Tag Archives: aircraft

The Mad Dogs Aren’t Gone Quite Yet

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The McDonnell Douglas MD-80 is a jet that has had its time and is now rapidly disappearing from the skies of the US.  However, they aren’t all gone.  American Airlines has been a big user but the arrival of 737s and A319s means they are heading to the desert in large numbers.  I had assumed that meant they were a rarity but DFW is clearly still seeing a lot of them.  I was taking a shot of any of them that showed up since I might not get many more chances.  I have, of course, shot them a lot of the years but this was a nice final encounter.  Strange how pleased you are to see something that used to be a bit of a yawn.

Never Heard of Them But Now They’re In the News

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Until recently I had never heard of Miami Air International.  Then I photographed this rather unpleasant yellow 737-800 that landed at Boeing Field.  Only FlightAware (and a squint at the text on the fuselage) let me know who operated the jet.  The Scimitar winglets hint at the previous owner since they clearly didn’t get repainted!  A couple of days after this, another of their jets went off a runway in Florida and ended up in a river.  Now I know who they are!

A C-17 at Boeing Field?

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Boeing Field does occasionally get military transient traffic at weekend but recently it has had some heavies show up.  I saw that a C-5 had been passing through which would have been really cool to see.  I was heading down that way not long ago when I saw a KC-46 depart towards me as I drove shortly followed by a C-17.  I was a bit disappointed to have missed both of them.  I did not anticipate that the C-17 would return.

However, a while later, I heard something call up on final but it wasn’t showing up on FlightRadar24.  I took a guess it might be military and moved to the arrival end and, sure enough, the C-17 was coming down the approach at a leisurely pace.  It was a Travis jet.  I was told that McChord is being resurfaced so that might explain why this jet ended up at Boeing Field rather than down there.

Stored Max Jets Filling Up the Place

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The grounding of the 737 Max fleet worldwide means that they have been coming off the production line and going in to storage.  A few of them were scattered around the Boeing ramp at Paine Field.  One was particularly interesting though.  It seemed to have the front fuselage wrapped in something while the rear fuselage windows were not covered but had individual panels sealed across them.  No idea what this was all about but it did look unusual.

HondaJet

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This HondaJet was on an FBO ramp at Paine Field.  I have seen one close up at Oshkosh and a few at a distance while flying but this was the closest I had got to one in the wild.  It is certainly a curious looking jet.  The engine mounts are the focus of a lot of attention but I am also a little put off by the front fuselage shaping around the cockpit windows.  Having only one product doesn’t seem like a sustainable approach but maybe Honda has ideas for more to come.  If they do, we shall see if they continue with this design philosophy or go in a different direction.

Drop Tank By the Road

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Sometimes you find the oddest things by the road.  Just outside NAS Whidbey Island, there is a drop tank sitting by the road.  I have no idea what it is doing there.  It seems to be on someone’s yard.  The shape was not something that looked like a Navy tank (which you might expect). I thought it looked like something from an F-111.  Fortunately, It had a data plate which showed a serial that seems to suggest a Fort Worth General Dynamics product so I guess F-111 is probably it.  Anyone know the story?

Some Nice Flexing

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Departures over the Speedway are best when they flex.  The straight out departures are fine but not that exciting and they often get pretty high pretty quickly.  Those jets that flex seem to stay a bit lower and provide a more interesting shot.  The later in the day it is, the better the light on a flexing jet.  If they are doing an evening departure after the Flag participants are back, the conditions can be ideal.

Here is a selection of jets in both good and okay lighting.  If a four ship goes out, you hope for the last jet to be more dramatic since it will be playing catch up with the others and shoot turn in a bit tighter.  The fourth Saudi F-15SA was another story though since he went very early and then straightened up before having another go inside us.  Not sure he had been paying attention at the brief!

T-33 Damp Departure

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My inability to see a Boeing T-33 jet in nice conditions continues.  I was at Boeing Field when one of the T-33s was taking off in support of a Pegasus test mission.  The weather was crappy with rain and a heavy overcast.  I thought that this was not going to work well but sometimes bad weather provides good opportunities so I gave it a go.  Besides, I don’t see them enough to pass it by.  As it turned out, the flat conditions and the dampness made the jet show up nicely against the background when it was still low on climb out.  Once it was against the sky, things weren’t so great but it turned out a lot better than I expected.

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 Global 7500

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I was a touch disappointed that a Global 7500 demonstrator from Bombardier landed at Boeing Field about 15 minutes before I got there.  I had not seen one previously and I missed it arriving.  It was parked up across the field although the heat haze was not making for much of a shot.  The following morning they filed a flight plan for departure at a time which meant I could get there before having to go to work so I headed across.  In common with these things, they weren’t exactly prompt.  However, they still taxied and got airborne in plenty of time for me.  The morning light limits your shooting locations so I was further down field than ideal and the jet was quite high but I have still finally got one.  They will be loads of them before too long but, for now, I am pleased to have this one.