Tag Archives: Airbus

Cloudy Isn’t Always Bad

I was looking to get some midsummer shooting in at Vancouver. The day was a lovely one but the evening promised so overcast rolling in and that proved to be the case. However, I thought I would give things a go. The lack of the strong evening light was disappointing but it did actually make for some softer lighting conditions and things weren’t all bad. The evening culminated (at least for me) with three quick arrivals. An Edelweiss A340-300, a BA A380 and a China Airlines A350-900. I quite liked the conditions as they provided something slightly different. Clouds shouldn’t necessarily be a deterrent from an evening out shooting.

Reverser Close Up

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When you get lots of similar jets arriving, you can mess around a bit. The 500mm was far too long for the touchdown shots for most aircraft but, when you are getting a bunch of Air Canada A320s, no harm in cropping in really tight on some of them. The CFM-56 reversers are a bucket type so they splay out from the nacelle. With the evening light, you can see lots of detail in the structure. I played with a similar effect on some of the other jets too.

BA A380 Arrives a Bit Late – Good!

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The day I was at YVR, the BA A380 was a bit late against schedule. Since the light improves significantly later in the evening – nice soft light, warmth and more to the north side – this was considered a win rather than something to complain about. If all of the heavy arrivals could have been a bit delayed and shown up in the best light, that would have been perfect! There wasn’t any significant heat haze which made shots further up the approach surprisingly sharp which was nice. Then touchdown in front of you with all of those tires smoking in sequence rounds things out well.

Cathay A350 is Only Possible At This Time of Year

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Cathay Pacific started direct flights to Seattle from Hong Kong. They are using an A350 for the flight. Unfortunately, it is scheduled to arrive around 9pm and then depart later the same evening. That means, for most of the year, it won’t show up in daylight. However, this time of year the sun sets pretty late. It means there is an opportunity to get it arriving. Forget departure though. The only problem is getting a reasonable arrival time, i.e. not a long journey time and having little in the way of cloud when it shows up. At least we are talking about summer.

I made one trip out to get it. Sadly, it was a little later than indicated and the sun was not gone but below a cloud bank when it came in to view. I did get some shots but the flat light did not do the livery much service. However, with the evenings getting longer and the weather getting better. A new opportunity showed itself. The evening light on the jet as it was on short final made me glad to have made the trek down

Light is Getting Good at YVR

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Arrivals at Vancouver are often on a westerly heading and on the north runway. This is not ideal for photography at touchdown except in the height of summer. Then the light comes around to the north side quite nicely. I wasn’t in Vancouver at the peak time but I did have a visit when the sun had started to get to a good spot. I met up with my buddy Mark for a little evening shooting.

Unfortunately, not everything I wanted came to the runway. The glide slope was apparently unserviceable so some airlines chose to go to the south runway. However, enough came to the north to be worthwhile. The later it got, the better the light became. Some interesting overseas arrivals come in late enough to take advantage of this plus the regular local traffic to provide some nice opportunities. It was a nice evening of shooting and meant the traffic was far easier by the time I got on the road home.

Evening Aer Lingus

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I was out one evening at SeaTac awaiting one of the British Airways special 747 schemes – see this post. The preceding heavy jet was an Aer Lingus A330. It was the test for me to make sure I had the exposure set up the way I intended. The evening light was getting good and the green on the jet looked pretty good.

My First A220

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The A220 (or C Series CS100 if you are not yet ready to have it labeled as an Airbus) has been in service for a while but, until recently, I hadn’t seen one. Then, while I was on the shuttle between the terminals at DFW, we came around the terminal that Delta uses and I realized that the jet that had just pushed back was an A220.

It was early evening so the light was quite nice. The shape of the jet was quite distinctive. Aside from the cockpit shaping, the wings are quite large (giving it quite decent range capability) and the large fans of the Pratt GTFs are conspicuous. It is not a bad looking jet the Delta colors looked good on it. Sadly it taxied to the other side of the airport so I didn’t see it depart but it was nice to finally see one for real.

Pretty Mountain Backdrop

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My effort to shoot an arriving A350 at SeaTac provided a secondary benefit. The majority of arriving aircraft land on the outer runway. This is further away and also has a threshold further up the field. This means the aircraft are higher up on the approach. On a clear winter’s day, the planes have the backdrop of the snow covered Olympic mountain range. They were a bit far away but did provide a rather scenic view.

Delta A350 In to SeaTac

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Delta has replaced the 767 on the Narita run with the A350. It arrives in to SeaTac in the morning and SeaTac early arrivals from the south do not provide good opportunities for photography. I had an idea for a possible place to try so headed out on a sunny Sunday (very cold) morning. It turned out my chosen spot was a non-starter so now I was looking for an alternative and rapidly. I ended up a little further away than was ideal and with a slightly obscured view. The cold played to my advantage though. Heat haze is probably usually a big problem at this spot but, on this occasion, I could get away with it.

While obscured, I had some views of the approach path and also close to the touchdown zone. Only the heavy jets land on the inner runway so I didn’t have much chance to practice what would happen. Only one heavy came in beforehand – a Korean Air 777 – and this showed me I need to change my plan a little. Then I just had to hope things would work out for the A350. It wasn’t great but it worked out okay and I was pleased to come away with some shots.

Salt Lake City is a Scenic Airport!

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I had a long layover at Salt Lake City when connecting on a Delta flight. The sun was out and the mountains in the background were covered in snow so it made for a rather pretty backdrop for the airport operations. It was a bit Delta-centric given that they hub at the airport and we were in one of their terminals but it did make for some nice light and scenery for aviation shots.