Someone Forgot to Close the Gas Cap

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Talon Air’s Hawker 4000 came to Boeing Field and my shots of its arrival have already had their own post.  However, while I was reviewing the shots when I got home, something seemed a little odd between the shots.  Something seemed to be flapping around on the lower rear fuselage.  I zoomed in to the shots and there was an access panel that was unsecured.  Its angle was changing between shots, so it was clearly moving around in the airflow.  From what I can gather, this is probably where the fueling port is located.  These doors are tough, so it was probably fine, but I wonder whether any damage was done on a long flight.

Inside An Airport Fire Truck

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I was chatting with one of the King County Sheriff team that looks after King County Airport (Boeing Field).  We were standing by one of their fire trucks for airport operations and he suggested I take a look around the cab.  We didn’t have a load of time but it was very cool to see the configuration of the vehicle.  There is a central seat with controls on one side for the vehicle and on the other for the firefighting equipment.  There are seats either side of the cab for additional crew.  They have facilities for their breathing equipment so the crew can be strapped into the tanks while in their seats and ready to deploy as soon as they reach a fire.  It would have been fun to chat further with the guy about their operations but the event we were both there for started up so we both had somewhere else to be.

SAAB 340 With an Interesting Pod

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I promise that this is the last of the unusual types that headed to Alaska for a large military exercise.  This one I caught as it came through Paine Field.  I like the SAAB 340 anyway but stick a pod under the fuselage and I will be doubly interested.  The company that operates this jet is based in San Diego from what I can tell.  Their product naming might be coincidental, but I suspect I know the favorite author of someone high in the company.

Dogs in Goggles Ready to Save You

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I was a bit far away from the action to get a good shot of this but, during the aviation exercise recently conducted between multiple agencies at Arlington, there were support teams for emergency requirements which included some dog teams.  I saw the dog teams head to the helicopters to head out to one of the exercise locations and then return later.  The dogs were wearing goggles to protect them while around the helicopters and airborne.  I would love to have been a bit closer to get some better shots but sadly that wasn’t the case.

Re-Editing a B-2 Shot

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Periodically, when I am looking through my image catalog for a specific subject for one project or another, I come across some images from a while back that look okay but might benefit from some of the more recent approaches to processing that I have adopted.  This doesn’t always help but it can be fun to start from scratch on a raw file and then see whether the final version is any better than the previous attempt.  I created a new virtual copy in Lightroom and zero out all of the sliders, upgrade to the latest processing version and give it a go.

I did this a little while ago on a shot of a Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit.  I shot this jet at Palmdale many years ago on a visit with my friend, Paul.  The shots were okay, and I was happy with them at the time.  Here I shall show you the current version first and then the next one down is the previous result of my processing from when it was shot.  Do you think it is a significant change?

Preparing for a Major Bridge Structure

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One of the projects I am involved with includes some significant civil engineering and construction work.  Part of this is to build a long span bridge across a dip alongside an interstate.  The work is progressing quickly so things are changing fast.  By the time this post goes live, there will be a lot more to see on the site.  However, when I took these shots, they were preparing to pour to concrete shafts that will support the bridge piers.  The amount of work in preparing the area to stabilize the ground, drill the shafts, have access to the site and have the abutments at each end is huge.  Here are some shots of the work underway at that point.

Bristol Britannia

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There are many aircraft that the British aircraft industry produced in the middle to late 20th century that did not end up being terribly successful.  There was the occasional commercial product in there but a lot that did not have large production numbers, even by the standards of the day.  It was not unusual for the Royal Air Force to end up operating a few of these as the government of the day found a way to prop up an ailing manufacturer.  One type like this was the Bristol Britannia.

A turboprop airliner, it was too large given that jets had taken over the market by the time it was coming into service.  The Royal Air Force was the “willing” recipient of some of these airframes and, for transporting troops that didn’t have a choice in the matter, they were probably just fine.  One of these airframes, Regulus, is not preserved at Cotswold Airport at Kemble in Gloucestershire.  I didn’t know it was there until I was driving around the airport killing some time.  It looks to be in great condition.  I don’t know how well it is handling the corrosion risk that damp UK airfields offer but I hope it lasts a long time.  There are a few of these around but not many.

Drag Racing

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I have had the chance to photograph a variety of motorsports over the years but I recently got a chance to try something new.  I went to see some drag racing at Pacific Raceways in Kent, south of where we live.  I have seen drag racing on TV in the past but have not ever been in person.  I was covering this for Speed and Sport Journal, a website run by my friend Joel in Chicago.  I won’t rewrite the piece I put together for him but will, instead, include the link here to that work.

https://www.speedandsportjournal.com/flav-r-pac-nhra-northwest-nationals/

The focus on that article was not on the results and individual performances but instead what the experience was like going to my first drag racing.  It was a very intense thing to be so close to.  Incredibly loud and physically imposing stuff and quite unlike anything I had done before and that includes standing beside fast jets as they take off.  Joel used a number of my images for the article so here I shall include some that didn’t make it in but that I liked for whatever reasons my brain may have.

Another 727 Chance Before Sunset for Departure

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The arrival just before sunset of a Kalitta 727 was the subject of a recent post.  It departed later that evening, but it was very dark by then and I didn’t hang around.  It wasn’t long before the jet was back again and this time it arrived a little earlier in the day.  That meant that there was a chance that they would depart before sunset.  That was something I was willing to take a chance on.  In the later evening, it is a quick jaunt to Paine Field from home.  Sure enough, they obliged by being prompt.  I had barely got there when the jet taxied.  The light was very nice, and they were flowing to the north so I was able to get a few shots, hop in the car and be home so fast that Nancy thought I must have blown off the idea altogether!

Water Lilies

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I haven’t been to Juanita Bay Park much recently.  The middle of summer is not a great time to go because the sun is high, the humidity is quite uncomfortable, the bugs can be in a bitey mood, haze makes photos even worse than the sun angles – you get the picture.  I did head down one afternoon after work, though, just to see what was happening.  The lake was covered in water lilies with the pads spread out in all directions.  The flowers were not quite so common but there were still plenty.  I was taken by how they were dominating a space that is normally wide open.