Tag Archives: Airbus helicopters

Regional Parks Astar

AU0E0640.jpgWhile I was getting lucky catching the Huey at Hayward, this wasn’t the only helicopter I came across in action.  A short distance away from me, an Astar was running up on the ramp.  Before too long, it lifted, taxied across to the active runway and then departed to the southeast.  It turned out to belong to the Regional Parks service.  I had actually seen this airframe before when it had been at Livermore.  This time I was a lot closer to it and able to get a far better view.

AU0E0688.jpgIt is actually quite a nice paint job that they have applied.  Some quick research suggests that they have a couple of these Astars.  I wouldn’t mind finding out more about them and what they are used for.  It could make for a more detailed piece at some point.

AU0E0588.jpg

Coast Guard Air-to-Air (ish)

C59F1783.jpgMy flight over LAX was intended to get lots of shots of airliners. We did also get a little benefit. For the time being, the Coast Guard have a base at LAX. They will be moving soon but, until that point, operations continue as normal. One of their MH-65 Dolphins returned to base while we were airborne. ATC vectored them behind us and around to land on their pad. We managed to yaw around to provide an angle on them as they came in.

C59F1754.jpgShooting the Dolphin was a bit harder than some of the other aircraft. I was using a 100-400 lens which was fine for the jets when I could keep the shutter speed up high to compensate for any motion or vibration. However, dropping the shutter speed for the rotors, even if I didn’t take it too low, meant a very high failure rate on the shots. Even then, we were still a reasonable distance away which didn’t help. A few of the shots are passable. However, they won’t handle too much scrutiny. I’m glad we got them though since they will be gone if I go back for another shoot.