One of the sky diving airfields in Arizona is at Eloy. A small field in a very small town, Eloy has a lot of customers for the jump ships and the vertical wind tunnel. During our trip, I had seen some Skyvans operating as jump ships, and I was quite looking forward to the chance to shoot some Skyvan ops from close range. When we got to Eloy, it turned out that things were different on the day. The Skyvans were nowhere to be seen. Instead, it was Twin Otters providing the lift and, once we were there, only one of them. However, there were a couple of locations around the field that gave us options to photograph the Twotter with it taking off to the north and recovering in a southerly direction. There was even one departure when it turned right over us but the reason for that will show up in a future post.
The hotel we stayed in while in Nanaimo was called the Coast Bastion. I didn’t think about why other than it was on Bastion Street, but Bastion Street was so named because it ends at Nanaimo Bastion. Bastion is a word that I have heard at various times and know but that I had never really thought about. This was a building erected when the settlers were building their outposts so they could protect themselves and their stuff. A mini-fortress I suppose. From our room we had a view down onto the bastion, but it was a short stroll across the road to look at it. I understand that they open it up as a museum at some times, but it was sealed while we were there.
When deciding on what garden furniture to have, there are many options. You could have some garden gnomes, maybe a stone lion, all sorts of possibilities. Most of these are because most people don’t have access to a fast jet. If you do, and the California Science Center does, you’d stick a Hornet outside the front door. It was in the shade from the building in the morning I was there, but I thought it provided just the right amount of gravitas.
I have put together posts for various animals that we saw during our trip to Kenya and Tanzania. We also saw lots of birds. Most of them I had no idea what they were, but our guides did a great job of telling us what we were seeing. Whether I can remember them all now, is a different story. Fortunately, I think I keyworded them shortly after we returned so I do have a chance. Rather than talk about the various different bird, here is a compilation of images of some of the ones we saw during our time away.
With so many stored 787s at Everett in recent years, I have seen a bunch of Vistara jets on the ground. However, I hadn’t really done very well in catching them moving. Not very well is generous – I hadn’t got anything worthwhile. Then I was up at Paine Field earlier in the day for something else and a Vistara jet taxied out for a test flight. Thankfully it ran reasonably long on its takeoff roll and I was able to get some good shots of it.
I have been meaning to post some more otter shots for ages, but various things came first, and I have postponed this one a number of times – when I say postponed, I mean postpone even writing something as opposed to postponing the actual posting. This otter was busily moving around Juanita Bay as it searched for its next meal. I initially saw it coming across the water towards me. It swam around the inlet before heading to land so I could see it closer up in the water.
It then went back around the headland, and I thought it might be continuing off into the main bay, but it turned around and came out of the water onto the land near us. A quick shake to dry off and then a bit more of searching the ground for any hint of a snack. It didn’t last long. Soon it was back in the water and out towards the open water hunting for something tasty. I hope it found something good.
Arizona is packed with old airframes. You can go to any number of airports and find some old military aircraft stacked up in spare locations. Marana Regional Airport is a great example. Wander along the fence of the airport by the road and you come across a bunch of A-4 Skyhawks and F-8 Crusaders tucked away. The weather is ideal for preserving an airframe and they look like they are in great condition. No idea what state they were in when they arrived and what bits are missing but they do look like they could be so close to being useful even if they are really never going to move again. Oh to see a Crusader or two back in action.
A previous post included some aerial photos that I got when coming back into Seattle courtesy of an Alaska Airlines 737. They were of some of the islands in Puget Sound. As we got back to the city, we turned back towards the approach with a nice view of the locks at Ballard and the waterways into Lake Union. A close-up view of the north end of Lake Union with Gasworks Park in the foreground and the university campus in the background came next and then a view of the south side of the city and off towards the east side of Lake Washington before we were back on the ground.
The AW101 is a helicopter I really like. I saw the early development airframes when I was young and have photographed Merlins of the Royal Navy and the RAF as well as an Italian example. Living in the Pacific Northwest, I have really wanted to photograph the Canadian CH-149 Cormorants. I have a desk model of one that I bought in California and figured I would have seen one fly by now, but I have had rotten luck. The Abbotsford show last year was another time when I didn’t see one fly despite it having been a principal reason for me going.
CFB Comox is a base for the Cormorant and their show this year, while interesting overall, really had me figuring they were bound to fly there. If they had a serviceability issue, there would be a spare airframe. If someone got called out, there would still be another airframe available. Surely it had to work out. Fortunately, yes, it did.
Early in the show, a Cormorant was launched and flew patterns around the airfield, initially quite high up. I grabbed the long lens to get shots of it. Gradually it got lower, and the shots got better. If everything else went wrong, at least I now had a shot or two of one flying. The show opened with a Cormorant flying in with the Canadian flag suspended beneath it (with a crew member hanging on the flag too). Then there was a SAR demo which it was a major part of.
I shot so many images of this helicopter. I really went overboard. I did play around with slower shutter speeds since I was able to get lots of shots. I tried getting down to 1/40th of a second shutter speeds and have discovered that the rotor speed of the 101 is really low. Even at that shutter speed, the blades are pretty distinct. Something I noticed as I was taking these shots was just how stable the Cormorant is in the hover. I have seen plenty of rotorcraft operations and hover stability is usually pretty good for larger helicopters but the 101 really did seem to come to a halt and then sit immobile. Very impressive.
So glad to finally have time to photograph this lovely looking airframe. I even got the best of the sun from the day, so the yellow paint was popping. A trip to Comox was well worthwhile.
Our trip to Nanaimo meant a ferry ride with BC Ferries. Normally we end up going from Tsawwassen but, because reservations were already getting hard to find, we took the ferry from Horseshoe Bay. It has been a while since I departed from there and I didn’t remember much about it. The waiting area was rather busy and not the most relaxing spot to wait for a ferry. However, once on the boat, we got a nice view of the bay and the surrounding coastline. It was a rather picturesque spot. Figured I would share some shots of it here.
