Category Archives: civil

Erickson Aircraft Collection

I attended a course recently that was held in Madras OR at the home of the Erickson Air Museum. This museum is a fantastic collection of vintage aircraft, some of which were used for the course, more of which will appear on this blog in due course. At various times while we were there, I had the opportunity to wander around the museum and see the collection. This included during the evening when a party was underway but which also meant they had some interesting illumination.

The majority of the aircraft are warbirds but not all of them. A Bellanca was present which is, to be generous, a most unusual looking aircraft. I would certainly have liked to have seen it outside had the opportunity arisen but that wasn’t to be. There was also a Martin Mauler which is an aircraft I had never heard of previously. It looks like a Skyraider but you could tell it was different. It was just hard to know what it was without checking the information on the display.

Madras is not on the trail for most people so I imagine the museum does not have a lot of people happening upon it. However, it is a nice facility with a great collection and a super bunch of people working there. If you like warbirds and vintage aircraft, it should definitely be visited at some point.

EC145

Leave a Reply

The EC-145 is an helicopter I have yet to decide about. A bigger type than the EC-135, I am not sure it carries the extra size as gracefully as it could. It has a slightly bug-like look to it I think. The most recent updates have added a Fenestron to replace the tail rotor. That can sometimes be a good thing but on this type it seems like they have picked a slightly larger unit from the parts bin by mistake. The fin section seems pretty large. Even so, I am not totally against it. It certainly seems smooth and quiet as it flies by. This one did look kind of cool…

Charlie November

Leave a Reply

The Isle of Wight may be a pretty small island but it has had a number of significant aerospace projects over the years. One of the most successful is the Britten Norman Islander. A twin piston aircraft, the Islander has been in production for decades and provides passenger and freight service all around the world. Developed and produced for many years in Bembridge, the history of the Islander is important to a lot of the local residents.

A group of them got together to recover and preserve the third Islander ever built. G-AVCN (or Charlie November) was the first production aircraft following on from the two prototypes, neither of which is still in existence. It was recovered in pieces from the Caribbean and returned to Bembridge for restoration. I worked with the project leader on a feature for GAR that can be read here.

My mum is involved in the project so she took me down to the restoration facility to take a look at the airframe as it currently looks. The fuselage is pretty much completed. Now the focus is on the restoration of the wing. They are also looking for the final location where the aircraft will be put on display. It is painted in the colors of Aurigny – an airline that has flown many Islander and Trislander aircraft over the years including Charlie November. Things were a little cramped for photography where the plane is at the moment but it was cool to check out a significant part of the Island’s aviation history.

Another JetStar for the Collection

Leave a Reply

Regular followers of the blog who like aviation will know I have a soft spot for Lockheed JetStars. While my luck has not always been great in chasing them down, I have come across a few at various times. Hayward Airport is the home of a couple of them. There is one I have seen move through on a few occasions but I thought there was another based (or stored) on the field. At one point it seemed to be out in the middle of the ramp but, more recently, when I was flying in to Oakland, it appeared to have moved over to near the road.

I figured I would try and see it if I was passing by early in the day. Finally a chance came to do this and I stopped off en route back from Oakland. The plane was parked up conveniently close and the fence in front was not too high. I don’t recognize the registration as being one I have seen before so this is a good one to add. While I haven’t seen any sign of this plane moving, it could be blocked from tracking. It certainly looks to be in great condition which would seem likely if it was unused. Maybe I will catch it moving one day.

DC-7 Tanker

Leave a Reply

I previously posted an item about the DC-7 tanker that was parked up on the Erickson ramp. Over the course of the few days we were there, this aircraft had a few visits from me. It’s positioning was not always ideal for what I wanted. The evening light was often great for photos but, sadly, the aircraft was almost exactly tail on to the setting sun. However, that did provide some silhouette options as well as playing with HDR to see if I could come up with something I liked.

One morning the sun came up as there was still some rain in the area. There was some good light on the nose for a while but the best option was the rainbow that formed in the background and was well aligned with the aircraft. I tried a variety of things over the days and some of those results are here. Of course, it would have been far more fun to see it in action!

DHL Freighters

Leave a Reply

DHL planes are hard to miss. The bright yellow livery they carry is not one that you are going to miss easily. They may not have the wide reach of FedEx or UPS in the US but Boeing Field is a regular stop for them. The 767 is one of their staples, much as it is for all express carriers. They also make use of the 757 which pleases me given my fondness for the first airliner I ever flew on.

Evening light is the best for getting a DHL jet since the yellow positively glows when the low sun gets on it. I had a bit of traffic during this visit and these are the jets I saw.

Some King County Light Aircraft

Leave a Reply

Some of my trips to Boeing Field are pretty quiet. Others seem to involve a constant stream of traffic. With some interesting large machines appearing on a regular basis, it is easy to overlook the variety of smaller types that come through. Some of these are commercial operations using planes like the Cessna Caravan. Others are purely private users either based on the field or passing through.

Since my posts don’t give them any coverage normally, I thought I would just throw a selection of different types in to this post. They might still not be getting as much attention as they could but at least you can see some of what is going on there.

Life in the Old (Mad) Dog Yet

Leave a Reply

Firefighting aircraft have often been older airframes converted for the task when their primary life is over. This has meant a lot of old piston types -both civil and military – have become tankers. Now there is a generation of jet airliners that are becoming viable candidates for conversion. I previously posted some shots of a BAe146 tanker. Erickson has been active in converting McDonnell Douglas MD-87 airframes to tankers and has a number already in service.

Dominating the flight line outside the Erickson hangars was a line of three MD-87s that had been acquired from Spain. They appeared to have come from a couple of operators and we sitting in storage. Most apertures were taped up and some panels/doors had been removed. However, these airframes are not destined to be parts donors. All of them are scheduled for conversion to tankers. Before too long they will be active supporting firefighting efforts across the country. The introduction of modern jet types to service should provide increased performance and the ability to respond faster to situations further away. They should provide a welcome boost to firefighting capability.

Preserved American Airlines 727

Leave a Reply

The Museum of Flight in Seattle is currently in the process of building a new facility. While the work is underway, a number of airframes have been moved from their previous location to alternative spots until they can be moved to their new home. Most of them are still near the museum itself. However, the 727 seems to have drawn the short straw and it was parked up on Clay Lacy’s FBO ramp while I was visiting. It was near Joe Clark’s Learjet as well. Some cool stuff to look at for any visiting jets at the FBO!

Is There Any Oil in This Thing?

Leave a Reply

Parked up on the ramp at Erickson’s facility was a DC-7 tanker. It didn’t move while we were there so it became the target of a number of photographers at any one time. I shall show more of it shortly but one thing that caught my attention was the amount of oil on the engine nacelles. Old piston engines are well known for consuming oil at a prodigious rate and this beast was no exception. It seemed to have done a great job of relocating the oil from the internals of the engines to the outside of the nacelles. It made for some great patterns and this was what distracted me for a while as I walked around the aircraft.