Tag Archives: aircraft

My Rainier Arrivals

I was picking up someone from SeaTac just before Christmas. The flight was due in just before sunset so I took the camera along just in case. I was out by the outer runway approach path but the heavies were coming in to the inner runway. This meant they passed nicely in front of Mt Rainer – assuming you can ignore the 60 odd miles distance to the mountain. First in was a Condor 767 which still had plenty of evening light on it as it landed.

Next up was a British Airways 777. It arrived as the light was fading fast. It still had a bit of illumination but you knew anything following it would be in the gloom. Being winter, there was virtually no distortion in the atmosphere, which, given the distance was a potential problem. Things looked pretty sharp in the final images.

Terminal View from the Shuttle

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I was in San Francisco for a work visit a little while back. I was picking up a rental car so took the shuttle that runs around the terminal areas and then out to the rental car facility. This trip gives you a view of the apron areas by each terminal. As you drop away from the central terminal area, you get a good view back across the ramp area predominantly used by United but also other Star Alliance carriers. I grabbed some shots from the shuttle to give an overview of this area that is otherwise obscured from view.

Farewell to Hawaiian’s 767s

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Hawaiian Airlines had a reasonably large fleet of 767s for its long haul services. They introduced A330s to expand the fleet and more recently have added A321neos to serve destinations on the west coast of the US. The arrival of these planes has meant the 767s are no longer needed. Consequently the fleet has been run down and the final flights have taken place. It won’t be an Airbus only fleet for the longer flights for long though. 787-9s are on order so Boeing will return to the long haul fleet before too long.

Under the Ruslan

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I have shot a lot of Antonov 124s at Everett since they are there on a regular basis. One weekend recently, a Volga-Dnepr flight was scheduled in to SeaTac. Shooting at SeaTac is a bit restricted in what you can achieve given the layout of the airport so I decided I would go for something a little different. The heavy traffic usually comes in on the inside runway and there is a small park that puts you pretty much under the approach. I thought this might be a slightly different position to shoot from.

The timing of the arrival was supposed to be later in the afternoon. However, something about the routing meant the jet ended up getting in a bit later than I had expected. Some lovely afternoon light had disappeared and had been replaced by a dull light which was also fading fast. I was ramping up the ISO settings pretty quickly as the jet turned on the approach as it was disappearing by the minute. Finally, the Ruslan appeared in view and I got some head on shots prior to shifting to a wider lens as the plane flew overhead.

Oh Man! More New 787s

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A nice early winter sunny day is a pleasant surprise in the Pacific Northwest and I was able to head across to Everett to see what was happening. Boeing is busy building Dreamliners too though and a couple were on test flights while I was there. One was Oman Air. The scheme is an interesting change from the boring white liveries. You can certainly hear the jets as they land because the test flight involves the deployment of the Ram Air Turbine and it buzzes away when they go by. The other arrival will deserve its own post.

Elusive Coast Guard Bell 429

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I think the Coast Guard was messing with me while I was in Victoria. They operate a Bell 429 from their pad in the harbor and we saw it flying around on a regular basis. However, it always seemed to choose a route that took it just far enough away from me to avoid getting a decent shot. Plenty of longer range shots requiring a lot of cropping but nothing up close. The only time they came close, I didn’t have a long lens to hand. Very sneaky!

Air France to Test the Angle

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I was at SeaTac one Saturday afternoon for the impending arrival of an AN-124. The Ruslan was due in later but I was checking out the flightpaths for the inner runway. An Air France A330 was due in so that was my test aircraft. The light was nice and the angles worked well. I was pretty happy with the result. Sadly, the light wasn’t hanging around for the Antonov and conditions were not as good when it came in.

Victoria Ramp Visitors

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While Viking was the primary reason for my visit to Victoria International, I did get a couple of other visitors to the airport while I was there. A Canadian trainer King Air was parked up. The sharksmouth graphics around the engine inlets is a nice try but it really isn’t the most intimidating aircraft. There was also a Convair 580 parked up by Purolator’s hangar ready for another freight shipment. A bit of a rarity these days and a nice catch.

Smoking the Ukrainian Way

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The regular AN124 visitors to Everett continue. This time of year can often bring northerly winds which means a departure up past the Future of Flight building. Having a heavy Ruslan depart that way can mean a nice angle to get on rotation as well as the climb out which, while a bit backlit, makes for a good change. I was happy with the takeoff but, as the jet climbed away to the north, the smoky combustion of the old D-18 engines was clear to see. The further that they climbed out, the less the plane was obvious and the more the smoke trail was. A bit of mixing from the trailing vortices helped as well. A lot of the people around me were commenting on how dirty it was.

Canadian Otter Special

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Harbour Air is the big player in the Victoria floatplane business. Most of their airframes were in standard colors but one of them was painted up in a nice Canadian Flag color scheme. I first saw it moored up against the jetty but later, when walking down near the water, it taxied out for departure. The takeoff run is a bit far out but I got some shots of it as it went on its way.