I think I have posted previously about the wing on the Cessna Citation Sovereign. It is not a jet I particularly like the look of but I am amazed at the wing span of this thing. This example was on short final to SEA and I decided to shoot it head on and then from underneath as it passed overhead. It does show just how long that wingspan is. I don’t know whether the wing is that advanced but it is long!
I did include a shot of this Vision from a nice afternoon at Boeing Field when the light was really nice. As I was including it in that post, I was looking at a number of the shots I took of it and thought it was one of the better times I had shot the Vision so it might be worth a post of its own. Hence this post. The head on view of the Vision is pretty good at a distance as the distinctive V-tail configuration is shown off well.
Add to that the nice colors that Visions are often painted in and the soft and warm light, you get some good results. I don’t know whether the Vision is a good jet to own but they do seem to have sold well and are pretty common at Boeing Field. I will miss them even though I did seem to struggle getting the right conditions for them. At least I had a good encounter before I left.
I think it is safe to say that we have had a pretty gloomy winter in the Puget Sound region. The grey and damp conditions have predominated, which shouldn’t come as a great surprise since the area is rather known for that sort of thing. However, there are occasional days when the sun has shown itself and they are all the more special when they arrive as a result of their rarity. Even better, I was able to spend some time at Boeing Field on one day when the sun appeared. It was later in the day which, of course, is beneficial from the point of view of getting the better light. The flow was southerly, which is not the best since it is only sky-based shots rather than something with a background but, in the middle of winter, beggars can’t be choosers. Whether it was a Boeing Max on test of a Cirrus Vision, they looked great in the soft winter light.
I have seen a couple of jets in the Thrive fleet and they have a really cool livery that they use for some of the planes. When most jets are rather blandly painted, a cool paint job is a great change. Thrive was bringing one of their Praetor 600s to Seattle and I was hoping that it might be in the company colors, despite previous pictures of it online being in something a little less cool. Sadly, they have not spent the funds on updating the look of the jet. The livery is not a bad looking one anyway but it would have looked better in the full paint job. Oh well…
For the longest time, I struggled to photograph a Bombardier Global 7500. Over time I have seen a few of them but that initial drought makes me still feel as if it is something special when I catch one. They have sold really well and there are loads in service so they really aren’t something I should be so excited about but apparently my brain hasn’t worked that out yet. I was happy to get one at Boeing Field when it was taking off.
It taxied out and headed to the north end of the field for departure. I was not expecting a lot because they have good field performance and are likely to be well airborne before they get near where I was going to be standing. Sure enough, they did get off the ground quite quickly but, as they rotated, there was quite a roll that developed. Not sure whether it was a big gust or that they weren’t anticipating the crosswind, but I imagine it must have spilt a gin and tonic or two. They quickly recovered the situation and climbed out without any further problems, but I hope there wasn’t much clean up required onboard.
I was kindly given some airside access when some F-15s were operating from Boeing Field for flyovers in the city. While the fast jets were our primary interest, they took off and landed in amongst some of the more familiar movements at the airport. Business jets are a constant part of Boeing Field ops and being so close to the runway made it easy to get some interesting shots of the bizjets. Fortunately, the amount of the runway that they needed coincided well with where we were for the F-15s. Here are some of the shots.
I seem to be having a burst of photos from back when Seafair was on in Seattle. In a previous post I mentioned that there was a gap in the show schedule when Boeing Field opened up for movements. One such movement was a Bombardier Global 5000 that taxied out and took off. It came down the Bravo taxiway so very close to us. It took off using a decent amount of the runway so rotated in a good spot for photos. It was registered in the Isle of Man so I’ve no idea where it is from since that location has done a good job of encouraging people to register their planes there.
An Embraer E170 might not sound like the sort of plane that would be worth a special trip. Would that trip be more likely on a rainy Saturday afternoon? You might think not but this one seems to have found a second life after an airline career by joining a bizjet charter company. Best Jets International has a fleet of corporate jets but it includes two E170s fitted out in a low-density configuration. One came to Seattle on a charter and, since I wasn’t doing anything else on that rainy day, I figured I would go see if it was marked up in any special way.
The answer to that question was, kind of but not really. A fin that had some markings but otherwise a rather anonymous looking jet. It arrived from Oregon in some gloomy conditions which just make it so easy to get a nice shot. They headed to the FBO where a coach was already there with whoever the passengers were for the onward trip to St Paul MN. While everything was loaded, they fueled up and then it was taxi time for departure. I was hoping they would have to cross the runway to taxiway bravo but apparently the 170 is not too large for the alpha taxiway.
There was a Citation Sovereign ahead of them for departure, but they were soon lined up and rolling. The damp day meant there was a lot of spray as they accelerated and, since they were going a fair distance, the takeoff run was not short so I could get a reasonable shot of rotation. Then they climbed away and were gone. I wonder if we shall see this operator back here again soon. I probably won’t rush back out but it might be nice to get the jet in better conditions.
No shock to any regular reader that I found a way to photograph another Avanti. Just some good fortune about when it showed up at Boeing Field and that the light was playing ball when it had been rainy for a good portion of the time. I was able to be there to catch it and would have loved to have been there for departure too, but you take what you can get.
This part of the world is not known for its great weather. Actually, we can have some really nice conditions, but it is true that it will rain here from time to time. That might be a disincentive to going out to photograph planes but, when it is an Avanti and I don’t have something else on, I might well sneak out.
This one is the one that does live in the area, but Boeing Field is not its regular spot, and BFI does allow some good locations to get shots, so I headed off. Sure, it was damp and dismal, but I wanted to get something of this plane again. It was on the Modern ramp which was a possible shot without the heat haze. Then it taxied out and took off to the south, so I got a distant rotation shot and then a closer look on the climb. What a great plane.
