Tag Archives: aircraft

Learjet and a Global Through the Fence

San Jose has a little park next to the airport which provides a good place to watch the approaching aircraft. It is also situated right next to the taxiway that the corporate jets use to get to the threshold for departure. You get a really good view of them and, as the day progresses, the light is on them nicely. Unfortunately, although not surprisingly, there is a big fence in the way. It is a high fence and there are no spaces to photograph through. The only option is to get very close to the mesh, try and align with the holes as well as you can and then shoot wide open to blur out any wire that does get in the shot. It works surprisingly well.

In this case a couple of Bombardier’s jets showed up. The Lear was nice to see but I do prefer the big corporate jets and the Global Express has been a favorite of mine for a long time. I think it is an elegant jet and this one was painted nicely to enhance the lines. I await the first chance I shall get to see the Global 7000 to see whether it shares the family looks. I should pay my friends in Wichita a trip – to see them of course!

Some New Max Jets

Leave a Reply

Boeing has now certificated the first of the new Max versions of the 737. The Max8 has now entered service. I first saw a Max at some distance across San Francisco Bay as I wrote about here. I was passing Renton so I thought I would have a quick look at what was on the flightline. A few of the new jets were mixed in with the current builds of the NG aircraft. Customer jets were clearly awaiting delivery while a Max9 was also on the ramp. The test program for the Max9 is at a far earlier stage although it will be a shorter program given the amount of testing already completed by the Max8. A Max8 was close by and one awaiting delivery was behind the Max9.

Trying Something Different for the Night Burner Shots

Leave a Reply

When the B-1s show up at Red Flag, everyone is pretty pleased. A big bomber with four afterburning engines is like a giant fighter to photograph. It is a good looking jet. It also has a nice feature at night. The majority of the fighters that take off in burner are back to military power shortly after getting airborne. The B-1 is a different story. It stays in burner for a ridiculous amount of time. Not having flown one, I don’t know whether they pull back the power from full burner at some point but they do stay plugged in for ages. Long into the climb you can still see the glow.

I have shot the B-1s from a location out in the area on the extended centerline before. Go back to some old posts here and here and you will see the sort of shots I am talking about. Paul has also shot from out there so we agreed to try something different. We headed closer to the rotation point. The jets get airborne pretty smartly and, the closer in they are, the further away they are from the highway. However, something that had more of a side on feel was what I was after and so we tried a different spot.

Of course, you never know what time the launch will start and when the B-1s will be scheduled for so there is a lot of sitting around and waiting – in the dark. During the day it is easy to hang about and wait for something to move. At night things seem to take longer and you feel a bit more exposed. However, they did eventually launch and these shots are the result. I have learned some new things about the behavior of the camera at night which will be useful next time so, while the shots aren’t perfect, it was certainly worthwhile.

Inlet Vapor for the Heavies

Leave a Reply

More shots from a fun shoot a while back. If the wind is coming from the west, evening departures from O’Hare provide plenty of opportunity to get some shots. The heavy departures to Europe leave later in the afternoon and in to the early evening and, as the sun drops down things are getting better and better. The nice thing about this day was that we got a combination of good conditions. Earlier in the afternoon, while the light wasn’t as good, a storm had not long passed through and there was plenty of moisture in the air.

The result was a lot of vapor in the inlets of the jets as they climbed out at high thrust settings. Some of them had clouds sitting in the inlets for long periods of time. Others would just pulse with the vapor as they climbed away. They would also puff up little clouds over the upper surfaces of the wing as they fought to gain height. As the afternoon wore on, the air dried out a bit and the vapor went away. However, the light was then getting better so no reason to go just yet!

Mixed Formations

Leave a Reply

Returning jets from the Red Flag missions often come back with the other jets from their units. However, you do occasionally get a mixed formation or two as a straggler joins up with some other jets for the run in and break. This time, it might have been my imagination, but there seemed to be more mixed formations than normal. We discussed whether, with the F-35s taking part in larger numbers, other pilots were kind of keen to get in formation with them and check them out from closer quarters. Whether that was the case or not, whether there was another reason or perhaps it was just coincidence. Whatever the reason, we got a few mixed groups and not always just with the Daves!

Falcon 20s

Leave a Reply

The Falcon 20 was a ground breaking corporate aircraft. It sold well and has been sufficiently flexible that it has also found a lot of secondary uses including FedEx package carrying and electronic warfare support. However, its use as a bizjet was its main role. Now, it is a dated airframe so it doesn’t show up very often. As a result, when we were heading around the perimeter of McCarran I was pleasantly surprised to see one parked up on the ramp. What really caught me unawares was to find another one a short distance away. This must be the place that old Falcon 20s gather! Sadly they weren’t in a position to shoot but I did see one depart while I was there so it will have to do to represent the type at McCarran.

PG&E Heli Lift Training

Leave a Reply

I miss the amount of helicopter shooting I used to do. Every once in a while I come across a help in action and I feel like it is a little victory. One time it was the local sheriff’s department practicing line work and that showed up here. On this occasion, I was coming away from an interview I had done for a GAR feature. I was at Yolo County airport in California. As I drove down the road, an MD500 was hovering over the field next to the road.

I pulled off a short distance away to see what was going on. PG&E is a local power company and they appeared to be running a training program for they power line teams. They were hooking up transmission components and moving them a short distance to another team that then unhooked them. This process continued as they moved items from place to place giving the ground teams practice with the various items.

There was a strong breeze and a bit of gustiness so the pilot was working quite hard but, since everything was at ground level, I suspect it was a lot easier than if this was at the top of a pylon. He wasn’t the one getting the training, though, by the look of it. I watched for a while and from a couple of different angles and then left them to it. I hope the class was successful.

Why Travel North if the Aurora Comes to You?

Leave a Reply

Icelandair painted one of their 757s in a scheme that portrays the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights. It is named Hekla Aurora. It was painted a long time ago but, since they didn’t operate anywhere I lived, I hadn’t got to see it. Then I had my first sighting when landing at SeaTac when it was parked across the ramp as we taxied in. I certainly didn’t get a shot of it. Moving to Seattle meant I would have a chance to see it in action but that was dependent on it operating here on a day when I could actually be there. Turns out my luck was in – and it was sunny! (In fact it had been a crummy day but I had a feeling it would clear up and, while it was raining as I drove down, the sun came out on cue. Hurrah!)

Citation Xs

Leave a Reply

Today’s post is for my buddy Pete. Pete flies for a living and for fun. He loves to fly anything he can have a go with. There is one bizjets that he hasn’t got his hands on (yet) but which he really has a soft spot for. That is the Cessna Citation X. When it was introduced, the Citation X brought a far higher top speed than the competition. It did this by having two honking great engines strapped to a relatively small fuselage and a highly swept wing. It has been a popular seller.

It has been attractive to fractional programs as well as individuals so it is not unusual to see one show up at an airport that has regular bizjets traffic. Certain angles look good on the jet. Anything that emphasizes the size of the engines appeals to me but the sweep of the wings and the fin also give it a going fast while standing still feel. Here are some shots for you Pete.

Armee de l’Air A400M

Leave a Reply

The A400M Atlas is now in service with a number of air forces. My encounters with them, though, have only involved the development airframes displayed by Airbus. That changed in Sacramento when The Patrouille de France arrived as part of their North American tour. They brought an A400M as he support plane. I was rather disappointed that it arrived late in the evening, after I had gone home and disappeared early the following morning to recover some delayed jets.

It was back for the day of the display though. It started up at a remote location but then proceeded to give a short flying display. It then taxied back to the crowd line where it shut down and was opened up for visitors. The people were lined up to get inside it for ages. The plane still looked pretty clean so I guess it had not been in service too long. I was glad to get a close up look around the outside as well as to see the crowds inside and the flying display itself. Not a dramatic performance like the test crews have put on but still good to see.