras but the Canon cameras tend to have three extended range ISO settings at the high end. There is the highest ISO setting that it recognizes and then there are H1, H2 and H3. They don’t name them with the actual ISO settings but you know what they are based on what you see on the camera. The manufacturer does not label them as normal ISO settings because they do not stand behind them as a capability. There is a good reason for that. They are just like the highest Nikon settings. Useful if you have no option but not very good otherwise.

The same was true with my older bodies. They had a very high ISO range that was not great but it would do in a pinch. At the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta I shot an Aero Commander in the pitch black that flew over and I saw stuff in the shot I couldn’t see with the naked eye. This is with a camera that is ancient by modern standards. I expected a bit more with the latest generation. Certainly, there is more to be achieved with what we have now. However, post processing becomes a part of the story.

My first experience with these shots was in Lightroom. The shots did not look good at all. However, there was a clue in all of this. The first view in Lightroom is based on the JPEG that is baked into the raw file. It looked okay until it was rendering by Adobe at which point it looked a lot worse. This piqued my interest. Sure enough, at the extended ISO ranges, the shots looked pretty awful. Lots of purple backgrounds. These were not going to be any good. However, the initial preview had looked good., is this a case of Lightroom not being able to render the shots well? I figured I should try going to the source.

At various ISAP symposiums, the Canon guys have talked about how their software is the one that you should use since only Canon know how to decode their shots properly. They have the recipe for the secret sauce. Since Digital Photo Professional (DPP), Canon’s own software for decoding raw files, is so terrible to use, I never bother with it. The raw processing in Lightroom (and ACR since they are the same) is so much easier to use normally and works really well. DPP is just awful in comparison. However, we are now dealing with the extremes of capabilities of the camera. The embedded previews seemed better so maybe it is possible that DPP will be able to do a better job.

You can now be the judge. Here are some pairs of shots. They are the same shot in each case. The first is processed in Adobe Lightroom and the second is processed in DPP. I think it is clear that DPP is better able to work with the raw files when it comes to extreme ISO settings. The shots certainly have a more normal look to them. The Lightroom shots look really messed up by comparison. It doesn’t mean I will be using the extended ISO ranges on a regular basis. Jumping to DPP for processing is not helpful on a regular basis. However, if the need arises, I know that I can push the camera a lot further and use DPP to get something that is okay if not great. This could be handy at some point.

One of the Bigger Corporate Jets

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There are plenty of types of corporate jets. However, some organizations (or individuals) decide that what they really need is something a little larger. How about a Boeing 767-200? This one was shooting an approach to SFO. The owner is listed as Blue Sky Holdings. Who are they you wonder? Who can say? They do fly in and out of Moffett Field though and that is owned by quite a large company. Maybe there is a connection? Maybe not?

Either way, it was a cool thing to see pop into the viewfinder one afternoon. Sometimes, you just get lucky. I also like the registration that they have for the jet. N2767 is not bad for a 767-200. Apart from that, the jet is pretty anonymous. You certainly can’t guess anything about it from the outside. I wonder what it looks like inside?