Tag Archives: Airbus

Cathay A350 is Only Possible At This Time of Year

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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.

Tiger Taiwan

How about another airline that I don’t normally see?  Tiger Taiwan operates a number of flights to Japan.  I saw them both at Narita and at Hyakuri/Ibaraki.  I figured I would share a couple of shots of  their jets in service for those that haven’t seen them before.

Thomas Cook A330

The Thomas Cook A330s do come in to Seattle and I got some distant shots of one once – it was actually one of the Voyagers that is leased out by Air Tanker – but they were not much use.  SFO proved to be a better hunting ground and the light even played ball.  This is not a Voyager – just a standard A330 – but the Thomas Cook colors popped a bit better this time around.

Asiana A350

During the summer season, Asiana was flying their new A350s in to SeaTac.  I did get some more distant shots but nothing of significance.  With the introduction of the winter schedule, they changed to a lower capacity type.  However, while I was at SFO, I was able to shoot one of the A350s as they continue to run there in the off season.  The light was quite nice as it came in so I was pleased to get a shot.  They will soon be pretty common but, for now, it was a nice catch.