Category Archives: civil

Scimitar Tips

Aviation Partners Boeing has been very effective over the years in getting their technology into mainline airline service. The winglets they developed for the Boeing 737 have been very widely adopted with installations on 300 Series, 700 Series, 800 Series and 900 Series jets around the world. The BBJs have also had them extensively. I don’t think any new 737s are delivered without them. The programs for the 757 and 767 have also been well adopted.

The 737 Max is going to have a new winglet design that Boeing have created. However, it is a way from flying. Meanwhile, APB has not stood still and they have created a new winglet design that has a downward portion mated to an updated winglet under the name scimitar. This is now making an appearance on a lot of jets as a retrofit. Southwest, United and Alaska have all started rolling the installation out.

I like the look of the new design. The tip seems to be a bit of a styling effort. The downward facing portion is well aligned to avoid creating a drag inducing choke area at the root. The configuration is actually quite reminiscent of the original winglet designs in the paper Richard Whitcomb wrote when first proposing the concept. I suspect we shall be seeing a lot more of them in the future.

SFO Night Time Lapse Take 2

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Last summer my friend Paul had been across and we had hatched a plan to shot some time lapse and night streak shots of SFO from a hill that overlooks the airport. The plan seemed like a good one but it was thwarted by two things. First, there was some cloud in the area which obscured some fo the view. Second, it doesn’t get dark until late in the summer and Paul was on UK time so was pretty worn out by the time we could do anything.

Instead, we concluded that a second attempt would be made when he was over during the winter. So it was that we found ourselves back up on the hill. We had come well prepared this time with sturdy tripods and good cable releases. The only thing I had forgotten was the chairs since you have a lot of time to hang around on a dark hillside taking shots like this. I took a long sequence of shots that would be edited into the time lapse. When I got home, some quick work in LRTimelapse and the video was together as you can see below. I also decided to see how well the sequence would blend together to get a streak image. I have never tried to work with quite so many layers in Photoshop before. It certainly struggled with it but it did work. Unfortunately, there must have been some very slight movement on the tripod because the ground lights did not exactly align which made for a blurry foreground when using the Lighten blend mode. To counter this, I duplicated one of the base layers and masked that back in to give the ground a clearer image. The blended version is the one at the top of the post.

McCarran Morning

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I have never actually shot at McCarran International Airport at Las Vegas. My only time shooting nearby was the hunt for the Janet jet last time I went to Red Flag but I had never tried the many spots the airport has to offer. With a quiet morning and Chris Wood as my guide, we went to the airport to shoot the morning arrivals and departures.

There are, apparently, many good places to shoot at McCarran. As the day progresses, the useful locations change but there is always somewhere that can work and Chris has checked them all out at various times. This time we were at the parking garage watching the traffic on the 01 runways. This gives the classic Las Vegas shots with the casinos in the background.

Nothing special to talk about for this shoot. Just a chance to try out a new place for me. I was surprised that, despite the strong sun and reasonable distance to the aircraft, the heat haze was really not a problem. The traffic was pretty predictable stuff but a new place always means it is a bit more interesting. Then something more special did show up but that will get its own post.

San Jose Airliners

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The corporate jets we saw at San Jose were supplemented by some airliner traffic too. The airport appears to be a bit of a Southwest hub but there were other types as well. Alaska was on the move too including one of their Disney jets. We also had a CRJ in American Eagle colors with actual paint rather than polished metal. This will soon be repainted in the new scheme no doubt.

San Jose Biz Jets

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San Jose is not an airport I had even shot at before. Paul and I decided to try it out on our way back to Dublin. There appeared to be a parking area near the threshold so we figured that was worth a shot and put it in to the GPS. As we drove there, Paul checked out Flightaware to see whether there was much due in. A few airliners and a couple of corporate jets were on the system but nothing too dramatic.

We got to the location and, sure enough, there was a good parking area with a pretty clear view of the approach if you avoided some trees. As we pulled in and sat in the car, a Global Express flew by. I was a touch bummed by this since, if we had missed a cool movement, would there be anything else. As it turned out, I was wrong to worry. San Jose seems to have a steady flow of corporate jet movements. Many of them are blocked on Flightaware, hence us not knowing they were coming. We didn’t have long before we had to be somewhere else but, in that time, we got a lot of biz jet traffic.

San Jose is convenient for a lot of high tech companies so they base their aircraft there. We got the Apple G650 in the short time we spent. I have to say, I thought Apple would have made it look a bit cooler but there you go. Maybe they want to be inconspicuous. One of the local guys told us which ones were regulars based on the field. He was less bothered by them but we were interested as first timers.

Monterey Regional Airport

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My buddy Paul was in town for a day so we headed off to see what we could find. It was a Sunday and the less than ideal transportation options of San Francisco on a Sunday meant we had a slightly later start than planned. We decided to check out Monterey since the airport there has quite a lot of corporate movements as well as some military at the weekends. It also has a viewing area on top of the terminal and a spot for lunch if nothing much is happening.

As it turned out, there was not too much going on. We did get a few interesting jet and turboprop movements but not too much. It really was a quiet day so we took the lunch option and wandered around the displays in the terminal before deciding to head on somewhere else.

787s

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Boeing is building 787s at something like ten a month these days. Consequently, seeing a Dreamliner is not such an unusual event any more as they are getting to the airlines at a rapid pace. However, it does mean that more airlines are getting the type. I have not seen a whole lot of different carriers using them yet although that will, no doubt, change. However, when a new one shows up, it does get my interest. China Southern started flying them to SFO and I saw my friend Roger had caught one. It has a pretty interesting color scheme so I wanted to get one too but they only fly three times a week and I hadn’t been there on one of those days.

Then I did end up in place when one was coming in. I heard it call up on the approach so knew it was coming in. At this point, my brain shut down completely. Another Asian jet was taxiing out of the international terminal area and came straight across the runway to taxi up alongside the bay. This provides a good view and some nice shot possibilities so I starting shooting it. Meanwhile, guess what was landing. I only realized at the last moment. I did get some shots of it on the ground but not exactly what I had in mind. However, since they will be coming for a long time, I guess I needn’t beat myself up too much. There will be another chance. In the mean time, here are a selection of Dreamliners I have shot so far, even if some of them are not in pristine condition!

Kansas Aviation Museum

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One nice aspect of traveling a lot for work is that you periodically find yourself near to your friends and can make a visit. A recent trip had me not too far from Wichita and needing to spread the trip over a weekend so I was able to pop up and visit Steve and Alysia. On the Saturday, Steve had a suggestion for something to do. It was the Kansas Aviation Museum. What on earth made him think that I might like that I wonder?

The museum is based at McConnell Air Force Base. It is located in the old civilian terminal building that has just undergone an extensive restoration. There is quite a collection of aircraft both within the building and outside. Given the major role that Wichita has played in aviation, it isn’t surprising that they have a lot of material to work with. Displays are in place throughout the museum along with some learning exhibits focused on a slightly younger audience so we obviously didn’t play with them.

The smaller and more delicate types are inside the terminal. This sometimes means they are a little cramped being fitted in wherever the building will allow them to go. The larger stuff is outside. You can walk out amongst them. The 727 and 737 are not too surprising –many ex FedEx 727s are now scattered around the US – but the B-47 and B-52 are nice to see. I never knew that Beech made a jet version of the Mentor. That’s because there is only one of them and it is on display although not in great shape. A Starship is always a nice find and an early Learjet is welcome too.

The old tower is open and a climb up there gives a good view across the displays as well as across to the KC-135s on the ramp of the base. The Boeing hangars are extensive although now dormant and the Spirit factory is just off behind you.

There is a lot to see. The tower would be a fun place to be when the field is busy too. The collection is possibly in need of some extra attention just to keep the basics together. Museums like this are always struggling to get volunteers in to keep everything going so I wish them the best and hopefully they will be able to sustain what they have going.

Shed Time

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The Shed is a nickname that has been shared by three aircraft built by Shorts Brothers. The Skyvan, the 330 and the 360 have all, at times, been given the same nickname. Small numbers of all three aircraft continue in service but they are not a common sight. However, a cargo operator does bring a 360 into SFO on a daily basis. I caught it departing recently and felt its rarity value deserved a post. It is not going to win prizes for looks (and some guys I used to know who flew them were less then complimentary about their handling in icy conditions) but here you go anyway.

Yet More Head On

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I had another trip to SFO to go shooting with my friend Hayman. We shot at a couple of locations and ended up at the spot I have tried shooting head on before. Not a huge amount of traffic and they varied which runway was used. Heat haze was a bit of a problem but still got some variations on what I had been seen before.

I was shooting with a zoom rather than a prime which meant I tried some vertical format stuff as the planes climbed away from the runway. There were also a few shots of paired departures off the cross runways to go with as well. A helicopter even got into the mix!