Tag Archives: aircraft

Dreamlifter Reflections

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The idea for this was spotted by my friend, Paul, during a visit of his but we missed it at the time.  It was early in the morning and the water was calm as a millpond.  However, the jet was beyond the water before he spotted it.  I have missed the chance since or there was not water.  However, while the conditions weren’t ideal, when I saw the Dreamlifter taxiing back to the ramp, I realized the opportunity was going to be there this time.

The water wasn’t quite still and I had the long lens on the camera but a phone is a good second best these days.  The jet taxied in with Mt Rainier in the background before reaching the north end of the field and crossing over.  Then it was time to be ready.  The phone has the added advantage of being able to shoot through the fence with no interference.

What Aviation Can I Shoot From Home?

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The answer to that question is clearly “not much” but it isn’t zero.  We do get things flying overhead here on a regular basis.  We are on the approach to SeaTac for some arrivals and we do sometimes get Boeing Field traffic too.  It’s a rarity when there is something interesting and I am ready, though, so that doesn’t provide a lot.  However, I did recently have a T-38 from Boeing’s chase fleet come over the house.  It was a bit high but it was enough to get me out in the driveway!

We have also had helicopters fly over on occasion.  An Army Chinook came past one time while and Navy Seahawk was another transient.  In each case, I only heard them shortly before they arrived so grabbed the camera while at my desk and shot through the window.  That is not a good plan but it was all I had available at the time.  These can count as my lockdown at home aviation projects!

Heathrow From a While Back

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When we first lived in Chicago, I was working for a UK based company.  I used to make regular trips to London to check in with the mother ship.  For the return journey, I would usually take the morning flight back to O’Hare from Heathrow.  In those days, BA operated from Terminal 4 and there was a Hilton hotel attached to the terminal.  This made the whole process very easy.  Get up, walk across the bridge to the terminal and check in.  It also meant I could get the occasional shots of operations.

There was a fire escape on the side of the hotel that provided a view to the east and to a bit of the airfield itself.  It was a bit restricted as views go but it was not bad.  I could get some shots of the operations if the direction of the flow was right.  I would also get up early sometimes to see the arrivals coming in as the sun was coming up.  Here are some of the shots I got from there.

Edwards Storage Yard

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I had a recent post of some shots from the USAF museum at Edwards AFB.  It reminded me of my first visit to Edwards in 1990.  On that trip I saw both the USAF side of things and the NASA side.  The NASA hangars were great and there were lots of amazing types being used for testing purposes.  I didn’t see everything I was hoping for there but it was still fantastic.  One thing that really excited me was the storage lot.  There were some interesting airframes parked up there.  An F-8 Crusader that had been used for supercritical wing testing was there.  I think that has since been taken care of and is now restored.  The fly by wire testbed was also there.

There was also a weird hybrid airframe.  I think it was called RSRA which stood for rotor systems research aircraft.  This was a hybrid of rotor and fixed wing technologies.  One of them was modified for the X-Wing program which was canceled before it could fly.  Not sure which one I saw but I think it was the unmodified one.  These things could have A-10/S-3 engines fitted to them for higher speed research work.  Oh, to have seen one in action.  This lot would have been definitely worth some time looking around if it had been possible.

Fort Worth F-16s

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Ahead of an ISAP symposium many years ago, my friend Richard had arranged a visit to JRB Carswell at Fort Worth.  As well as being the home of the Lockheed Martin assembly plant, it also hosts the 301st FW of the USAF Reserve with their F-16s.  They were great hosts and we got to spend a bunch of time around the base.  On their ramp space, we had a lot of freedom to shoot them prepping for missions and heading out.

We also got to go to the EOR and see them come in after their missions and have the jets safed prior to taxiing back to the ramp.  Being close to the jets while they are doing real work is such a different experience to seeing them at an air show when things are all a bit more contrived.  This was a new experience for me at the time and so I was following the example of a few of the other guys when looking to see what sort of things to get shots of.  It was a great learning experience and a bunch of fun too!

American West

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In the saga of mergers that have characterized the US airline industry over the decades, plenty of airlines have disappeared – subsumed into a larger merger partner.  One such airline is American West.  I was looking for some old shots for another project and came across a bunch of shots of this airline.  It merged with USAir and then ultimately into American Airlines.  It had a more interesting color scheme than is usually the case these days so I figured I would pop a few shots of their jets into a post.

I believe one of these jets is a retro scheme as part of the American Airlines retro jet program.  The rest, though, are from the days when the airline was an active competitor.  A search on the registrations of some of these jets would have, until recently shown them as still active in the American Airlines fleet.  Now, with most of the fleets on the ground and given the age of some of these jets, I suspect a lot of them won’t be making it back in to service.

The Edwards Museum

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Edwards AFB has been the home to an amazing range of interesting aircraft types.  Many of them have found their way to prominent museums around the country given the significance of what they achieved.  Others never found interest and got disposed of.  Some never lasted long enough to be preserved given the hazardous nature of what they did.  However, there was a storage program for the rest and Edwards has a museum of some of these preserved airframes.

I haven’t been to Edwards for a long time so I don’t know what the current situation is with the collection but I did get to check it out on a previous visit.  The collection was mainly front line types that had been used for testing purposes.  (This is the USAF side of things rather than the NASA collection.)  There are some types there that I didn’t see which I would like to have done like the YA-7F.  However, there was a test A-7D with an air data boom.  Here are some of the shots I got that day.  I also shot a couple of other jets that were away from the rest but these were only with my phone and phone quality in those days was not what it is now.

Dreamlifter Before Sunset

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This is my first shoot of a moving plane that wasn’t taken from my yard since the virus shelter at home started.  With a slight relaxation of the state rules, I saw that a Dreamlifter was due in to Paine Field from Charleston.  It was due to arrive some time after 8pm.  With the sundown not long before 9 and the weather looking lovely (unlike the forecast for the rest of the week), it seemed like the light would be very good.  I have got a lot of Dreamlifter shots at this point so, if it had been anything other than shortly before sunset, I wouldn’t have thought of going.  With this light, though, why not.

I was tracking it on two services and they showed rather different arrival times.  I got there with some margin just in case but, even so, the jet was already getting ready to turn downwind when I pulled up.  The arrival procedure takes a while so it wasn’t a rush, but I should probably have added a little time.  The sky was so clear you could see the jet flying the approach from miles out.  As it turned to final, the low light angle even picked out the texture on the side of the jet!  The air was still so you could hear it from a long way out too.  After all that, it was suddenly so close and touched down just a little away from my spot.  Time to pack up and head home.

An Old RIAT Since This Year’s Is Scrubbed

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When I lived in the UK, a trip to RIAT was a regular thing for me.  After I started shooting digital, I was living in the US so RIAT was more than just a day trip.  My first visit with the digital camera was in 2006.  I had to be in the UK for work so I timed it to coincide with RIAT because, you know, it would have been rude not to.  With RIAT canceled this year due to the ongoing virus issues, I figured I would jump back to this show to provide some highlights.

I spent two days there.  I made my first arrivals day visit and spent the day at the west end which was really nice.  Planes were arriving from that direction anyway so it worked out well.  The conditions were really nice on both days too so it was a fun and successful shoot.  Mikoyan-Gurevich brought there MiG-29OVT demonstrator with thrust vectoring and it flipped its way around the sky with abandon.  There was the usual selection of types from around the world which makes RIAT so fun.  There were also some older UK types making an appearance like the Canberra demonstration – the last RAF Canberra flights I saw – and the old Twin Pioneer.

A Czech Mil-24 Hind helicopter gunship in special tiger dquadron markings overflies RAF Fairford, UK.

Hopefully there is something in this selection that will be of interest from a great show.  There have been more RIAT visits since so maybe I shall dig out some stuff from those years if I continue to struggle for material for future posts!

C-32s

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The demise of a bunch of airline fleets of 757s at the moment is a shame as it is a type I was always fond of from the days of British Airways using them for shuttle services around the UK as well as being the first commercial jet I flew on heading to Lisbon from Heathrow.  The military has also made use of the jet of course.  The New Zealand 757 displays in the past have been pretty impressive and maybe that gives me an idea for a future post.  The USAF has a bunch of them, designated as C-32, and they are used for VIP transportation.

They are not a type that you often come across but I have seen them on a few occasions.  An Andrews AFB Open House provided one movement – they are based there so not such a surprise.  Another was at Nellis AFB when one launched just prior to a Red Flag launch when we were waiting between the runways for the action to kick off.  The VIP colors of the USAF jets are quite elegant and they suit the 757 nicely.