While Viking was the primary reason for my visit to Victoria International, I did get a couple of other visitors to the airport while I was there. A Canadian trainer King Air was parked up. The sharksmouth graphics around the engine inlets is a nice try but it really isn’t the most intimidating aircraft. There was also a Convair 580 parked up by Purolator’s hangar ready for another freight shipment. A bit of a rarity these days and a nice catch.
The regular AN124 visitors to Everett continue. This time of year can often bring northerly winds which means a departure up past the Future of Flight building. Having a heavy Ruslan depart that way can mean a nice angle to get on rotation as well as the climb out which, while a bit backlit, makes for a good change. I was happy with the takeoff but, as the jet climbed away to the north, the smoky combustion of the old D-18 engines was clear to see. The further that they climbed out, the less the plane was obvious and the more the smoke trail was. A bit of mixing from the trailing vortices helped as well. A lot of the people around me were commenting on how dirty it was.
Harbour Air is the big player in the Victoria floatplane business. Most of their airframes were in standard colors but one of them was painted up in a nice Canadian Flag color scheme. I first saw it moored up against the jetty but later, when walking down near the water, it taxied out for departure. The takeoff run is a bit far out but I got some shots of it as it went on its way.
Yakutia is a Russian airline that has had a few problems recently and has been banned by the Russian authorities from some services until it can sort out its problems. Consequently, I am more pleased than I might otherwise be that I caught this Sukhoi Superjet at Narita in their colors as I might not get the chance again. We shall see if they get straightened out or whether some larger airline takes over their operations.
As Bombardier has decided to remove itself from a number of its legacy aviation programs, Viking Aerospace has been willing to step in. It acquired the rights for a number of legacy de Havilland Canada products first and put the DHC-6 Twin Otter back into production. Since then it has acquired the CL215/415 amphibious waterbomber program and very recently the Dash-8/Q400 program. It has its headquarters at Victoria International so, after getting off the ferry and having a spot of lunch, we swung by to have a look. They have a very nice, modern headquarters building which stands out amongst the other airport buildings.
I took a look on the ramp. Their demonstrator Twin Otter was parked up along with a couple of clean airframes that looked like they were destined for new customers. A CL-215 was parked a bit further out. I discovered shortly afterwards that this one is about to undergo an upgrade program. There were plenty of people going in and out of the offices but the ramp was sadly quiet. No movements while I was there although we had places to be so I didn’t hang around for long.
Despite its age, the Sikorsky S-76 is still a sleek and modern looking helicopter. It has undergone progressive updates throughout its life (the most recent of which took an inordinately long time to achieve certification) but the basic shape is pretty much unchanged. When I worked in London, I sued to regularly see the Royal Flight S-76s dropping in to the back garden at Buck House. I remember chatting with the pilot of one in the 80s as he sat on the sports fields of my high school in between shuttling people to the mainland from Cowes Week.
They have been a regular feature in British Columbia for years with Helijet running a service between Vancouver Harbour and Victoria. I understand that recent years have seen competition resulting in a bit of a reduced service but they are still operating a pretty busy schedule. I have seen them from a distance before but, as we walked out along the harbor, we made a detour to the heliport in Victoria so I could catch an arrival. One helicopter was parked on a pad. A groundcrew member came out to remove all of the covers but it didn’t show any further sign of moving while we were there. The scheduled arrival came in on time so I got some shots of it landing. The schedule is spaced out so no rapid turnaround. It was going to be on the ground for an hour so we continued on our way.
I caught this Gulf Air 787-9 as it returned from a test flight to Paine Field. It was at the end of the SkyFair event so the crew will have noticed that there were a lot of people on hand to witness their landing. Not a particular problem of course but probably one of the few landings of the Boeing production tests to get a large crowd.
Often the floatplanes will come in to Victoria Harbour through the entrance to the harbor, touch down on the water and continue straight in to the base. However, if the wind is in the opposite direction, they sometimes make their approach across the city and the harbor itself. While we were there, I saw one Twin Otter coming in this direction. It made its final turn with the large hotel and apartment buildings behind it which made for a shot with more context than would otherwise be the case.
While I enjoyed my visit to Haneda earlier this year, I was a little frustrated by one thing. Regular readers will know of my interest in trying to capture the articulated gear feature of the 777-300ER. Haneda provided a great opportunity to photograph this as the departing planes were rotating almost directly in front of me. It is also an airport that gets plenty of 777s. Unfortunately, all of the ones that came my way were 200ERs. There were 300ERs departing too but they all went off the parallel runway on the opposite side of the terminal to me. I could only see them once airborne and backlit. Someone in air traffic must have been trying to thwart me!
Coyote Point on San Francisco Bay is a spot from which I have shot many times. It provides the closest spot to the approach path for the planes coming in to the 28 runways at SFO. It is also a pleasant place to hang out with a nice view of the bay, the marina below with plenty of boat traffic and a fair selection of wildlife. When shooting from Fisherman’s Park, the approach line makes the planes appear to be coming from behind Coyote Point. Given that it was a nice clear day when we were there, you had a good view of the approaching jets. Only the widebodies are large enough to show up well but it makes a change from my usual close-cropped style of shooting to go wider and get something with some local context.
