My friend, Hayman, has a few subjects he will track down when he is on his travel. No manhole covers this time, but he is also interested in fire trucks. This one is based at Glasgow Airport, and it was heading across the ramp while I was waiting for my flight south. I figured he might appreciate this and maybe others will too!
As I may have already written, our return journey from Barcelona was undertaken with plenty of contingency in getting to the flight. Consequently, we had a bit of time to kill waiting for the gate to board our flight. What is a guy to do while waiting at an airport? I guess I will have to just look out of the window. The taxi route from the terminal on the north side of the airport to the southerly departure runway took everything passed us.
Not a lot of variety of angles but a variety of airlines. I think this is the first time I have seen Air Baltic with its A220s. Westjet is not a novelty with a 787-9 having seen plenty and ridden on at least one but seeing them in Spain was new. Transavia planes used to make it to the US when Sun Country would lease them, but I don’t think I have seen them operating for themselves. Add to that Egyptair, Wizzair, Air Arabia and I got some interesting variety.
We made a short trip to Barcelona recently. We had family that were heading there for a cruise from the US, and we went to see them before their boarded their boat. We actually got there a couple of days early to do a little exploring since, with them having visited before, we wanted to have a look at some things that they had already done.
This trip came just after we had moved house so neither of us had really done much planning for it. Normally, when we go somewhere, there has been a lot of research that has gone into what we might want to see and do. Without this, we were winging it a fair bit. As it turned out, that worked pretty well got us. Partly, this was due to the weather. It was ridiculously hot in Barcelona for the first couple of days we were there. That limited the amount of time we wanted to spend wandering around the streets. Without a hard plan, that avoided us being disappointed (or getting heat exhaustion!).
Our hotel was a short walk from the waterfront, so we did head down there one evening. We also got to see the interesting streets close to the hotel without having to trek too far. We did pass up on some things that might otherwise have been a possibility. No bad thing to leave something for another reason to visit.
Having spent much time near the sea, I have seen plenty of harbour masters’ offices over the years. They are usually pretty uninteresting. However, as we took the ferry out of Lymington heading across to the Isle of Wight, I saw this structure sitting outside the harbour. As harbour master offices go, this one is a little less accessible. I guess the parking is fine – provided that you have a boat. At least that is in keeping for the role.
I have always been a fan of the liveries that Royal Jordanian Airlines adopts for its planes. They provide a welcome change from the variations on white that most airlines use. While at Barcelona, this Airbus landed from Amman. The livery looks great but is a bit disrupted by the radome that has been swapped off a jet that has a different generation of the paint. I wonder whether it will get swapped again or repainted at some point.
On our return trip from Barcelona, we gave ourselves plenty of time for the flight back given that there was a lot of discussion about the immigration delays. Things worked out pretty well, so we were through to the gate in plenty of time. What a tragedy that I have extra time at an airport!! Level is a low-cost operation that IAG owns. It was originally set up using Iberia aircraft and crews before it got its own AOC. Now it is a standalone operation.
There were a few Level A330s in view at our part of the terminal. Some were undergoing maintenance before their next flights while others were loading up and departing. I got a variety of shots of them as I walked through the concourse and one of them departed for Los Angeles while we waited to board. While most departures were going off the southerly runway which was the opposite side to us, the long-haul flights that needed longer runways came from the northerly runway which meant we got to see them.
I did post some Eagles previously and had said I would repeat types much in this string of Red Flag posts, but I didn’t say never. Eagles are worth breaking the rule. The aggressor eagles went away a while back with the F-16s taking on the role alone until F-35s started being added. Th Eagle looked great in aggressor colours so here are some of those that I shot at different visits.
The F-15 was in a previous post as a favourite of mine and it was replaced in the primary air defence role by the F-22A Raptor. The Raptor is an impressive aircraft in many ways, but it is not something that appeals to me in the same way as the Eagle. However, it really has some novelty value given that it was produced in limited numbers. Being close to Raptors as they launch is so much fun. Just try not to balls it up!
The first Red Flag of the year has traditionally been the one where the closest allies are invited with the RAF and RAAF being frequent attendees. The RAF brought a selection of Typhoons one year when I was there. The Typhoon fleet is not totally without squadron markings, but they can be a bit sparse. Fortunately, the jets that had been brought across had a few squadron markings on them. This spruces up the otherwise bland look of the grey paint finish.
When I was a kid, Airfix released a kit in 1:48 scale of the Grumman EA-6B Prowler. When it was released, I didn’t even know what it was. However, the unusual shape fascinated me and it continues to do so although they are now long retired and replaced by the EA-18G. I got to see them on a variety of occasions including not long before their retirement but this visit to Red Flag got me some close-up time with them departing.
