Category Archives: Pacific Northwest

Tight on a Departing Falcon 7X

When shooting departing jets at BFI, I often have a conundrum about the lens to use. For some of the higher performing aircraft, they get off the ground quickly, so the longest lens is probably going to be best. However, other types use a lot more of the runway and can rotate a lot closer to some of the places I like to shoot from. The long prime can be best a lot of the time but, if they run long, I might be too close for the shot. A Falcon 7X can run a bit longer if it is heavy as a result of the three-engine configuration versus the twins like the Gulfstreams and Globals. This one did that but, it rotated quite close to me. I was actually really pleased with how things turned out and then I spun around to get the climb out from a tight angle as well.

Crow and Gull Combat

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When in the wild, you have two options for food. First, you can find and catch your own. Second, you can find someone else that has already found and caught some food, and you can steal it from them. The latter is way easier than the former, provided you have the ability to relieve the owner of their meal. I was walking alongside the water at the locks in Ballard one weekend and a crow was attempting to help a gull lose weight by taking its meal. What followed was quite some aerial ballet and they twisted and turned with the gull trying to make sure it kept a good hold on its food while maneuvering hard to prevent the crow from taking anything. The gull was ultimately successful in this case.

Northwest Aviation Consortium Exercise

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Last summer, Arlington Municipal Airport was the base of a multi-agency emergency preparedness exercise. Police, county, military and EMS helicopter operators all came together to practice how they would manage major incidents should they occur in the region. The prospect of a bunch of helicopter operators showing up in one place was too much to resist so I headed along to see what appeared.

Both King and Snohomish Counties participated, bringing their helicopters in to carry out multiple missions. The US Navy showed up early on with an MH-60 from Whidbey Island and launched off on a mission but sadly didn’t come back afterwards. A variety of other emergency medical operators were there with their airframes and there was a pretty regular trade in helicopters departing and returning.

The Snohomish County UH-1 undertook some work to practice lowering crews into remote spots (which I think might include rooftop insertions). They lifted a platform on which the teams could stand and be carried into position. They moved various groups of people around the airfield before lowering them to the ground and swapping out the individuals. I imagine the view from that platform would be pretty impressive.

I stayed well out of the way of operations, but the teams were very friendly and happy to chat when they weren’t engaged in training. However, with them operating multiple helicopters and having not been part of any briefing, it was clearly appropriate to keep some distance. This meant the shots weren’t quite what I would have preferred but they were still fun to get.

GlobalX Has Interesting Passengers

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GlobalX charter flights are pretty common in our area these days. The company is expanding aggressively, and any charter work seems to be on the cards. This one flight was a bit unusual – at least compared to what else I have seen then do. The buses pulled up with the “passengers”. However, instead of all walking up the steps, they went one at a time. A closer look showed that their hands were in front of them – presumably in cuffs. I’m not sure whether this was a criminal transfer or a deportation flight, but I suspect the latter. I have seen plenty of DOJ flights into BFI but this was a first for me to see.

Port Gamble Cemetery

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The highest point in Port Gamble is occupied by the town cemetery. I was perplexed as to why the place with the nicest views was given over to a graveyard. Apparently, this is deliberate. Not sure whether the best views as appreciated once underground but it is a nice spot to spend eternity. We wandered around looking at some of the graves with headstones covering a variety of styles and some being easily legible while others were heavily weathered. The texture on some of the stones appealed to me quite a bit and I spent some time looking at how to reflect that in an image.

A Black Challenger 850

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What do you do if you have built a large fleet of 50-seat regional jets and now no one really wants a 50-seat regional jet? You take that jet and refit it into a corporate configuration and change the name to match your other bizjets. That is the way a CRJ200 suddenly transforms into a Challenger 850. It’s a bit ironic because the CRJ was developed from the original Challenger jet anyway so maybe the reverse process is not a big deal. Anyway, it finds a second life for some jets.

I wouldn’t have gone out specifically just to get a Challenger 850 (you might ask why that is when I go out for any number of other aircraft of niche interest), but this one was painted all black and I am partial to any jet that doesn’t look like all of the others. A glossy black finish is definitely worthy of some attention and, if the light is going to play ball, it should look pretty good. In the event, it did come out rather nicely. I don’t know whether the operator will be back here on a regular basis, or this will be counted as a limited time offer but good to have had the chance!

Half a Moon in the Morning

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I was driving to work one morning recently and as I headed south down the road near home, the moon was quite low in the sky. It was partway through the phases and the angle of the sunlight on its surface provided a lot of texture on the surface. I was driving to work so was not immediately in a position to stop but the drive to work is short so, as soon as I got to the parking lot, I took out the camera. The moon was low above the roof of the office, so I had to move a bit to get an angle on it. The trees were also in the way, so I decided to incorporate them rather than remove them. Then it was into the office.

My Nemesis Returns

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When we first moved to our current house, we used to get lots of rabbits in the back yard. For a while, it was nice seeing them around. However, they did have a habit of “leaving” seeds for other plants in our grass and the weeds became an issue. We went about blocking up the various access points for them to keep them from coming in. This was broadly successful, but it is a continuous process as they find ways to breach the perimeter.

Recently I looked outside to see a rabbit not eating but stretched out and sunbathing in the back. Now that is taking the Michael. I went outside and he bolted so I saw where he had punched a new way in and closed it off. Later in the day, I saw him out front – where I have no issue with him being. Instead, I decided to get some images of my latest intruder. Now I’ll have proof if he ever denies being the one to break in previously!!

At Last, I Get a Shot of Another Icelandair Special

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Icelandair painted a couple of its 757s in special liveries a few years ago. One of them, called Vatnajökull, has never been where I was or, if it was, the conditions were bad, or I couldn’t take any images. Finally, I saw that it was coming in one weekend and would be departing when there was a northerly flow, and the sun was likely to be out. I finally had a good chance to get it. Icelandair is adding plenty of Max 8s to the fleet and they are becoming more common into SEA and they will be getting some A321neos soon so the 757s might not be a reliable visitor here before too long. Consequently, I was glad to finally get some good shots of this lovely looking jet.

Afternoon Sun on the Ducks at Juanita

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It has been a long time since I was at Juanita Bay. A combination of lack of time and lack of nice weather has stopped me going down there. One afternoon after work, the sun was out, and the time was not too late, so I dropped down there for a walk around to see what was going on. The answer was not a great deal. It was a lovely afternoon but none of the more crowd friendly visitors were around. The ducks were, though. A merganser stayed too far away to be photographed by there were plenty of wood ducks and green winged teals, so I made do with them. The low sun angle picked up the colors really nicely.