Tag Archives: aircraft

Eric’s Clipper

Eric Presten is a guy who spends his career photographing other people’s aircraft. He is not so often the subject of the photo. Dave Leininger was writing an article on Piper Clippers and wanted some shots of Eric’ aircraft to illustrate the piece along with some details of the modifications it has and how Eric uses it. I was up at Sonoma Skypark on the day that Dave was visiting and he kindly allowed me along on the photo flight. A Bonanza was the camera ship so I took the second spot shooting over Dave while he was seated on the floor.

Dave had a publication date for his feature so I embargoed these shots until his piece had gone live which it now has. It was late in the afternoon so the light was getting pretty good. The Clipper is a cool little plane and Eric is used to formation work so makes a great pilot for bringing the plane in close. In addition, his plane has a roof that is modified to include a transparency which means he has good visibility upwards. This makes some shots looking down on the plane possible since he can maintain visibility of the camera ship safely while below us.

Shooting air to air is so much fun. It is impossible to avoid stopping shooting every once in a while and just looking outside to see the other plane so close to you. Of course, you are there for a reason so don’t spend too much time staring out of the door. However, never lose the enjoyment of doing something cool.

Number Two is Cleaner

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This United 747 was flying over the Bay during the Fleet Week display as I posted about in this post. One thing that was very obvious as the aircraft was put through its paces by the crew was that the number two engine seemed to be burning a lot cleaner than the other three. You wouldn’t pay much attention to the exhaust of a jet except when there is a clear discrepancy and, in this case, the number two was so obviously less smoky, I noticed. Maybe it was fresh from overhaul.

Finnair Visitor to SFO

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Getting an unusual visitor to SFO is worth a look. In June 2017, Finnair are going to be starting regular service to SFO from Helsinki. Ahead of that, though, there was a tech event taking place in Helsinki that meant a bunch of Silicon Valley types would be heading over. Finnair ran two charter flights to SFO, one ahead of the event and one after. More interestingly for me, while the service next year will be operated with an A330, the charter used one of their A350s. Since they won’t be coming back for the foreseeable future, this was a limited chance to catch them.

I only found out after the first flight so the second was my only chance. Fortunately, the weather was more cooperative. It was clear and sunny. However, the wind was over 20mph steadily and gusting stronger than that a lot of the time which made holding a long lens just a little tricky. The timing of the arrival was just late enough to make it a reasonable time to get some shots. Winter in SFO means that morning arrivals don’t have the problems of backlighting in the same way that there is in the summer but early arrivals are still not great. However, it arrived just late enough to have a chance of some reasonable light.

The conditions were clear and you could see the jet as it came over the top and then as it came onto final near Coyote Point. Another aircraft was lining up for approach out behind it and showed up clearly as a result of the clear air. The wind had subsided a little when they made the approach but not much. Consequently, I was fighting with the sail (as the lens became known that day) to keep a steady panning motion on the jet. Plenty of light certainly helped by keeping the shutter speed up.

I wanted to get some departure shots. I waited around when the plane was due to taxi out. However, I did have an appointment to get to and it was clear that the plane was not going to head out in time. In the end, I accepted the timing was against me and headed off. I actually drove by the airport on the way to the city and the taxiing jet came past me as I drove off. No way that I would ever have been around in time for departure. Oh well, at least I got it flying when it came in.

Talon Hate

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Talon Hate is a program that the Air Force is running involving an infrared sensor mounted in the front of a centerline fuel tank. It is mounted on an F-15 from the operational test unit at Nellis AFB. The first time I saw it, I was walking along the flight line at Nellis. We were shooting with the California ANG unit that was the next space along the line. As we walked past the Talon Hate jet, we were under strict instructions not to photograph it. I was right there but nothing I could do.

During my visit to Red Flag 16-4, the Talon Hate jet flew a couple of times. It flew with a second F-15 each time and sometimes with other jets. The pod is clearly visible on the jet but the other modifications are less conspicuous. There is a satellite communications antenna mounted on the back on the jet. When it turns for final, you can see the antenna mount. I don’t know what the outcome of the program will be but it is cool to see the venerable F-15 still trying out new stuff.

Finally Shooting an A350

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The Airbus A350 has been in service for a while. The first examples entered service in late 2015 and, indeed, I saw one at Heathrow in my last visit there. However, I hadn’t had a chance to shoot one until recently. Singapore Airlines introduced a direct flight to SFO using the A350 and the first flight used their aircraft that had been recently delivered from Airbus as the 10,000^th aircraft that Airbus delivered. I wrote a piece about it for Global Aviation Resource which you can see here. It was early arrival for the jet but it was good to finally shoot one, even if the light was not ideal.

Sands and Their Little Jets

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The casino business is obviously a bit of a money-spinner (well, for almost everyone who owns a casino!). In Las Vegas, the casinos put a lot of effort in to keeping their big money players happy. Sands has a fleet of aircraft that they use for moving these clients to and from their operations. Big jets are a part of this. They seem to focus on jets that can be customized nicely but aren’t terribly high on the acquisition cost scale. The two that I was most interested in were the Boeing 747SP and the Airbus A340-500. Both of these are cool looking jets as far as I am concerned and the Sands livery suits them well. Sadly, I have not been around when either of them flew but I have seen some great shots of them airborne.

Qantas – Late is Bad for Your Customers But Good For Me

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Qantas started flying to SFO again this year. They used to have a regularly scheduled flight but dropped it for a while. Obviously the demand had increased enough to justify starting it again. I did a post when they started up. However, I hadn’t had much luck getting any reasonable shots of the arrival. When they are running to schedule, they are due in before 9am. This is not great timing for shooting at SFO in the winter but in the summer the plane will be backlit.

Fortunately, Qantas have a habit of running late on this service. I don’t know whether this is accidental or whether they will slip this flight deliberately if they have an issue. The plane has a long layover in SFO and doesn’t depart until near midnight so any delay is not going to have a knock on effect. Either way, later arrivals are not unknown. One of them coincided with one of my visits so I was able to get some better light on the jet. It was summer though. The middle of the day means high and harsh lighting. It seems like it is hard to win. Maybe in the winter I will get a day when they are late and the sun is lower and finally get a good shot.

Bayou Militia Eagles

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The F-15 has been in service for a long time now. It operates with regular Air Force units, reserve units and Air National Guard units. The Bayou Militia is a unit based at New Orleans in Louisiana. Their tail code is JZ which, if you think about where they are based, makes a lot of sense. I had seen pictures of jets from this unit a lot over the years but I hadn’t seen them for myself. Having them at Red Flag made me a lot happier than makes sense for a unit.

They put a lot of jets up while I was there including flying at odd times of day. They were happy to fly tight approaches when nothing else was in the pattern so I got a lot of chances to see the, in action. I still love the F-15C so it didn’t take much persuasion to get me to watch these guys in action.

Orbis MD-10 – Close But So Far!

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Not all old airliners end up being broken down for parts. Some get a reprieve, at least for a while. A frequent secondary use for airliners is freighters and FedEx have an extensive fleet of old DC-10s that they use. These have gone through a cockpit upgrade program and have been renamed MD-10. However, even that is not enough to keep them going indefinitely and the fleet is gradually being reduced. One of them has got a new lease on life though.

Orbis is a charity that carries out eye surgery around the world in places where the medical facilities are limited. Cataract surgery is a simple procedure in some countries but a rarity in others yet it is a simple solution to a problem that affects thousands of people. Over the years they have had a number of airliners that are fitted out with an operating theater and they can fly into locations and carry out surgery on people who would otherwise have little hope of regaining normal sight. The current aircraft (see at the bottom) was a DC10-10 that had originally been with United. That aircraft is now being replaced with the MD-10 from FedEx.

I first saw the aircraft at LAX during its press roll out. I was landing and looked out of the window and there it was on the ramp. No camera to hand so just a memory. More recently, it spent some time at Moffett Field and I was able to grab a few shots. It was hot so, while I chose the better side for the light, it meant being a distance away and getting a fair bit of heat haze. I did also see the shady side through the fence. I imagine the jet is now off doing good work around the world. A great cause.

Port Townsend Aero Museum

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You know your wife is special when, while on vacation and discussing what to do, she points out an aviation museum that you could visit. Not only that, but when you say she can drop you and pick you up later, she says she would be happy to look around with you. What a star! During our trip to the northwest, Nancy suggested the Port Townsend Aero Museum. I wasn’t even aware of it but I was willing to take a look. To be honest, our schedule did not include a lot of spare time but we had an hour or too to look around.

The museum is a really nicely laid out establishment. The hangar in which everything is kept is a really nice building and the exhibits are laid out well with some on the floor and others suspended from the roof. The way everything is put together is really good. There is space around each plane and the signs explaining what everything was were well put together.

The planes are all in excellent condition and some are still airworthy. (My only minor gripe was that they all had a museum logo sticker on them which was not ideal from a photo point of view but this is hardly something to focus on.) The aircraft are all vintage types. Most are piston powered but there are some gliders too.

This proved to be a great surprise on the trip (including that Nancy enjoyed it so much)! I’m not sure how many visitors they get (it was quiet when we were there but we were on a day when I wouldn’t have expected many visitors competing for space. I hope the business is sustainable because it is a great little museum.