Category Archives: Pacific Northwest

Firefighting Chinook – Just Not Now

We had a few helicopters show up in the region during the firefighting season. One was at Arlington and that was a Boeing Chinook owned by Billings Flying Service. Based in Billings MT, they provide a variety of aviation services including this helicopter for firefighting duties. It was parked on the ramp at Arlington and had a logo on the airframe to show its home base as well as a text logo on the fuselage near one of the navigation lights that referenced the Police song, Roxanne.

I would love to have seen it fly but the weekend when I was up there, it was just parked and work really gets in the way of having fun with aviation on weekdays. The paint scheme was really cool and it was fitted with an internal water system along with a snorkel for picking up water when needed. I would love to see this in action but that hasn’t happened yet and there is something very unfortunate about getting to see firefighting operations underway since it is a sign that bad things are happening!

Unimaginative Sunset Shot

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One evening I was up at Everett for an aviation opportunity and, things were not looking good because the shot I was after was looking like it was going to be thwarted by a late arrival and the setting of the sun. As it turned out, that provided a far better shot than I expected. The sunset illuminated the clouds, and they provided great light for the arriving aircraft. While I was waiting, I did look behind me and saw that the sky was glowing beautifully. There was no way I wasn’t going to get a shot of that. Sunset shots are rather passé but why not?

This Is Not Your Standard Dornier

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I have subscribed to Flight International for a very long time. I used to have it ordered with my local newsagent in Cowes when I was in high school, I got it ordered by Smiths in Kensington High Street when I was a student and, when I had a job after graduation, I finally got a proper subscription set up. That has continued ever since but, these days, Flight has become a digital only subscription for me. Still, I have continued it all these years despite having left the industry long ago. It does provide me with information on unusual test programs and that includes the Lockheed Martin X-55 Advanced Composite Cargo Aircraft (ACCA).

This was a demonstrator program for a new composite fuselage construction. The baseline aircraft was a Dornier 328Jet but it had its fuselage replaced by a composite one that LM built using advanced techniques and with a far shorter lead time. As a demonstrator, things did not go quite as smoothly as they might have but that is why you do programs such as this. It was never intended to be a production jet. It was to show what could be done with the technology if required. The jet was flown for a number of tests but I think building it was the bigger part of the program.

Once testing was complete, the airframe became part of the collection at the Joe Davies Airpark in Palmdale. When I saw it was there, I was very interested to see it. I suspect, for a lot of the visitors to the Airpark, it is one of the less interesting aircraft on display. The signs explain what it is all about but that is probably of little interest to many visitors. For a geek like me, though, it was probably one of the most interesting aircraft in the collection. Sure, the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft is special but there are two of those. This aircraft is unique. Having read about it long ago, seeing it in person is special. (If I ever get to see the Boeing 360 helicopter demonstrator, this will be the same thing.)

Another Owl Encounter (By Accident)

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Nancy and I had made a trip up to La Conner for lunch one weekend. Having previously had a chance to see some owls up on the Skagit Flats previously, I decided to go back there again on our way home. I went to the same spot and saw a ton of people but not a lot of wildlife. I wasn’t going to make Nancy hang around waiting to see if anything showed up so we headed on our way. The route to the road home is along a couple of narrow roads and, as we went down one of them, we saw a shape at the side of the road.

I stopped and backed up the road because a short-eared owl was sitting on a post right next to the road. All of the people were waiting about half a mile away and this owl was just sitting here. I didn’t want to spook it so I pulled up near it and then snuck around the back of the car to get the camera from the trunk to see if I could get a shot before it took off.

This I managed but the owl didn’t seem terribly bothered by me being there. I got more confident stepping out to get shots and it just stayed where it was looking for something to eat. I was behind it and it was looking left and right but, if I moved, it would turn its head to look directly at me. I got a few stills and then switched to shooting some video. The same thing with its motion. I had to make some more dramatic moves to get it to look directly at me before it lost interest and went back to checking for prey.

Eventually, we decided to leave it alone and drove along the road again. We had barely gone a quarter of a mile when we found another owl on the power lines. This one was a bit more twitchy about my presence. I managed to get a few shots of it but it flew off quickly. There was a harrier nearby at the same time so things got a little busy but, much as we were trying to go home, the wildlife was intent on providing a reason for us to stay around.

Helijet Operations in Vancouver Harbour

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Our long weekend in Vancouver did include some slightly gloomy weather. When the conditions were not enticing for wandering around the city, I hopped in the car to head down to the heliport on the waterfront. Despite having been to Vancouver many times, I had never actually got down to the heliport itself. It was really easy to get to from our hotel and the car was welcome in the crummy conditions.

Weekend traffic levels are lower than during the week but there is traffic to Nanaimo and Victoria so that helps a little. I was happy to sit around for a while and get some shots. I’m sure a busy weekday would be better and having some slightly nicer weather wouldn’t hurt. I did figure that, since I had got some shots, a little video might be worth a shot. I was able to get some arrival and departure video so edited that together in the piece below. Helijet’s S-76s are nice looking airframes. I would love to take a trip with them some time – I just assume the luggage allowances are not great!

More Logs Than the Average Beach Has

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Taking a day off on a sunny day is such a lucky break early in the year. Getting good weather is not guaranteed. While my main goal was getting some Growler flying at Coupeville, when I had some spare time, I went down to Fort Casey and wandered along the beach. The beach there has a ridiculous number of tree trunks that have washed up over time. I don’t know why they end up here but, given how far up the beach they are, I assume the storms force them in this way. Even getting past them to the shoreline requires some effort. The almost endless number of them is quite amazing.

An Atlas 777F For MSC Air Cargo

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A lot of attention has been focused on the end of 747 production at Boeing (and this blog will not avoid that topic) but, in the meantime, Boeing continues to produce 777 freighters which are selling well. One evening I was able to be up at Paine Field when a 777F that will be operated by Atlas but is under contract for MSC Air Cargo, a subsidiary of a large shipping organization, returned from a test flight. Getting a nice shot in good light is what you want when you have a new livery to shoot. Sure, it isn’t like some artistic masterpiece, but it looks pretty good.

GlobalX Takes UW Students to Texas

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The arrival of new airlines is of interest until they become a common sight. When they are still small, they will be picking up all sorts of jobs to get their utilization up and bring in some revenue. This includes odd charter jobs. The University of Washington football team had made it to a bowl game that was being held down in Texas. GlobalX was taking a bunch of the students down to the game. A load of coaches dropped them off on the ramp and they slowly boarded the jet. They certainly took there time about it but, eventually, everyone was on board.

As with all unscheduled flying, the wait for departure seems to take far too long. The doors had been closed for ages but the jet was still sitting there. I can imagine that a plane full of students was not happy waiting to get going (or maybe they couldn’t get everyone to sit down and strap in). Finally they taxied and departed for Texas. I don’t think the game went well for UW but the kids probably had a good time anyway.

Tanker Dwarfs the Ferry

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The Guemes Island ferry was busy operating across the strait between the mainland and the island while I was there. Just as it was readying to depart for another crossing, a tanker was making its way up the strait towards Anacortes. I was wondering whether the ferry would make a quick dash across before it got there but they decided the discretion was better than valor and instead headed up the strait to turn and cross behind the tanker.

The closer that they got to the tanker, the more apparent the difference in scale between the two vessels became. When you see large ships at a distance, it is easy to lose track of just how large they are. Put something you can appreciate the scale of close to them, though, and you rapidly see that they are really big. This isn’t even a big tanker by the scale of tankers. The biggest vessels are truly enormous. I remember as a kid that one of the largest tankers was berthed in Southampton for a few years when it wasn’t in demand. That thing was massive!

You Are Not Fitting Under There

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Plenty of people walk their dogs in Juanita Bay Park. They do not always like the areas because the decking is pierced steel and is a bit harsh on their paws. This dog wasn’t bothered, though. Instead, it seemed more intent on finding a way to get into the shore area which was out of bounds. Watching it starting out under the fencing, I felt a little sorry for it!