The End of The Forge

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Across from Boeing Field is the site of Jorgensen’s Forge.  This facility was created in the Second World War by the Isaacson company and later sold to Jorgensen.  It has since gone through a variety of ownership but ceased trading a few years ago.  It has been siting idle for a while but recently the demolition of the plant commenced.  The whole area is a Superfund site which should be a surprise for a large foundry that has been in operation for decades.  I don’t know what the plans for it now include but here are some shots of the skeleton of the structure from one weekend when it was being taken down bit by bit.  A sad end to a location that provided many jobs and supported multiple different industries.

Sampling the Air in Detail

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The time that the NASA DC-8 spent up in the Pacific Northwest was a ton of fun for the aviation enthusiasts.  Since I did get to shoot the jet a few times, I got some closer shots of the airframe to show the various sensors that cover the jet and are used for the sampling work that has been its specialization.  There are plenty of them on the top, sides and bottom of the airframe.  Here are some shots.  I wonder what will replace the jet and whether it will have a similar array of probes?

Struggling to Get the Owls

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My Skagit trip was primarily looking for geese, but I was also going to see whether the short-eared owls were back out and about.  I ended up in East 90 again which has a solid reputation for the owls.  As I pulled up, various other raptors were flying very close by, so I knew the chances of seeing stuff were going to be good.  Unfortunately, the owls were not playing ball.  There were loads of them flying but they seemed to have staked out their interests further across the fields and away from the road.  The northern harriers were the ones close by.  The owls seemed to be wheeling about each other off in the distance so I had to make do with longer range images of them and get some of the other residents instead.

Last Good Paint on a Lufthansa A340

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The A340 is a plane that keeps on going despite repeated claims it was done.  The 300 series jet is actually not as inefficient as it is popular to suggest (the 600 series is far less competitive) and it is still working for a few airlines including Lufthansa.  This winter the jet is back on the run to Seattle which has pleased me.  Most of the jets have been repainted in the new livery which is not that thrilling.  There are also Star Alliance liveried jets but there are one or two of them still in the older Lufthansa colors.  This is a better look from my point of view.

I did have one of them come in one weekend when the light was good and the wind was favorable for the shots I was after.  The landing shots were more of a struggle because the plane landed at noon and the lighting angles were not helpful.  Departure was mid afternoon and so this was slightly better.  They have been back occasionally since but not on days with a) good weather and b) me being available to be there.  I hope I get more chances before they finally head to the desert.

4,000 and Counting

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I was looking through some old posts the other day to try and find something and I saw that the published post count was exactly 4,000 posts.  I hadn’t been keeping track of this so was quite surprised that it was a) that many and b) I happened to look when it was exactly 4,000 published posts.  The first post I made was on March 14, 2011.  At that time, things were not as structured.  My first entry was followed by a second a week later.  Then I had a couple in one day.

By May, I was posting every other day.  I come up with subjects long in advance and tend to prepare the posts in batches which are then scheduled out.  I was getting to the point where I had so many posts scheduled, it was going way out into the future.  It was this that triggered me to go daily.  That’s how it has been ever since.  While my initial focus was on aviation themes, the lack of interest from some family and friends on those topics meant I went to alternating with aviation one day and non-aviation the next.  That is how it continues.  Let’s see how long it all continues.

JSTARS is Gone

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The retirement of some types from service gets a lot of attention from people.  The last Phantoms leaving US service were well covered.  The upcoming end of KC-10 operations is already getting discussed.  However, the removal of the E-8 JSTARS seemed to just happen without much discussion.  I have to admit it caught me off guard.  I didn’t know that they were going away let alone that it had already happened.

With this milestone having slipped past me, I figured I should go back through the catalog and see what times I have shot E-8s.  Not a lot of encounters with Red Flag having been my most productive venues.  They were old jets when they became E-8s and I heard from a friend that one of them had gone through some interesting other configurations before making its way in to the E-8 fleet.  They are consequently old enough to deserve retirement.  It will be a shame not to see them around anymore.

Rails on the End of the Bridge

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The railway that runs from Seattle up to Everett and either on to Vancouver or east across the Cascades crosses a bridge that is just outside the locks at Ballard.  The bridge is a bascule bridge and, since there is quite regular boat traffic including sailing boats with high masts, it is frequently opened.  The low winter light does a nice job of illuminating the underside of the deck of the bridge when it is open.  I was more interested in the shapes at the end of the bridge where the rails end.  They are clearly shaped to interlock with the opposite rails on the bridge approach and also to have a shape which allows the wheels to smoothly pass over without some sudden impact forces.  As they stand up in the air, they strike me as rather fascinating.

Silk Way West Can’t Avoid Me Forever

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Having been operating 747 freighters, Silk Way West, an Azerbaijani cargo airline that is upgrading its fleet with 777Fs.  They took delivery of their first one a while back and there was no time when I could be anywhere close while the jet was on test or being delivered.  I was a bit annoyed to miss it, but these things are part of the process.  When a second jet came off the line, I was similarly unable to get anywhere near it while it was on test.  However, the delivery flight did coincide with some free time I had.

I headed to Everett with the hope of catching it leaving.  Delivery flights are not always reliable.  The timing of getting airborne can move and sometimes odd things happen and they don’t go at all.  This is not the norm, though, so I was hoping it would all work out and I was lucky.  The flight was direct to their home base so, while the jet had no cargo in the hold, it was going to be heavily fueled up so I was hopefully of a reasonably long takeoff run.  It rotated in a good spot for getting some shots but was still quite well off the ground when it came by me.  Still, not a bad location for some shots.  I wonder if/when I shall next see this jet!

Old Filming in SF

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Making my way through old shots for other projects often results in finding stuff I had completely forgotten about.  Before we lived in the Bay Area, I was there for some other reason.  I was down near the water and there was a film crew working on a production of some sort.  The character was on a dock and was approached by some other guys at which point he falls into the water.  There was a diver that got set up in the water beforehand for safety purposes.  Then they filmed the sequence.  I don’t recall them doing it more than once which made it easier than drying the guy off and giving him fresh clothes, I guess!

The Old Horizon Fleet

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The departure of the Q400s from Horizon’s fleet means that they are now fully equipped with Embraer E175-E1s.  I know some people didn’t like the Q400 but I actually found it to be perfectly fine when I flew in them.  Not a ton of space but not the longest flights.  Certainly nothing as long as I have done in the Embraers!  However, before the Q400s, there were other aircraft in their fleet.  I was scanning through some shots for some other reason and came across shots of Dash 8-100s and CRJs.  I figured I would remind people of some of the older times that Horizon operated when I was shooting stuff.  Of course, there are far older types that they would have had but they are before my time.