Category Archives: Pacific Northwest

Mukilteo Lighthouse and Some Ferries

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I had previously got a few shots of the lighthouse at Mukilteo while waiting to catch a ferry.  I hadn’t wandered around for long though.  While showing my mum around the area, we stopped off to have a look at Puget Sound.  It was a cloudy day but the sun was making the occasional appearance.  We wandered around the lighthouse buildings and went to watch the ferries come and go to Whidbey Island.

After a short while, the clouds briefly parted.  I headed back from the water’s edge to try and get a couple of photos of the lighthouse in sunlight.  The white structure is hardly interesting when it is very cloudy, even when playing with some options for exposure to give alternatives in post processing.  A bit of light makes all the difference.

The same could be said for the ferries.  Out on the water, they would pass through patches of sunlight when they would suddenly “pop”.  A short distance closer in and then they were back out of the light.  You had to take the chance when it presented itself!

Captain Cook Not Getting Respect

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The waterfront of Victoria Harbour has a statue of Captain Cook.  This is a long way from his home town of Whitby but the lad did get about a bit.  Given the nature of his efforts, you might think he deserves a bit of respect (unless you come from a place that he ended up harming irreparably).  A local gull -or one of its cohorts – was clearly not from the respect camp.

Another FedEx 767

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The only civilian 767s being built at the moment are for FedEx.  I posted one of them on test at Paine Field in this post.  I caught another one recently.  I got the departure early on as it disappeared into the clouds that were pretty low.  The return later had slightly better light.  The approach was terminated with a go-around resulting in some vortices streaming from the wing as they climbed out.  Dark skies make for an interesting background!

Some Waterfront Freight Traffic

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The weather was not great for a portion of the holiday period so, when the sun came out, we took a trip to Shoreline to walk along the beach.  A couple of freight trains passed by while we were there.  One of them was just a set of locomotives on a light move while the other was a train of tank cars.  The curves along the shore provide a bit more context to just how long a full sized freight train can be with the line of cars snaking off into the distance.

State of the Pegasus Fleet

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January 2019 brought a milestone for the USAF.  They accepted their first KC-46 Pegasus.  Admittedly they accepted it with a number of deferred issues that Boeing has been given a few years to resolve but that are Category 1 deficiencies.  I guess this should mean we will see a lot of deliveries in the coming weeks and months.

The backlog of jets parked up is substantial.  There are jets parked at Boeing Field on both the military ramp and the flight test ramp.  There are more scattered around the Boeing ramp at Everett.  More of them are in the conversion area at the south end of Paine Field.  More still are parked up across the cross runway.  It’s a lot of jets and, if you are an accountant, this is a level of Work In Progress that must make you squirm.  We should see them start to head on their way before too long.

Damp Air Brings the Vortices Out at KPAE

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Damp and cloudy days are not always ideal for aviation photography but they can provide some interesting options.  One weekend I was up at Everett when they were approaching from the south.  The jets broke out of the cloud at quite low level but there was some light from the side coming under the clouds.  The damp air meant that the jets were pulling some conspicuous vortices as they flared for landing.  They were a long way off but it was possible to get some shots of them.  The 747 produced vortices that were easier to see but the 787s didn’t do too badly either.

V2V Express (I Guess)

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During our visit to Victoria, there was a fast catamaran ferry moored up in the harbor.  It was named to the V2V Express.  Based on the name, my assumption is that it provides a fast connection between the downtown harbors of Vancouver and Victoria.  However, at no point while we were there did we see the thing move.  I don’t know whether the service is seasonal, not yet implemented or has failed.  The boat just sat there during our visit.  If anyone knows the story, do let me know.

PJC-2, What Are You?

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I went to Paine Field to get the Air Tahiti Nui 787 which I wrote about in this post.  As I walked up to Future of Flight, there was an unusual looking plane sitting at the hold running up the engine.  I grabbed some shots of it doing its engine run and then as it lined up and took off.  I couldn’t work out what it was.  I thought it might be a Bellanca but I was wrong.  A search when back at home tells me it is a Harlow PJC-2.

With lovely light, I was hoping to get it when it came back in.  Unfortunately, it timed its return such that it coincided with the arrival of the 787 so they went to the left runway instead of the right.  Never mind.

Seattle Pano from West Seattle

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With our visitors, we took a trip to West Seattle.  The afternoon light on the city looked nice and a pano seemed to be in order.  Here is a Zoomify version of it so you can look around the city at your leisure.

Out with the Old and In With the Nui

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Sorry for the corny pun but I just couldn’t resist.  One of my favorite airliners to shoot has been the Air Tahiti Nui A340-300.  I have seen them at LAX on a number of visits.  Shooting them taking off on the south complex has been possible on a few occasions and I was super lucky to get one of them landing on the north complex when I was overhead in the helicopter.  The A340s are getting a bit old at this point, though, so their replacement has been ordered and it is going to be the Boeing 787-9.

One of the jets was in flight test at Everett so, with nice weather on a weekend and flying underway, I couldn’t resist a trip up to get the return.  I was too late for a takeoff shot.  The conditions were great.  A cold snap meant that the air was clear and the sun, while it disappeared for a while shortly after I arrived, was back in plenty of time for the return.  Consequently, as the plane came across the Cascades, I could see it easily prior to it turning north to come in on the approach.  Mt Baker was clear in the background as they made the turn to final approach.

The dark colors of the livery make it necessary to use a bit of shadow slider when processing the shots.  It was just after midday so the light was a bit on the nose of the jet but you could still get something good for the fuselage sides.  The touchdown was a bit firm providing a smoky cloud of tire rubber.  I wonder how much tread the airline expects to have at delivery?  Often the jets will come back for a rejected takeoff run but this time they went straight back to the ramp.