Category Archives: military

Back to Coupeville for a Day Off

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NOLF Coupeville was scheduled for FCLP training and strong winds from the Southeast were forecast which suggested the right runway would be in use.  I also had a day off scheduled.  While the rest of the weather was potentially not ideal, I figured I would make the trip.  Why. Not?  They were due to be flying from late morning but, as seems to be usual, it was just after noon by the time things started to look active.

I was worried about the low cloud base but it was actually not a problem.  The wind was really strong gusting 20-30 kts.  This was giving them some interesting flying.  Early on, there was a hint of sun sometimes which really helped the photos.  As they climbed out after each touchdown, the skies behind made from interesting backgrounds and showed off the heat haze from the exhausts as well as the streaming tip vortices courtesy of the damp conditions.

After a while, I got a visit from the Navy Police.  The young lad informed me I wasn’t allowed to photograph the jets. I pointed out I could be he was most insistent that I couldn’t.  Rather than have trouble I decided the stop shooting.  As it happened, the conditions got a bit worse anyway so I had got the best of what was on offer.  I just watched the rest of the flying which included quite a few bolsters and some sketchy touchdowns as the wind got stronger.

More of the RAF’s Poseidon Test Flying

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In this recent post, I had an RAF Poseidon flying over the house.  A little while later, I was at Boeing Field when the same jet came back from a test flight.  Here are some shots of it as it rolled out after landing.  It wasn’t long after this that the jet was delivered to the RAF and made the trip to its new home in Lossiemouth.

Coast Guard MH-60

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While at Boeing Field on a sunny day, I was pleased to see a Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk flying along the runway.  MH-65s are the local Coast Guard helicopters so a Jayhawk is a nice change.  Having seen the MH-65s doing a fly through before, I was hoping that we would get the same but they actually pulled up and turned in the the FBO.  However, once on the ramp, the kept rotors running so I knew they would be out again soon.

When they did come out, they actually back taxied to the far end of the field.  I would have been a lot happier with them making an intersection departure closer to me but that wasn’t to be for some reason.  Consequently, they had gained a fair bit of altitude by the time they came level with me.  A belly shot was not what I was after but never mind.  The underside view gives a good view on the three external tanks that the Jayhawk can carry.  That gives some serious range when heading far offshore to rescue someone in need.

Blue Angels Legacy Hornet Retirement

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Recently, the Blue Angels made their last formation flight with the F/A-18 Hornet.  The team is transitioning to the Super Hornet ahead of 2021 and they have started working up with the new jets.  It has been a while since I last saw the Blue Angels demonstration so I thought a few shots with their aging legacy Hornets was in order.   They always got the oldest jets in the fleet so I hope they are happy to have some slightly newer airframes to work with.

Royal Air Force P-8

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The RAF has been taking delivery of its new maritime patrol aircraft.  The retirement of the Nimrods left the RAF without a maritime aircraft for about a decade which is a strange choice to make.  Finally, the P-8 Poseidon was ordered to reinstate that capability.  They started coming off the line here in Seattle a while back.  The fourth aircraft has been undergoing testing ahead of its delivery.  It was returning from a test flight and was coming straight for our house.  It is not unusual for planes heading to Boeing Field to come our way so I grabbed the camera and got a couple of shots as it flew by.  It even turned slightly giving a slightly wing down view in one shot.

Pegasus Heading Out and Back

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Boeing seems to have addressed a lot of the problems with the KC-46 Pegasus program (but not all of them yet) and so the Air Force is taking delivery of jets at a regular rate.  Since plenty have been built, there are enough to deliver.  I was at Paine Field a while back when one of the jets was heading out on a test flight.  I ended up being there for both the departure and the arrival since the flight was not that long.  The good summer light that Seattle gets but we don’t like people to know about meant I got some reasonable shots of it.

Lucky C-17 Overflight

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This goes back quite a while to a day when I was at Paine Field for some 777X activities.  After all that I had been there for was done, I was getting ready to pack up and go when I saw something off to the east approaching the field.  It was large but seemed rather slow.  It turned out to be a C-17.  It made a pass straight across the field and I was hoping that they would break into the pattern but I was to be disappointed.  They turned to the south and headed off towards McChord.  Still, it was a nice addition to a sunny day of aviation photography.

T-33 Pattern Work

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After such a long time of struggling to get shots of the Boeing T-33 chase planes, I seem to have had a lot more luck recently.  One showed up at Paine Field and, rather than just shooting an approach and departing straight to Boeing Field, it made a full stop landing, taxied back, took off, entered the pattern and came around again.  This was a welcome addition to a sunny afternoon.  There was only one crew onboard so I guess with was some continuation training.

As the plane taxied back to the threshold, I got a good look at the upper side of the front fuselage.  There appear to be quite a variety of antennae mounted on there.  I didn’t know whether they were GPS location antennae or other types but there are plenty there.  Whether they are used for different functions or are needed for validating test data and cross referencing, I have no idea.  Some of them may even be redundant but no one has seen the need to remove them.  Whatever the reasons, there are lots there!

Detail on a SHAR

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Another throwback post today to some of the time I spent with Art Nalls and Team SHAR.  Art is now selling his Harriers which is a big shame.  No idea who will buy them (assuming someone will) and what will happen to them but I hope they fly again.  The two-seater was close to flying again and I imagine there would be a few people interested in that.

I got a lot of shots with Art and the crew over the years but I recently found myself scanning through some detail shots of the plane.  I even played with a few shots from a single position where I had experimented with moving the focus point along the wing.  These seemed worth trying to focus stack.  I hadn’t aligned them shots perfectly when I took them so it didn’t stack perfectly but it made a reasonable job of it.  I hope to see this airframe again some time.

CF-100 Canucks in Museums

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I can’t recall what prompted all of this but I found myself searching through my photos to see if I had any pictures of Avro Canada CF-100 Canucks.  I knew I had seen one at the Imperial War Museum at Duxford but had I seen any others?  I had been looking at the Wikipedia article on them as part of this theme and had seen where the remaining examples are.  Turns out I had also seen one in Castle AFB museum.  It’s a curious looking type but here are some shots including the IWM example from thirty years ago as well as last year.