Category Archives: civil

A DHL Delivery But to Them Rather Than By Them

A lot of freighters come out of Everett these days. All 747s are now freighters as are the 767s. The 777 passenger variants are a regular feature but there is quite a demand for 777Fs too. I saw one go to DHL not long ago. They have some aircraft already in service but they are in a hybrid scheme. This was the first one to be delivered in the full DHL yellow colors. It taxied out and went to the other end of the field for a northerly departure which meant we got a good view of it airborne. The short delivery flight across the US meant it was rather light so it got airborne quickly and was a long way up by the time it got to us again!

Lots of Max Jets in Storage

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The grounding of the 737 Max fleet has resulted in plenty of parked jets. I have shown them at Paine Field but Boeing Field seems to be a big storage location. The employee parking lot has been turned into a 737 parking lot. I have seen jets over there before either awaiting engines or from customers that can’t pay but nothing on this scale.

I took a trip to South Park so I could walk across the bridge and get a good view down into the storage area. I made a rough count and think there were probably over fifty jets stored there. While Boeing cut the production rate after the grounding, they only took it down to 42 a month so jets are still coming out at a prodigious rate. This area is full so, aside from Paine Field and Renton, I believe they are flying them to other storage locations.

Reverser Close Up

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When you get lots of similar jets arriving, you can mess around a bit. The 500mm was far too long for the touchdown shots for most aircraft but, when you are getting a bunch of Air Canada A320s, no harm in cropping in really tight on some of them. The CFM-56 reversers are a bucket type so they splay out from the nacelle. With the evening light, you can see lots of detail in the structure. I played with a similar effect on some of the other jets too.

Fatigue 777X in the Test Frame

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Having seen the fatigue test 777X emerged from the production hangars (as I covered in this post), I assumed it had moved to the test area. I once made a drive around the back of the factory at Everett to see some of the discarded airframe structures that they have stored once they are finished with. I wrote about that in this post. The fatigue test area is in the same place so I thought a drive around was a good idea. Sure enough, the 777X was in the fatigue test rig. I guess it will be there for quite a while as they push and pull it to simulate many cycles of loading and see whether the structure has any long term issues to be addressed.

How Did I Miss the Radar Testbed?

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I was walking around the new Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Tukwila after the opening ceremonies had concluded. A few things took off while I was there but nothing caught my eye. Then I heard another jet get airborne. I looked around and saw a CRJ climbing out. However, this was no normal CRJ. It was one of the Northrop Grumman radar test beds. These have replaced the BAC1-11 jets that are now all retired. I got the camera up late (settings weren’t ideal either) and shot it as it disappeared into the distance. I had no idea it was on the ground (and would have gone looking for it had I known). Oh well, win some lose some!

BA A380 Arrives a Bit Late – Good!

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The day I was at YVR, the BA A380 was a bit late against schedule. Since the light improves significantly later in the evening – nice soft light, warmth and more to the north side – this was considered a win rather than something to complain about. If all of the heavy arrivals could have been a bit delayed and shown up in the best light, that would have been perfect! There wasn’t any significant heat haze which made shots further up the approach surprisingly sharp which was nice. Then touchdown in front of you with all of those tires smoking in sequence rounds things out well.

Cathay A350 is Only Possible At This Time of Year

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Cathay Pacific started direct flights to Seattle from Hong Kong. They are using an A350 for the flight. Unfortunately, it is scheduled to arrive around 9pm and then depart later the same evening. That means, for most of the year, it won’t show up in daylight. However, this time of year the sun sets pretty late. It means there is an opportunity to get it arriving. Forget departure though. The only problem is getting a reasonable arrival time, i.e. not a long journey time and having little in the way of cloud when it shows up. At least we are talking about summer.

I made one trip out to get it. Sadly, it was a little later than indicated and the sun was not gone but below a cloud bank when it came in to view. I did get some shots but the flat light did not do the livery much service. However, with the evenings getting longer and the weather getting better. A new opportunity showed itself. The evening light on the jet as it was on short final made me glad to have made the trek down

Still Some Convairs Around

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Each evening sees a selection of Convairs making their arrivals at YVR. The freight location is on the south side of the field so they usually come in on the south runway. No good for where I was shooting from. However, one of them made its arrival on the north side. No idea why this was done but I’m certainly not complaining. With the Honeywell Convair now retired, my chances of seeing flying examples are going to be pretty limited.

Fatigue Test 777X Emerges

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The first two flight test 777X airframes have been on the flight line. However, something different was sitting outside the production hangars at Everett. It was a 777X but it was missing a few more cosmetic parts. This was the fatigue test aircraft. It was being readied for movement around to the area of the plant where they undertake the fatigue testing. This will probably be the last time you get to see it like this. Once testing is done, I suspect it will rapidly end up in pieces for further analysis.

Light is Getting Good at YVR

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Arrivals at Vancouver are often on a westerly heading and on the north runway. This is not ideal for photography at touchdown except in the height of summer. Then the light comes around to the north side quite nicely. I wasn’t in Vancouver at the peak time but I did have a visit when the sun had started to get to a good spot. I met up with my buddy Mark for a little evening shooting.

Unfortunately, not everything I wanted came to the runway. The glide slope was apparently unserviceable so some airlines chose to go to the south runway. However, enough came to the north to be worthwhile. The later it got, the better the light became. Some interesting overseas arrivals come in late enough to take advantage of this plus the regular local traffic to provide some nice opportunities. It was a nice evening of shooting and meant the traffic was far easier by the time I got on the road home.