Maritime Fire Training Facility

Leave a Reply

A sunny weekend day at this time of year is not to be wasted so I took a bike ride across to Seattle.  I was heading for Discovery Park and one of the trails that made up my route took me passed a lot of the local shipyards.  As I approached one of them, I saw what looked like a funnel.  Then I realized it was a mock up of a whole ship.  It even had a helicopter on a pad.  One my return journey, I stopped to take a look.  I realized that there was a lot of piping underneath the structure and it had a notice about a fire training facility.  I guess they can simulate fires in different parts of the vessel and crews can be trained to handle them.  I wonder what it is like on the trail when the training is underway.

Landing a Southwest 737 in a Crosswind

Leave a Reply

This Southwest 737-700 was completing a test flight at Paine Field.  The crosswind was pretty strong so the pilot used the wing down approach to handling the crosswind.  They touched down on the starboard gear and bounced a bit before settling those wheels on the surface.  A short while later, they rolled wings level and the port gear made contact.  Aside from the bounce, a pretty good example of landing in a crosswind in a big jet.

Disassembled Bicycle Tire Valve

Leave a Reply

I recently bought some replacement valve cores for my bicycle tires.   I notice that part of the core was bent so decided to replace it.  It is a quick job to change the core over and, prior to throwing the old core away, I figure I would play with the macro lens.  I first too a picture of the still assembled core trying to angle it to show how badly bent the part was.  Then I figured I could take the core apart altogether.  Another focus stack and I could show the parts separated.  I love the detail you get of the metal surfaces when you shoot macro.

Shock Diamonds and the F-22

Leave a Reply

Within the very high speed flows of air in an aircraft’s exhaust, you can set up a series of shock waves and expansion fans as a result of the differences between the pressure of the flow and that of the surrounding air.  When afterburner is engaged, the hot gases and the temperature changes these shocks and expansions cause, result in a diamond pattern forming in the exhaust plume.  In darker conditions, these diamonds are more conspicuous but they are visible even in normal daylight.

These diamond patterns are a function of the flow being symmetrical since most engines have round exhaust nozzles.  This isn’t the case for the F-22, though.  It has flattened nozzles with a pointed profile top and bottom.  This got me wondering what the effect is on the exhaust plume and whether the traditional diamonds are formed or whether the nozzle shape results in a different pattern of shock and expansions as they reflect within the plume.  I decided to dig in to some shots to see what I could find.

I don’t have a lot of F-22 afterburner shots.  While I have shot them a lot taking off, they often take off without afterburner.  Since they have plenty of power and burner use dramatically increases fuel consumption (and the F-22 is not over-endowed with range as it is), there is no point using burner if it isn’t needed.  Air shows are a time when they do give it plenty of burner, so that is the source of the shots.

The result of this is that there is definitely something unusual about the shock patterns.  I include some shots of F-16 and F/A-18 afterburner plumes and the normal shock patterns that create the hotspots known as the diamonds are very obvious and simple in shape.  For the F-22, things are very different with the patterns of hot zones being something more in line with the shape of the nozzle.  The way in which the patterns repeat is more complex than for an axisymmetric nozzle.  There is nothing much to conclude in these observations.  It is just something that appeals to an old aero guy like me.

Fairhaven Washington

Leave a Reply

A sunny fall weekend day is a good time to go out to somewhere new.  Nancy suggested we head up in the direction of Bellingham.  On our way in to the city, we stopped off in the Fairhaven district.  This is an old town area that has a core of nice little shops and restaurants.  We had a stroll around and I took the M6.  The fall colors and the bricks of the buildings looked great with my sunglasses on but that was assisted by the polarizing effect.  Since I had left a proper polarizer in the car, I tried shooting a few shots through the sunglasses’ lenses!

The area seemed to have plenty on offer for a visitor.  It was a bit cold and blowy so sitting outside was not too appealing but, in different times, it looks like somewhere that might be worth a further visit.  Some more time to peruse the shops and galleries as well as to try out the breweries would seem like a plan.  Not a huge amount on offer but, when it is so easily accessible from home, definitely worth a go.

Falcon 2000LX Fighting the Wind

Leave a Reply

I talked about a Janet 737 coming in to Paine Field in this recent post.  A couple of minutes ahead of it was the arrival of a Falcon 2000.  The conditions were very blustery and the Falcon was bouncing around on final approach.  It got quite a wing drop at one point and I did get a shot as it recovered but not showing quite how much it had rolled at its peak.  As for the Janet, conditions were not great for lighting but it was not too bad.

Port Townsend Ferry

Leave a Reply

The Washington State Ferry from Port Townsend comes into the Keystone Harbor. I figured I would await its arrival.  The shallow harbor means that they have smaller ferries for this route.  They were actually in the process of dredging the harbor at the time of my visit to maintain access for the ferry.  Even though it is a smaller ferry, when you are standing at the water’s edge, it is definitely more imposing.  They turned the ferry pretty quickly since the vehicle traffic didn’t look too heavy.  I think the rougher crossing might have slowed them down so a quick turn helped keep the schedule.

HondaJets in the Murk

Leave a Reply

I was pondering what to do with a day off.  I was struggling to come up with a plan and the weather was not ideal for photography but I then saw that not one but two HondaJets were due in to Boeing Field within an hour of each other.  I have only shot one flying before and it was very distant so I figured this would be the motivation to get me out.

The sky was very overcast with a grey background that made me hope for planes painted in an interesting color scheme.  Unfortunately, both jets were in Honda schemes with grey as the main paint so they were hardly ideal for shooting in such conditions.  However, I didn’t have much of a choice so I got both of them on the approach.  If only one of them could have been a bit more colorful.

As I was heading off to my next stop, I drove past the Kenmore ramp and saw that one of them was parked up there.  A quick diversion in and I added a ground shot of one of the jets.  Not sure where the other one was parked but I would assume it was on Modern’s ramp.

Leavenworth Waterfront Park

Leave a Reply

On the way in to Leavenworth, I took a side street looking for a good parking option.  As we drove along this road, it took us close to the river and a sign for the waterfront park.  I had no idea about this park previously so we decided to check it out after walking through the town for a while.  Turns out it is a great set of trails that run along the river.  There are a couple of islands with bridges between them connecting everything together to make the park.

Each of the islands has a choice of trails so you don’t have to go out and back but can vary your route.  The ground was a bit icy underfoot in places but generally it was clear and plenty of people were out enjoying the views.  The river is to the south of the park while there are inlets around the islands formed as the water constantly changes the landscape.  There were also signs talking about the history of the area.  A stretch of wooden piles were arrayed out in to the river at what I assume was once a loading pier.  The lumber business was once dominant in the area.

Sunset Dreamlifter

Leave a Reply

Scrolling through some shots for something else, I saw these two shots of a Dreamlifter departing Paine Field one evening.  I think I actually posted about that flight on another day but I guess I ignored the view of the jet as it headed in to the distance.  The sky was beginning to develop a nice color and the air was very clear giving a good view of the Cascades mountains in the distance so why not share them now – particularly as it is a time when I am not getting much aviation photography done!