Category Archives: Pacific Northwest

Metrea Defeats Me Again – Sort Of

I was heading to a meeting south of Seattle when I got a message from the person I was joining that they were running late. I stopped off at Boeing Field to wait for their call and to see if anything cool was around. One of the Metrea KC-135Rs was on the Modern ramp. It was the nicest of their paint schemes and the winter light was lovely. Naturally I grabbed a shot as I waited. They were looking ready to go and I hoped that they would take off before the call came through. I was to be disappointed. I heard from my contact that he was en route, so I left. About ten minutes after I did so, the jet took off. I can only imagine how good it looked in that light.

A few days later, I was back in Georgetown to meet some friends, and I saw that the jet was out again on a mission. It was due back shortly before sunset so I hoped I might get lucky with the light clearing up. It certainly wasn’t as nice as it had been previously, but you never know. As it turned on to the approach, conditions were getting better but not what I was hoping for. Despite that, the jet still looked okay as it came into land. It could definitely have been better but not a total bust.

This Color in the Trees Will Always Make Me Think of Washington

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No lengthy travels for this photo. This was taken at the end of our driveway in Woodinville. The vibrant colors that the local trees have in the fall are really lovely. While our time in Washington is coming to an end, I will have great memories of the rich red foliage to take with me on our next journey.

I Wish This Praetor Had the Thrive Livery

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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…

Cormorant Fishing Gets a Big Result

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While mum was visiting, we took a stroll down to Log Boom Park in Kenmore. You never know what wildlife might turn up and we did get one bald eagle directly overhead. What pleased me more (as will come as no surprise to regular readers) was the large gathering of cormorants. They were on the posts, in the water and flying overhead. Plenty of them to see in lovely light (although a bunch were backlit.

The high point was one cormorant that was fishing alongside the jetty and came up with a sizable fish in its mouth. It was going to have to work hard to maneuver this fish into position to swallow it. I figured that video might be a better way of recording the efforts the bird had to make. It did take quite some time to get it in the right place but finally the fish went down in one piece. I am amazed at the things that birds can swallow when they catch them.

A Vietnam Airlines 787-10 Might Catch the Sun

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The run up to the end of the year can be handy if you want to see jets on test flights because Boeing is looking to get as many sales completed as possible before the end of the financial year. While it wasn’t built at Everett, a Vietnam Airlines 787-10 was there for rework/modification and then delivery. I love Vietnam Airlines because they have an interesting livery in a time of white planes with limited color.

I was able to catch it taking off one Saturday morning. The light was great as it rotated and climbed away. Later in the afternoon, Nancy and I had been out to see the salmon run and she was fine with a small diversion to Paine Field to catch the return. The light had faded a little compared to the lovely morning conditions, but it was good to catch the returning jet. I think it was delivered not long after this.

Global 7500 Sketchy Takeoff

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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.

Lynnwood Link Opening Day

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Sound Transit has a series of extensions to the Link light rail system coming online at the moment. In September 2024, it was the turn of the Lynnwood Link Extension to open. This was not one we were involved with, but I was keen to see the new extension come online and also to catch up with some colleagues that would be there.

The sun was shining so it was a great day for an event. There were plenty of dignitaries there for the opening and a lot of speeches. Each station was going to be holding celebrations throughout the day, but I decided against taking a ride on the first day. There were so many people there to see it open and the line to board the trains was lengthy. Let everyone have fun and I can check it out another time. (As a side note, I still haven’t ridden the line. I kept meaning to do it and now the chances that I will are diminished.)

I did watch the first few services come and go and the teams all boarded along with media before the rest of the riders could then have their go. I understand the extension has been very popular both for commuters and those heading downtown for events like games and shows. The parking garage can get quite full from what I am told. Great to see this new extension getting well utilized and, when the Eastlink connection opens and additional vehicles can access this section of the system, the frequencies should improve too.

Something Large to Bypass the Pleasure Craft

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When it isn’t peak boating season, the smaller lock at Ballard is the main one to get used. It can accommodate much of the traffic and there isn’t too much demand to require the big lock to be utilized. There are priorities about what traffic goes through the lock and commercial traffic will always get precedence over the leisure craft. There were a few boats lined up to come in when a tug and some barges came in from Puget Sound. It got priority and, since it was far larger than the small lock could deal with, the big lock needed to be used.

At Last, This Otter Is Nicely Lit

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There is a privately owned DHC-3T Otter that lives in the Puget Sound area, and it comes in and out of BFI on a regular basis. I have seen it plenty of times but have always struggled to get either a nice angle on it or favorable light. I won’t claim it is my white whale, but it has begun to frustrate me somewhat. Therefore, I was delighted when I heard it call up on approach one evening when the sun had popped out from behind the clouds and the warmth of the light was nice.

I saw it far out on approach as it angled in towards the longer of BFI’s two runways – occasionally disappearing behind the trees as it maneuvered in. I was using a lot of lens to see it and even then, it was a bit distant but, since the conditions were favorable, I wasn’t struggling with haze issues. Soon enough it was on short final, and I finally was able to get the types of shots I have been hoping to achieve for a long time. Now I can move on in peace!

Stored Airtankers Awaiting Their Turn

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Quite a while back, I made a trip to Abbotsford. In more recent visits I have created posts of their Q400 based airtankers out on some test flights. However, before they became tankers, these were all airliners that had been retired from passenger service. Conair buys up these older airframes when the price is right, and they come to Abbotsford to await their time in the conversion program.

A few of them were sitting on the ramp when I made my visit. Some were being worked on while others were just waiting for some attention. Various bits were missing – often the expensive bits like engines. It is possible that some of the airframes might only be acquired to provide a source of spare parts and they will never fly again. I have no idea whether that is the case for any of these. Hopefully they will have since made it back into the air and are now being used to fight wildfires somewhere.