Category Archives: civil

Hawaiian Airbus and Friends

While waiting to get the shot of the Janet flight I posted about previously, there were plenty of other departures from McCarran. The majority of flights were coming out on the westerly runway rather than the one the Janets use so we were not getting the nice topside view of them turning. However, the light was very nice and so a few of them provided interesting targets. The Hawaiian Airbus A330 looked particularly nice but most looked good on those conditions. We were a bit focused on finding out how the Janet was doing so didn’t give them our full attention but some looked too good to ignore.

Janets

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The shuttle of flights run out of McCarran Airport, Las Vegas by private contractors for various departments of the US Government are known as the Janets. Previously operated using Boeing 737-200s, the flights have now been upgraded to 737-600s, probably as a result of the low price of these jets given their lack of popularity with airlines. They operate a pretty busy schedule at certain times of day. The flights file a plan to a location and then cancel it en route as they divert to whatever secret installation that is their true destination. Paul, Chris and I decided to try and find a good location to catch one as it departs since they make a tight turn out and should have good light in the evening. Several arrived while we were there and we were too late for one of the departures but we did catch one of them heading out. The light ended up being very favorable.

Vijay’s 727

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Paul and I had a day of exploring and part of this took us up to Sacramento. We checked out things at Mather to see what was going on. Often the interesting things are not what is flying but what is parked up and this proved to be the case with a Boeing 727. It was parked alone at one end of the field. The area it was parked in was kind of interesting as we stopped the car on what had clearly once been a hangar which was now demolished. We were trying to work out how big the hangar was and what the USAF might have kept in it when Mather was an active base. However, the 727 was our primary focus. It was in Kingfisher colors and carried the registration N727VJ. The boss of Kingfisher is Vijay Mallya so this was obviously once his personal jet. It has winglets fitted but the paint looked a bit faded so it might have been out of use for some time. I suspect he has something a bit newer these days.

Coyote Runway Standoff

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Sonoma Valley airport (Schellville) is surrounded by fields and there is wildlife in those fields. I saw a coyote come wandering out of the field and head for the runway. An aircraft had just landed and was taxiing in at the same time. The two of them met on the runway although with more separation than the photograph suggests. I was particularly impressed by the way the coyote seemed totally unfazed by the whole thing. It stared at the plane for a while and showed no interest in getting out of the way. However, it obviously had other things it wanted to do and eventually turned and trotted off. I’ve no idea what the occupants of the plane made of the whole thing!

New Southwest Jets

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Southwest Airlines recently unveiled their new livery for their fleet. The scheme was first put on one of their newest 737-800 jets which also includes the new scimitar winglet configuration from APB. I was curious when I might get to see one for real. I knew of two jets that were out in the wild with the original names Heart One and Heart Two. While I was interested to get a shot of one of them, I figured it wouldn’t be too long before there were tons of them around and it wouldn’t be a big deal so I didn’t go out of my way to see one.

Then, they came to me – well, almost. I was taking a trip last week that took me through Denver in both directions. I arrived at DIA on the outbound portion of my leg and there on the gate across from my next flight was Heart One. Shooting through airport glass isn’t great but it would do. I just had to wait until the servicing vehicles were done and then I could get a shot.

A day later I was coming back through DIA late in the evening. I get to my gate and there is my jet for the next sector. It is Heart Two. It was dark, the jet was mainly obscured by the jet-bridge and I didn’t think it worth much effort so an iPhone shot is all there is to show for it but I ended up with both of them in two days without any planning on my part.

Night Star Trails

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My buddy Paul was in town and we had a day of shooting and exploring planned. However, we wanted to have a go at star trails in the evening as well. Consequently, we set up at Schellville as the sun went down to shoot the trails around the Douglas DST parked on the field. I set up two cameras at different angles and with different lenses to try and maximize what I got. The sun was still going down when I started so the exposure was varying a bit more than I was prepared for but a little tweaking in post got things back together. We also did some light painting on the airframe in a couple of frames to make the scene pop a bit more.

The biggest thing I learned during this was to start when it is darker and to take mosquito protection. I got badly bitten during the early part of the shoot and the bites reacted quite severely! Also, doing this in the winter so you don’t have to wait so late for it to get dark might also be a good plan. However, it went reasonably well and I have a few things I will know to do differently next time. I might also try a trail on one camera and a time lapse on the other.

Rolls Royce Testbed

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Something I hadn’t seen before was the Boeing 747 that Rolls Royce own and use as a testbed for the Trent 1000 engine on the Boeing 787. Appropriately registered N787RR, this was parked up close to a road. I actually spotted it first just as we landed. It was already dark and I saw the outline of the plane but had no idea what it was or why it was there. However, after picking up my rental car I came out near its parking spot so took a pass by. Being dark, there was nothing much to be shot but I decided to check it out again when it was daylight.

Apparently, this airframe had been sitting without the test engine for a while but there is now an engine fitted. Whether this means that they have been flying recently or are planning to soon I do not know. Unfortunately the test engine was on the side away from the road so was harder to show well in a shot. However, I still managed to get a few shots.

Goodbye USAirways 737-400

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There are some airlines in the US that I have spent a lot of time with and there are others that have only been an occasional feature of my travel. USAirways is one that I did not use a great deal since I didn’t live in one of their core markets. However, I did sometimes find myself on one of their planes and I have certainly seen plenty of them around.

Their fleet has included a lot of the A320 family but for a long time the 737 was a big part of operations with the 737-400 a regular sight. Now, their time has come and the last flight has taken place. This prompted me to dig through the collection to see what I had of them. It seems that most of my shots come from the Washington DC area but it was nice to have older and newer schemes on the jets.

Here are a few of the jets that have now either gone to another home or have ended up as spares for the rapidly diminishing fleet of what became known as 737 Classics (although the 100 and 200 series jets might cause an eyebrow to be raised at that description).

Rustling the Ruslan

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A long time holder of the title of world’s largest aircraft (until superseded by the single example of its big brother) was the Antonov AN124 Ruslan. This giant freighter was created in the days of the Soviet Union by the Antonov design bureau in what is now Ukraine. With the thawing of east-west relations, the utility of this aircraft was apparent to many western organizations both civil and military. These days, the operators of the type have a steady business moving outsized freight around the world. There has even been talk of restarting production although that remains just talk for now.

My first experience of the big Antonov came in 1988. It made an appearance at the Farnborough airshow along with a pair of MiG-29s. This was a big deal at the time and I remember being amazed as I stood next to these types that had been something previously unlikely to be seen unless something very bad had happened. The MiGs flew impressive displays and wowed all who were there. The Antonov was not so lucky. On the first day of flying as I stood with everyone waiting for it to take off, it started to roll down the runway before a bang and flash indicated a surge in one of the engines and she stayed firmly on the ground.

That was as close as I got to one for a long time afterwards. I occasionally might see one parked in a quiet corner of an airport and once or twice spotted one flying far off in the distance but I never saw one up close and flying until a short while ago. I have a Flightaware tracker on the movements of these beasts and one of them was due into Moffett Field on a Saturday. I decided this was something I had to do so made the trip across the bay. Everything ran according to schedule and I was there to get a shot as she came in across the fence (a fence that spoiled a nice finishing shot which I include just because it was almost nice.) Not bad after 26 years of waiting!

Spruce Goose Then and Now

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There is a fine line between being inspired by someone’s work and plagiarizing them. Today I shall tiptoe along that line. My friend Hayman Tam has recently posted some pictures of the Spruce Goose on his blog after a trip he had made to the Evergreen Air Museum in McMinnville OR. Go to Hayman’s blog at shutterspeedaero.wordpress.com to see that post and many others. In doing so, he reminded me of my own trip to the museum and photographing the Goose. However, that was not the first time I had seen it.

In 1990, during my first ever visit to the United States, I was in Long Beach with my Dad. We visited the Queen Mary and in those days, the Spruce Goose was inside the large dome that sits on the waterfront. I had my camera with me on that trip. It was my first Canon camera, an EOS600 (which was called the EOS630 in the US) and that camera got a lot of use over the years. I still have it. I didn’t take a huge number of pictures of the Spruce Goose but I did get a few.