Alaska’s New Special

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The arrival of this Alaska 737 on the flight line at Renton got a lot of attention from the locals.  A special livery is always going to be of interest but this one is better than the average.  The dark blue combined with the orcas is a really cool look.  I first saw the jet while it was on the flight line at Renton ahead of a first flight.  I wasn’t able to get it as it left Renton but I was able to catch its arrival at BFI.  After a few test flights, it has now been delivered to Alaska so now I just have to hope I can catch it in better conditions.

Wispy High Cloud Sunset

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A good sunset requires some nice high clouds.  I was up at Arlington watching the recovery of the Alice prototype after it had done some off-roading and the light was fading fast.  The clouds were quite high level and not terribly extensive so they provided a nice canvas for the low setting sun to illuminate.  Sunset shots always seem like a lazy shot but it looks so good so why not photograph it?

Canadian Dauphin Eludes Me

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I don’t often see civilian Dauphins in service.  The Coast Guard operates the type but the US does not have a lot of them in private hands.  I saw a Canadian example showed up in Seattle and was quite a surprise.  It had a large winch mount on the fuselage which is unusual for a civilian operator.  It was quite a coincidence since Airbus Helicopters has just delivered the final Dauphin to a customer.  It has been superseded in their line by the H160.  I was hoping it would depart my way but it was cleared to the north on a downwind departure which they turned on to promptly after getting airborne.  I got shots but they were distant ones.

Geology Lessons In Stratification

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Short Sand Beach was a pretty place to hang out but it also would be great place for a geology field trip.  There were some very clear strata in the rock and they were angled from the level.  It appeared that the corner of the beach was in the middle of the slope of the strata with the angles opposed on either side.  Low winter sun makes the shading on the strata stand out.  Every time I see something like this, it reminds me of a friend from school who used to impersonate a teacher whose Welsh accent really made the words sing!  You know who you are…

More Fuselages Arrive

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I’ve posted photos of 737 fuselages on the delivery trains before so this is a repeat.  This time it was a collection of five fuselages on one train, possibly the most I have seen at once.  I saw the train across the field but thought I might have time.  I was getting something else and, since the train has to switch off the mainline south of the airport, it often has to wait for the route to be set.  I did get around just before the train moved which was handy.

With that many fuselages, I wanted to get a longer shot with a long lens.  That is something that can only be done well in the winter when heat haze is significantly reduced.  The overcast conditions mean that the green of the protective film on the fuselages looks a bit more vibrant than it does in bright conditions.

Patterns In The Sand

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Another repeat of a previous theme.  Water flowing over the sand on a beach creates some interesting patterns.  The sand on Cannon Beach included a lot of very dark grains.  These made the visualization of the movement of the sand easy to do.  It also allowed you to see where the water was flowing deeper or shallower which helped when walking through the water running across the beach.

Hurricane Hunters Back In Town

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I was heading back from south of Seattle when I was surprised to find out that the NOAA WP-3D Orion, Kermit, was at Boeing Field.  It had come in the day before but I hadn’t heard about it.  I was planning to stop for lunch so why not go to BFI?  Just after I got there, I saw a prop start turning on the number one engine.  However, after running it up, they shut down again.  I was dreading that they were going to go tech and the plane wouldn’t move.

Fortunately, whatever they were concerned about wasn’t too much of an issue.  A little while later, while I was still eating my lunch, I looked up to see two engines running.  This looked more promising.  Sure enough they taxied shortly afterwards.  The nice news was that they crossed the runway to taxiway bravo so we got a good look at them.  A while later it was their turn for departure and they came my way.  The nice thing about a four engined prop is that they didn’t climb too rapidly so a good angle on them.  It was pretty overcast so not ideal light but the dark colors show up better without too contrasty light.

Backlight For A Seastack

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During the evenings at Cannon Beach, we could see lots of lights out on the water.  Fishing boats were out at work and their lights were very bright.  I am not sure whether they only fish at night or not.  During the day, it would be hard to spot them without the lights giving you a clue since they were generally quite far out.  However, one boat was closer in than the others.  It was right behind on of the sea stacks near Haystack Rock.  With a lot of mist in the air, the light from the boat was diffused and provided a backlight to the rock.  It wasn’t lone before the boat came out from behind the rock and the effect was lost.

Twin Twinstars

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Arlington had a couple of different visitors.  They were both TwinStars and they arrived within a few minutes of each other.  The first TwinStar showed up and I got some shots.  When I saw a TwinStar on the approach, I assumed it was the same aircraft back around again.  I figured I would drop the shuttle speed down a bit to vary things.  Consequently, I was a bit annoyed when I realized the airframe in the viewfinder was a different one.  I had to cross my fingers that I hadn’t blown it by going with the low shutter speed.  Fortunately, a few of the shots were okay.  Phew…

 

Pacific Fleet Home At Esquimalt

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Across the water from Fort Rodd Hill is the Canadian naval base of Esquimalt.  This is the headquarters of the Pacific Fleet for the navy.  From where we were, you could see some of the ships in the harbor.  There were a few small patrol boats that were in use but the larger ships were tied up.