The A340s are disappearing from the
fleets of major airlines pretty quickly as the 787s and A350s come in to
service. Lufthansa is one airline that
still has not only the A340-600 in service but the A340-300 too. I shot a 600 on approach to SFO last year and
it got me wondering just how long they have remaining in service. While fuel prices are relatively low, they
may hang on but higher fuel prices could accelerate their demise. We shall see.
In the meantime, here are some of their fleet in service across the
years.
I went to Paine Field to get the Air Tahiti Nui 787 which I wrote about in this post. As I walked up to Future of Flight, there was an unusual looking plane sitting at the hold running up the engine. I grabbed some shots of it doing its engine run and then as it lined up and took off. I couldn’t work out what it was. I thought it might be a Bellanca but I was wrong. A search when back at home tells me it is a Harlow PJC-2.
With lovely light, I was hoping to get
it when it came back in. Unfortunately, it
timed its return such that it coincided with the arrival of the 787 so they
went to the left runway instead of the right.
Never mind.
Korean Air 777s are hardly a rarity so
would not normally warrant a blog post.
However, this one arrived at a time when the light seemed to be
particularly appealing and I was pleasantly surprised by the shot. I figured it could have a blog post on what
is probably a cold and rainy winter’s day.
Sorry for the corny pun but I just
couldn’t resist. One of my favorite
airliners to shoot has been the Air Tahiti Nui A340-300. I have seen them at LAX on a number of
visits. Shooting them taking off on the
south complex has been possible on a few occasions and I was super lucky to get
one of them landing on the north complex when I was overhead in the
helicopter. The A340s are getting a bit
old at this point, though, so their replacement has been ordered and it is
going to be the Boeing 787-9.
One of the jets was in flight test at
Everett so, with nice weather on a weekend and flying underway, I couldn’t
resist a trip up to get the return. I
was too late for a takeoff shot. The
conditions were great. A cold snap meant
that the air was clear and the sun, while it disappeared for a while shortly
after I arrived, was back in plenty of time for the return. Consequently, as the plane came across the
Cascades, I could see it easily prior to it turning north to come in on the
approach. Mt Baker was clear in the
background as they made the turn to final approach.
The dark colors of the livery make it
necessary to use a bit of shadow slider when processing the shots. It was just after midday so the light was a
bit on the nose of the jet but you could still get something good for the
fuselage sides. The touchdown was a bit
firm providing a smoky cloud of tire rubber.
I wonder how much tread the airline expects to have at delivery? Often the jets will come back for a rejected
takeoff run but this time they went straight back to the ramp.
My last time shooting at SFO, I got
shots of a Virgin Atlantic 787 arriving.
Crossing shots are not unusual at SFO as the jets on approach will often
have departing jets in the background.
The Virgin jet had this. It also
had a second crossing shot a little earlier on the approach. A jet heading over the bay to pick up the
approach further down was directly behind the 787 just after it passed Coyote
Point.
The Boeing T-38 chase jets are
something I have not had much success in hunting down. I have got some shots but they were not in
great conditions. I did have another
chance recently when at Boeing Field but, guess what, the clouds rolled in at
just the wrong time. The T-38 flew nicely
down the approach and provided a great opportunity but the light was not really
playing ball. Still, at least I got some
shots, even if the colors are hardly popping.
The current generation of wide body
jets are being built at rates that would have been hard to imagine a few years
ago. Fourteen jets a month is so much
more than would have been contemplated before.
That is the sort of build rate that the 787 and the A350 are
achieving. The result is a lot of jets
being in service not that long after the fleet first appeared. Boeing recently built the 787th
787. It was a jet for China Southern and
I got a shot of it returning to Everett.
I’m glad it was an Everett jet rather than a Charleston one. I wonder who got to make that decision!
My first encounter with this Cirrus SF50 Vision was in this post. It was scheduled for departure while I was on some calls and I hoped it would time its departure conveniently for me. I was lucky and it headed out just after I finished a call and before I headed back to the eastside. The skies were not friendly for getting a shot but it was still nice to see it in action and the flat light avoided any harsh shadows and deep contrast.
Ethiopian Airlines has been taking
delivery of some Boeing 777F freighters for their cargo operations. One of the new jets was being readied for
delivery while I was at Paine Field.
Operations were in a northerly direction so, from the terrace on top of
the Future of Flight, we were going to get a good view. I was hoping that a direct flight to Bole in
Ethiopia would be sufficiently long to mean that the jet would be very heavy
with fuel and would run long on take off giving us a good view of
rotation. However, while there was a lot
of fuel on board, the lack of any other payload meant it still got off the
ground pretty swiftly. Still, it was a
good view of the initial climb out.
Another stint in the lots by Boeing
Field to deal with some phone calls prior to heading back out of Seattle after
some meetings and some more interesting movements. A G650 landed while I was there. I was on a call so I didn’t have an
opportunity to get a shot of it as it landed and rolled out which was a
shame. It parked up across from me and
an SUV took the occupants away. Then it
was pushed into a hangar. A quick search
on the registration gives a company name and Googling that shows it is
associated with Bill Gates. Looks like he
has a nice jet although I think he needs a new Global 7500 if he wants to stay
on top of things.
