Another Epic Encounter

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Nothing too special about this one.  It’s just because Epics are a pretty rare type and a rather unusual looking plane so, when one shows up and I am lucky enough to be able to catch it, I think it is worthy of note.  The fuselage of this type has a strange shape with a slightly humped look to it.  It goes against the “if it looks right, it flies right” idea but it might just make for a more useful cabin for the occupants.  Until I fly in one, I’ll never know.  Would be good to get one air to air, though.

Wet Leaves Are So Vibrant

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Fall means leaves and, at least in the Northwest, it can also mean rain.  The rain helps accelerate the dropping of the leaves, but it also does a nice job of making the colors look at their best.  I was out at lunchtime and saw these leaves on the ground in the parking lot.  I couldn’t walk by without taking a few shots.

Other Sunny Sunday Bizjets

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One Sunday earlier in the year, I was up at Boeing Field for the arrival of an old Gulfstream.  That proved to be a successful encounter and has been on this blog already.  However, that was not the only bizjet traffic that day.  I ended up with a variety of corporate aircraft movements.

There was a Canadian Challenger as well as some NetJets examples.  A Falcon 7X was on the move which is a cool looking aircraft.  There was also a Falcon 50 parked near the road alongside a Hawker.  An Excel came through which isn’t that special but then we got an Eclipse which certainly is.  It was a fun time to be out photographing with a lot in a short space of time.  Here are some shots of those planes.

Assembling Roof Beams with Cranes

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A hangar has been under construction at Paine Field for a while and, while so much time has been taken up by the preparation of the groundwork, I happened to be there when they were assembling the frame of the hangar.  The long span that the finished structure will have is built up of two pieces with the side beams and the roof beams for one side being assembled on the ground and then two cranes being called in to lift both halves up simultaneously so that they can be bolted in the center to provide the rigidity needed.

Seeing the cranes holding these large frames in place and the crews using scissor lifts to get up to put the connections in place was quite neat.  Once the frames are in place, the process of cladding the building can take place in slower time.  Those cranes will have been expensive to rent so getting that heavy lifting done as fast as possible will have been the goal.

737-600 – The Unpopular Variant

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It seems for each generation of airliner, the smallest one from the previous generation is the one that doesn’t do so well.  The 737-500 sold reasonably well but the -600 was the unloved on of the NG range.  The -700 sold well but the Max 7 is not really attracting any love (except from Southwest).  The A320 family has the same thing.  Apparently, the small one just doesn’t age well.  The 737-600 did not end up with many airlines so I have few shots of them.  Aside from the Janets, these are the only operators I have seen.

Agate Beach

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My first visit to Lopez Island included a stop down by Agate Beach.  When Nancy and I took a trip to the island, we headed down to the beach so I could see it again.  The weather was lovely and the beach looked at its best.  I took some panorama shots as well as regular ones to try and convey the feeling of the bay that the beach sits in.  It’s a lovely location.

Murphy Moose On Floats At Olympia

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I’ve posted shots of Murphy Mooses (or however that should be as a plural) in other posts including one with a turbine engine.  This one showed up at Olympia during one of the Olympic Air Shows.  It’s an average looking plane but stick it on floats and it immediately looks more interesting.  It landed and taxied in and then didn’t move again while I was there but at least I got some shots of it.

What is This Boat About?

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Nancy and I were having lunch at a great pub on Spice Island called The Still and West.  I would certainly recommend it if you are in the area.  We were watching the many different boats as they came in and out of the Harbour entrance.  One boat was heading out which seemed curious.  It was a low profile vessel, looked like it was designed to look suspicious and, when you look closer, it has a FLIR installation on the bridge.  Since this is Portsmouth, it could well be a military vessel but that doesn’t preclude it being one for an overseas customer or just a company or individual with rather specialized interests.  I wonder which it is.

A Chinese Plane in Nairobi

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Our flight from the Maasai Mara back to Nairobi took us in to Wilson Airport.  This is not the main international airport but a smaller domestic airport that is closer to the center of the city.  No terminals and jet bridges here.  We disembarked from our Dash 8 on the ramp and walked to the building to get out of the airport.  The ramp was packed with all sorts of aircraft.  One caught my eye immediately as it looked unfamiliar to me.

The marking showed it belong to the Republic of Djibouti’s Air Force which only served to increase my level of interest.  It wasn’t something I had seen before so I had to look up the type.  It is a Harbin Y-12 which is a Chinese designed and manufactured aircraft.  That was quite a turn up for me.  Not sure how happy anyone would be about me getting photos on the ramp but no one seemed bothered at the time.

Backlighting the Moss

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The Pacific Northwest can definitely be damp and the amount of moss you see in sheltered areas is impressive.  What caught my eye on this occasion was that the moss was wrapped around the tree and the sun was directly behind the tree making the moss appear more like a halo around the tree than anything else.  It was quite a range of exposures, so I played around with the shots a little to get the effect I was after.