Category Archives: civil

Another go at the 777-300ER wheels

I have been trying to get evidence of a feature of the Boeing 777-300ER for many years. I previously posted on my efforts to get shots that showed the effect where the main gear bogie is locked to allow the aircraft to get a higher rotation angle at take-off. I have since had another go at this. Taking pictures during the winter has helped since the heat haze is a lot less obvious. Even so, the aircraft are usually quite a distance away. This time I managed to get a sequence that seems to show the effect quite well.

I also had a go at doing the same thing from head on. Not quite as clear cut but you can see some of what is happening.

Jet Airways/Etihad

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This one caught me out. I was at SFO getting some shots when I heard Etihad call up on the tower frequency. I didn’t realize that Etihad flew to SFO and then saw the plane was a Jet Airways 777-300ER – an Indian airline. I was a bit confused by all of this so took some shots thinking it was something unusual going on. Turns out it is not unusual. Etihad have leased some jets from Jet Airways to allow them to add service while they are short on jets of their own. This was one of those jets.

Howard 500 at Nut Tree

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Just a quick post today. I have been to Nut Tree Airport a few times. There is an old Howard 500 parked up at one side of the field. I had never taken a picture of it since it was a bit out of the way. For some reason, I completely forgot about it when they had the Mustangs Day when it would have been easy to wander over and get a shot. I forgot! So, when in Vacaville recently for something else, I popped across briefly to get a couple of shots over the fence. Just something to prove to myself that I had seen it!

USAirways is Going

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The merger of American Airlines and USAirways is now getting close to the point where the two airlines become one. A lot of the USAirways aircraft and undergoing the repainting process to the colors of the combined airline. It won’t be too long before they have all gone and another airline’s colors will be consigned to history. Given that there is enthusiasm for retro schemes, some will remain. However, I thought I would have a little retrospective of some USAirways planes.

There are two liveries that dominate the shots I have. I flew on USAirways in the 90s but don’t have much to show of the colors that they had then (or the US Air name!). They have a big fleet so the transition won’t be instant but it will suddenly occur to me that the old colors aren’t showing up any more. In advance of that time, here are some samples of the old colors.

Oblique Wing

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Hiller Aviation Museum has another aircraft I find interesting. This is the AD-1 Oblique Wing research aircraft from NASA. I have crossed paths with this machine before. I have seen it at Hiller before but it was also still at Edwards when I paid a visit to the NASA facility there in 1990. The oblique wing concept is an interesting one. Swing wing aircraft aim to combine he low speed and high speed characteristics required into one plane by having multiple wing sweep angles. The oblique wing approach aims to simplify this by having a single wing that pivots. The sweep angle is the same but eh CG is unaffected and the pivot mechanism much simpler.

Forward swept wings are fine so, while the oblique wing looks odd, it should be practical. It will have some interesting aeroelastic issues to be dealt with but, it should be possible to engineer. Whether it will then deliver the benefits has never been tested. The AD-1 was a low speed research aircraft only but it flew many times over the years it was in service. Now it hangs from the roof of the museum.

End of the Brasilia?

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“You don’t know what you’ve lost ‘til it’s gone” as the song goes. These days a number of aircraft types are fading away and the previous lack of interest shown when they were commonplace gets replaced with a sudden wish to make the most of their final days. One type that is likely to be disappearing from the skies around here before too long is the Embraer EMB120 Brasilia.

It isn’t disappearing in total but the largest operator of the type around here is Skywest. Skywest uses the Brasilia for their services and for those of United Express. However, the relatively small capacity of the type is making them uneconomical to operate – something the age of the airframes is probably not helping. I think I have only flown on one a couple of times when I was connecting on Comair from Cincinnati to Greenville-Spartanburg (and back) in 1990. I recall it being a rather noisy beast inside.

As Skywest draws down their fleet, they will soon be gone. Ahead of that time, here are a few shots I have gathered over the years.

More Head On at SFO

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After my visit to the Peninsula was done, I decided to head back to SFO. This time I wanted to have another go at head on shots. In my post here, you can read about my first efforts at this and how the heat haze was a problem. Winter has better chances since the sun is lower and the heat haze reduced. However, the sun does go down earlier so there are fewer flights departing while you can still shoot. They do tend to have nicer light though.

The Emirates and Lufthansa A380s were the main things I got while I was there. A British Airways 747 was scheduled out but the sun was dropping out of sight as he taxied so I didn’t wait. He actually took off over me while I was at the gas station. He had nice light once up high but the runway would have been in shade by then so I don’t think it was a mistake.

I also got some corporate and rotary wing movements while I was waiting. Unlike last time, the 01s are now back in use so only the heavies departed my way. It was fun to look back up the approach at some parallel arrivals and also to see the departing jets as they crossed in front of me.

SFO from the Bay

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While not a specific trip to shoot planes at SFO, I did have some time by the bay to get some shots of the planes as a result of being on the peninsula for another purpose. It was earlier on a Saturday morning that I found myself there. Winter is a better time to shoot at SFO since the heat haze is less of an issue. Even so, I was surprised to see how much haze there was for shots that were looking back towards the approach. I’m not sure if this was a result of the tide being too far out exposing the mud flats or not. The angle of the light early is also a bit far back but still there were some options.

I was pleasantly surprised by my luck while I was there. Despite there not being too much traffic, I had a couple of parallel approaches take place. One was a China Eastern A330 with a United A320 in close contact. This was a very cool thing to see. A couple of United A319s also were quite close together on another approach but they had just slightly more offset.

BAe 146 Demonstration at LCY

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In my youth I had one of the coolest jobs I have ever had. I spent a summer working for the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in London as part of their noise measuring unit. I spent a lot of time traveling to various different airfields to make noise measurements of the air traffic. I often took a camera along with me on these jaunts.

One trip was some weekend working – overtime! At that time, London City Airport was relatively new and was a turboprop only airport being served by Dash 7s, principally of Brymon Airways. Very different from its current role, it was still a relatively new airport with a shorter runway. There was a lot of interest in adding jet service to the airport with the BAe146 seen as the type that could meet the requirements of the glideslope as well as concerns about noise. This is where we come in!

A demonstration was set up one weekend with a couple of 146s operating from the airport. We were there to take some noise readings to compare them to the turboprops. (As an aside, I felt the noise from the Dash 7s was far more intrusive, even if the readings were actually lower than for the jets.) We went along with our noise measuring gear and took a bunch of readings. There was a period during the day when the flying wasn’t taking place and we were allowed to go to the airport to get fed. Since we had CAA passes, we also got to head on to the ramp.

These shots are what I got that day. Nothing too impressive as tends to be the case for my old stuff. The original scans showed up a lot of damage to the negatives which required much time in Photoshop to take out the worst of it. Still not the cleanest of images but a day that won’t be repeated which is enough to justify a post and a chance to share an old experience.

MetLife Blimp

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We have had the MetLife blimp flying around our area a lot recently. I don’t know what brought it to us. It may have been tied to some sports events or perhaps it is just a campaign for brand awareness. The blimp has been based out of Livermore Airport near us. Nancy had seen it at night over there lit up when she drove past.

Then we had it flying one evening. I had seen it previously just before sunset but I wasn’t ready to get a shot and by the time I was, it had gone. Shame because the light was great. Then it showed up at night. It was pretty dark so I had to really take the ISO up. My camera has pretty good high ISO capability but nothing like the current generation of bodies. However, it did a reasonable job.

Next time I came across the blimp I was up at Sonoma. I heard an odd noise and thought it might be a helicopter. However, Skypark does not allow rotorcraft. Instead it was the blimp shooting a low approach. They weren’t on the banned list so I guess it was okay! The climb out was quite dramatic!