Are These for Gauging the Flood?

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This post is a question for whoever might be able to help me out. I was walking along Alameda Creek and I saw various sets of these devices along the levee banks at different locations. I was curious as to what they could be. They looked like they would float so I wondered whether they are designed to start at the bottom of the track and then float up as the water levels rises. Perhaps this then reports back to some control location so everyone knows the level of the creek? However, that is just a guess. Does anyone know the real story?

Will the Scooters Beat Me Again?

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My previous effort at photographing the Draken A-4s at Red Flag had not gone well. I got shots of them but the conditions were far from ideal. I had hoped for better and been a bit frustrated. When I went back for Red Flag 17-1, the Draken team had become fully integrated into the aggressor program and were launching on all of the missions we saw. I was optimistic about getting some better shots. However, while the first day was a cracking day for us. One disappointment was that the A-4s went left and away from us on recovery.

Launch was a bit better. I had some close encounters with the jets as they flexed towards us during the departures. However, launch does not give great light so, while the angles were good, the shots were t as good as I would have liked. Our second day did better on the recoveries though. Some of the A-4s came our way and we got some good angles on their turn to final approach. I was a happy boy. The light had finally been good and the angles were nice. Hurrah! The special jet or a two seater would have been even better but I am not complaining. I got both the Kiwi jets and the Israeli jets so it went well.

Shovelers Doing Their Thing

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The shoreline of San Francisco Bay has a bunch of ducks. Of the ones I see a lot of, there are two main species. The Mallards are a duck you will see almost anywhere. The others are the Shovelers. As the name suggests, Shovelers like to shovel around in the murk at the bottom of the water to see what they can find. Their bill is shaped to help with rooting around in this mud. The result can be that their heads are no longer the color of the feathers but are, instead, covered in mud.

There is plenty of muddy shallow water along the shore so the ducks will often take off and head to different feeding grounds. It’s fun to try and get them in mid-flight. If things are closer, they will save energy and paddle to their next spot. The best shots are when they come up covered in mud. They look almost surprised by what a mess they are!

Over the Threshold

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When the aircraft are approaching SFO from over the bay, they touchdown out of sight of the usual locations on the bay shore. However, the old control tower provides a better perspective on these approaches. While you are shooting through some pretty stout glass, you can get a good shot or two of the approaches. A good example was the Lufthansa Airbus A380. Watching it come in towards the land, drift across the shoreline and over the threshold before touching down a little way down the runway, you see things in a way that is not often achievable. Since the tower will shortly be demolished, I doubt I will get something similar for a while.

Glassbaby’s Berkeley Glassworks

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Nancy has bought a few items from Glassbaby and was interested in getting one as a gift for someone. Previously we have been to their stores in the Bay Area but this time we went to they works in Berkeley. They have a storefront but it is primarily a glass blowing facility. As we walked in, I was drawn to the groups of people that were busy creating their works of glass art. Nancy was browsing the shelves of glass so I went back to the car to grab the camera.

There were two groups of people at work. Further back in the shop were the staff who were busy creating the core product of the company. They were heating and having the glass pretty efficiently. One of the nice things about Glassbaby’s products is that they are all hand made and consequently, no two are exactly alike.

At the other end of the shop were some people that were doing their own thing. I don’t know whether they were just using the facilities or whether they run training programs. Some of theme seemed to be under instruction. You quickly see which people are skilled at working the glass and which ones are just getting to grips with how tricky it can be. The heat coming from the furnaces could be felt even where I was and the people who were working definitely seemed to be experiencing the heat. However, they seemed to be having a good time creating.

Mitsubishi MRJ90

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The Mitsubishi MRJ program is the first major civil aviation program to come out of Japan in a few decades. There have been military jets but this is the first civilian airliner since the YS-11. The program has not been trouble free and there have been a number of delays. Meanwhile, recognizing the need to have US customers for the aircraft, Mitsubishi has collaborated with a US company to undertake the testing and certification program.

A result of this is that the prototypes have been sent to the US. Moses Lake in Washington is the flight test center for the program. The generally good weather and unrestricted airspace makes it a far better location than Japan for the testing program. Also, it is more convenient for the American flight test team. The prototypes have been ferried from japan to Moses Lake to allow testing.

The early jets came across a northern route via Russia to get to the US. However, later jets took a southerly route via Hawaii to get to the US. I missed previous jets despite them coming via San Jose. The last of the jets was significantly delayed. It finally headed across the Pacific but got to Hawaii and suffered a technical issue which delayed it. I wondered whether it would ferry when I was nowhere convenient to see it arrive. However, luck was on my side and it made the trip when I was free.

Getting it arriving at San Jose was easy enough. With a departure time from Honolulu, it was straightforward to predict when it would arrive. Getting the departure was a different story. Flight test aircraft do not run to airline schedules. The crew needed a break and the jet had to be refueled. Even then, getting it up and running and to the departure runway was a slow process and I waited a long time for it to happen. The upside to this was that the midday light was gone and things were a lot nicer by the time it rolled. I was rather late though!

Dangerous Ways to Cross a River

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The trail along the Alameda Creek takes you under a couple of bridges. One is a road bridge and the other is a rail bridge. I walked under the rail bridge and, as I came out of the other side, a guy walked past me and up to the bridge deck. He was carrying a couple of containers as if he had just done some shopping. He then turned and walked on to the tracks. I stepped over the rail and headed along the track on the ties (sleepers for those of you in the U.K.)

I was rather surprised by this. The bridge was only a single track width and it did not appear to have any spare space at the edges. He also didn’t seem to be in too much of a hurry. I had to watch what was going to happen. I had no idea how busy the line was but this did not look like a good plan. He strolled across the river. As he was getting towards the other side, I thought I could hear a train horn. Sure enough, an Amtrak train appeared ahead. The engineer obviously saw him and was sounding the horn. The guy kept strolling but was clearly going to get across in time. He eventually stepped over the rail and down the slope on the opposite bank as the train came closer. I don’t know whether he knew the schedule but, if he had been in the middle rather than where he was, this could have ended very badly.

The Merger Jet (At Last)

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West Coast airline flying includes a lot of Virgin America. Headquartered in Redwood City, just down the peninsula from SFO, Virgin America has been struggling to establish itself as a carrier with a different level of service. It must have done well enough because Alaska got worried enough to buy it. They call it a merger but Alaska bought Virgin. Everyone wonder what will happen next since the fleets are totally dissimilar as is the customer service. Alaska repainted one of their jets in a new livery to celebrate the completion of the acquisition.

It is one of their 737-900s and the colors migrate from red to blue to symbolize the joining of the two. I have missed the jet on numerous occasions. I thought I was never going to catch it but finally saw it at San Jose. You are a lot closer to the flight path at San Jose which is good. What is even better is being there on the pouring rain when the clouds part five minutes before the jet arrives. Sadly, the weather closed in just as it took off again but the light was okay over the airport, even if it wasn’t where I was. Still, I finally got it!

Legion of Honor

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Perched up on a hill overlooking the entrance to the Golden Gate sits the Legion of Honor. This is an art gallery that, while including quite a variety of art styles, is synonymous with the sculpture of Rodin. I first visited in 1990 during my first trip to the west coast. I hadn’t been back since and Nancy had never been. She is a fan of some of the impressionist painters so I thought this might be a good day out for her. What I hadn’t realized was that they had a special exhibit on of Monet’s early years. Turns out it was a bit more appropriate than I realized.

It was a lovely day to be in the city. The sun was out and the temperatures were on the low 70s. We had started out early to try and get there before it got busy. We hadn’t anticipated the exhibit though. Consequently, it was already quite busy when we got there. It only got busier so we still were getting the better side of things. We went straight to the exhibit and spent a fair bit of time in there. Afterwards, we strolled through the galleries of the collection.

The different galleries are very nicely laid out. Nothing felt too crowded and the light in the rooms was very nice. Each gallery had a different style of decoration so you felt the change as you moved from room to room. Natural light through the roof made it feel a lot less oppressive than some museums. They did have some sections set up as rooms from old houses and these were a lot more subdued.

The sculpture section was very interesting. The Spreckels family started the collection and they were avid supporters of Rodin’s work. The Thinker sits in the forecourt while there are two rooms of his work. These included bronzes, plaster and marble sculptures. Rodin liked marble apparently but I find the bronze castings to be the most impressive since they show the texture of the work in a way that is lost a little with marble for me.

When I visit art museums, I find I have a limit of how long I can last. When we were in Florence, I discovered just how many Madonna and Child pictures I can look at before I am done. This museum is actually well sized for me. I was able to check out the whole collection in about the time it takes me to be maxed out. I didn’t reach the point of either my feet hurting, my back aching or just not wanting to look at another picture. About the perfect size. The collection is not as diverse as you will find in some big cities but it works well for a day out. Check it out if you have the time.

Global Supertanker

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Some of the news clips I have seen recently were showing the firefighting activities underway in South America at the moment. With their summer in full swing, wildfires have been springing up and they have brought in a variety of aircraft to fight them. One of these is the Global Supertanker, a converted Boeing 747-400. I saw this aircraft at the aerial firefighting conference that was held last year in Sacramento. It was very close to approval at that time and we were allowed to check it out.

The systems had previously been used on a 747-100 airframe but they had been migrated to the 400 series jet. The airframe was an ex-JAL aircraft that had undergone the freighter conversion program and seen some further service before being acquired for the firefighting role. The tanks and piping had been installed and we got to see a bit of the interior during the event. Unlike the 100 series prototype, this one had been given a nice new paint job and it looked great being straight out of the paint shop.

It dwarfed everything else on the flightline and ended up being the backdrop for the group photo of the conference attendees. I don’t get to appear in that shot since I was taking it. I can live without having my presence recorded I guess. Now it is in operation, there are some rather more dramatic images being captured. For the time-being, I will have to make do with these shots.