Tag Archives: aircraft

A Pair of Max Delivery Flights

At the rate Boeing is building 737s at the moment (the actual rate rather than the one that they would like to be building at) means a delivery on any giving day is a possibility. I happened to be there when two deliveries went out in close succession. The nice thing about deliveries is that the planes are usually a lot heavier as they are fueled for a longer flight. When they are departing to the south, that means that they will rotate a lot further along the runway so will be easier to photograph.

Two airlines were taking delivery on this day. One was Lion Air for its Batik Air subsidiary. The other was COPA. The light wasn’t great for either of them but sometimes the dark skies make for a more interesting background provided the light on the aircraft is not terrible. I did okay on this occasion. I have been making better use of the processing capabilities of Lightroom since they introduced the more advanced masking functions so that certainly helps.

Sunset Overflight Contrails

Leave a Reply

I was out and about one evening when I saw an airliner flying high overhead pulling contrails behind it. The sun was getting low in the sky with the result that the light on the plane and its residual moisture was illuminated with some really nice warm color. It is definitely true that light is everything I photography. This would have been nothing without this light.

D558-II Skyrocket On Campus

Leave a Reply

The NASA high speed research program was underway in parallel with the USAF’s X Plane program. While NASA was less focused on record setting, they did have one blast of glory when they were the first to hit Mach 2. The aircraft that they used was the D558-II Skyrocket. Three of the airframes were built and they all still survive. Originally designed to have a jet engine for take off and landing and a rocket for high speed flight, the later aircraft did not have the jet and were air dropped for their missions.

One of the early airframes is now on display in the City of Lancaster on the campus of Antelope Valley college. Since I was staying nearby, I decided to swing by on the Sunday morning to see the plane. The campus was nearly deserted and it felt like I was doing something I shouldn’t but there was no problem walking around the campus. The plane is mounted on a pole in a dynamic pose towards the sky as seems appropriate. I had chosen a good time because the light on the plane was pretty good.

The Skyrocket is a sleek airframe as you would expect for something that first broke Mach 2. Being painted white also helps it look slightly futuristic. I spent a bit of time wandering around and trying different angles on the subject to make it look as cool as possible. I had just about finished when my buddy Chris showed up so I spent more time trying to get in the way of his shots!

Updated AAC Apaches

Leave a Reply

The British Army bought a bunch of Apaches which were locally assembled by Westland and were fitted with Rolls Royce Turbomeca engines to bolster the local content. Since that acquisition, the Apache has gone through a bunch of upgrades and the current AH-64E Apache Guardian is the latest and greatest. The British Army decided to acquire these and, this time, there is none of the local content to worry about. Their airframes have been rotated back to Boeing and AH-64E airframes get delivered. Some might have originally been British but others are not.

Middle Wallop is not the busy airfield it once was but there is still some Army flying underway and that includes operation of these new Apaches. While I was visiting, there were some airframes flying around the local countryside and also doing some pattern work. They pattern is a bit distant from the museum area but I was still able to catch some shots of them. Hopefully I will see them in more detail at some point but this was my first encounter with the updated fleet.

F-35A Demo At Seafair

Leave a Reply

The F-35’s appearance at Seafair has resulted in a few posts of departures and arrivals at Boeing Field on this blog. However, I don’t think I have actually shared any shots of the display itself. I quite enjoyed the demo routine that the USAF had last year. Unfortunately, the display axis for Seafair is a long way from the shore so the shots were a bit distant. I also didn’t know the routine and was caught out when flares were dispensed and so didn’t get shots of those that I am happy with. However, there were a few times when the jet came in close to the shore and I got some closer views. I do want to see the display at a more conventional location at some point.

Experimental Grand Caravan That Was Lost

Leave a Reply

I was down at Renton and drove around the back of the ramp. There was a Cessna Grand Caravan parked up and I was tempted to get a shot. They have made that area a lot harder to see recently and I didn’t bother. However, I was up on the other side of the field at the overlook when it taxied out for departure. I heard the call sign was experimental which caught my interest and I grabbed some shots as it took off.

A few days later I heard of a plane crash up near Snohomish. I had seen this plane flying patterns up there when I was looking earlier in the day and, when I saw pictures on the news sites of the crash, I could see the registration was the same plane. I understand they were trialing something new – perhaps a baggage pod – but I have no idea what happened. It looked as if the wing had separated in flight since it was a long way away. The test pilot was one of the Kenmore Air staff. He died along with one other person on board. A very sad story.

FedEx Skycourier Arrival in the PNW

Leave a Reply

Late in 2022, an interesting arrival came to SEA in the form of a Textron Cessna 408 Skycourier. I had seen my first example of this plane at Boeing Field as it transited from Alaska back to Wichita. That had been a crappy weather day and this was no improvement. This was the first example to show up in the region in the colors of FedEx. I am not sure whether it was delivered or just coming for familiarization with the local operations but it was using an Empire call sign and Empire is the local operator of FedEx feeder services.

It was due in later in the day and the weather was already looking bad with low cloud and the possibility of snow. It was also a little behind schedule which didn’t help. The light disappears early in December and it is a lot worse when the weather is bad. I was waiting watching the ISO levels creeping upwards. Meanwhile the cloud was creeping down. A couple of planes came in and then a few jets started making missed approaches including the British Airways Heathrow arrival. I then saw the Skycourier change course. I thought it was heading to the inner runway instead. I made a quick move down the street to that location and checked again and now it had switched back left. I had a frantic return to where I had been and it transpired that they were actually going for the middle runway. I hadn’t even considered that. This meant they were a bit far away but not as bad as it could have been. Light was terrible so ISO was cranked up high. Was it worth it? They will be very common here before too long but that’s not the way my brain works apparently.

Wake Patterns in Clouds Over Edwards

Leave a Reply

During the air show at Edwards AFB, there was a lot of maneuvering of aircraft high above the crowds. There was a little cloud at higher levels – not enough to stop it being almost uncomfortably hot, but enough to be visible – and the planes that flew through this level left their wakes through the cloud layers breaking them up and forming patterns where they had been. I thought this looked really cool and, because the show was backlit, the sun was coming through these patterns and the shadows made them appear more conspicuous. A C-17 flew across at one point which gives you some idea of the scale of these interesting patterns in the sky.

Shocks On The Sneak Pass

Leave a Reply

One of the highlights of the Blue Angels’ display is the sneak passes. The display is good but the sneak pass gets the jets as fast as you are going to get in their routine and there is a chance of vapor cones forming around the shocks and expansion fans. A display over water enhances the chance of the vapor. The distance of the display line on Lake Washington was a little disappointing as the jets were quite far away but the advantage of this location was that Mercer Island provided a backdrop.

The benefit of this backdrop was that, the rapid changes in density of the air in the shocks and expansions makes the refractive index change and this will distort the view of the background. With a clear sky, this is usually not visible but, with a background, you can see the shocks around the airframe. This is a rare opportunity. Fortunately, while there was little vapor, there were plenty of shocks. I was quite happy when I got home and studied the shots of the display to find I had some good results. It would have been great to have been on the media boat but let’s not complain.

The Support Kodiak Comes In

Leave a Reply

I posted some shots of the K-Max that came to Snohomish to support the firefighting operations on the Bolt Creek fire. They flew in from another location and needed some material to support their planned stay. They made a call to their base and arranged for some parts to come up on a support aircraft. This turned out to be a Daher Kodiak 100. I was actually getting ready to leave when the Kodiak showed up making a tight pattern to land. I was out of position so just watched it but, they were a bit high and fast on the approach so made a go-around. This gave me time to get somewhere better for the second approach.