One weekend, I was at Boeing Field for a visiting warbird. I was pleasantly surprised to see some US Marine Corps helicopters across the field too. A combination of UH-1Y Venoms and AH-1Z Vipers were on the ramp. I had no idea if or when they would fly. However, luck was on my side as a Venom/Viper pair fired up and launched on a training mission. The rest stayed on the ramp while I was there but this pair taxied out to the main runway and then departed past my location. A nice extra!
The day before we left the UK for home, we headed to a hotel at the airport since we had an early departure in the morning. We got there early in the afternoon and I figured I had a little time to make my way to Myrtle Avenue. I have seen plenty of photos from this location but have never actually shot from there. They swap runways at 3pm and I had about an hour before that time. Not a lot but the conditions were great so time to try.
What I didn’t count on was the Piccadilly Line. I stood at the station under Terminal 5 for 25 minutes before a train finally left. I was only going to get to Hatton Cross with less than half an hour to go and I wondered whether it was worth it. However, I didn’t have any other plans so why not. Some rapid walking along the A30 to Myrtle Avenue with planes arriving over my head and I joined a large crowd of people hanging out enjoying the afternoon. Plenty of photographers were there but there were also loads of families just out enjoying the sunny afternoon and the planes.
It was worth going with a few interesting arrivals before 3pm arrived and they switched runways. At this point, I was tempted to head back to the hotel. Not having ever explored the east end of the airport, I didn’t know what was possible. However, as I mentioned above, I didn’t have any other plans so I wandered along the eastern perimeter road. I bumped in to a couple of other photographers – one of whom was visiting from Vancouver. There were a few spots where good shots were possible and the conditions were getting better and better. It proved to be a well worthwhile exploration which will get its own post at some point.
Sentry Eagle 2022 had a couple of F-16s on static display that had been painted up in special color schemes. They were supposed to be throwback schemes but, according to those I know that know more about these sorts of things, there are some issues with the schemes that they chose. I have no idea about such things but I have to say, neither scheme seemed to look that great to me. They felt slightly cartoonish but I can’t come up with a better explanation what it was.
Getting shots of them both was not straightforward. First, there were a ton of people around as they were central to the static displays for the show. Also, the sun was very high and bright and they was a lot of contrast to deal with. One of them was also close to a shadow from a hangar which made for even more contrast issues. Since we weren’t staying on base for the full show, I only had a narrow window to work with. It did improve just before we left, thankfully.
Our return trip from Klamath Falls also provided a bunch of opportunities to stop en route and see different aircraft. We had seen some images on Google Maps of A-4 Skyhawks at Albany in Oregon. The airport is right next to I-5 so we decided to take a look. Sure enough, the airframes were on the field but not where they had previously been seen. However, we had missed that a preserved A-4 was on a pole at the entrance to the airport so we got some shots of that first.
The stored airframes were now along a fence line on the east side of the field. This did not seem immediately accessible but, it turned out the the next property was an event center and it had a parking area that was open. We were able to get up to the fence amongst the parked RVs and get some shots of the airframes as they sat on the ground. No idea what the plan is for them but it doesn’t look like much at the moment.
A little floatplane activity is always fun to watch for me and, aside from Kenmore, there is also the base at Renton. Situated at the north end of the Renton runway is the Will Rogers-Wiley Post Memorial Seaplane Base. It can be a good place to see some floatplanes in action. I was chatting to a guy there and he told me that he thought some of the planes had gone to land on the main runway but he was mistaken. Just as I was getting ready to head back to the car, a Cessna came flying down the length of the runway without landing as it set up for a water touchdown.
It turned towards me a little as it descended across the end of the field. It was behind the fence and I couldn’t get a decent shot off but I was able to pick it up as it flew out over the water and touched down. It taxied back to the dock and disgorged its passengers. I must try and be better prepared for an arrival like that at some point in the future.
The 173FW at Klamath Falls has flown a variety of types over the year. One of the advantages of the base being open for Sentry Eagle 2022 was the chance to check out the preserved examples that they have. There is a central avenue on base that is the location of an F-4, an F-15 and an F-16. They are mounted on poles and in the colors of the unit. The lighting can be a bit tricky depending on the time of day but there are ways of making the most of what you can get.
Each plane is set up in a dynamic pose as is appropriate for a fighter aircraft. They are well looked after and there aren’t too many items on them that you would want removed, like spikes to deter birds from landing. I was surprised how few of the visitors to the event actually came to check them out as they weren’t far from the main route to the ramp but it certainly made it easier trying to get some shots.
When I first visited Madras, the Erickson firefighting fleet was in the process of transitioning from the DC-7 to the MD-80. That transition is now complete and the DC-7s are now all stored with some of them on the ramp at Madras, gently baking in the sun. The conversion of the MD-80s has been underway for a while. A bunch of ex Spanair jets were there last time I visited. On this visit, there were a few MD-80s out on the ramp that appear to be providing a source of spares for the in service aircraft.
I don’t know whether these jets will eventually get modified but, given how much has been taken from them, I suspect not. Various control surfaces have been taken and panels removed. I have no idea what the systems inside are like but I would imagine that those are the most valuable parts. However, any spares are worth having since the MD-80 fleet worldwide is dwindling and supporting the air tanker fleet for a long life is going to need a good stockpile of parts. The dry Madras atmosphere makes for a good storage environment so the planes should be in good condition for a while yet.
We had a lot of time to shoot the arriving aircraft at Klamath Falls in the day before the show. One aircraft that showed up was a C-12. I don’t recall seeing it when I was in the show so it either went somewhere else on base or it departed again. However, when I looked at the shots of it, there seem to be a lot of modifications on the airframe that look like there are designed for mounting other items. The C-12 family has received any number of different modifications over the years and there are tons of different configurations. Whether this is one that was de-modified for regular transport use or has the ability to be reconfigured as needed, I don’t know.
You know the score with me and Avantis. One of the new additions to Paine Field for Lynk Air was due back in. I was off work as mum was visiting. Surely she would want to go and see an Avanti land? How could I refuse that. If I got a few shots of it in the process, we both win.
A bizjet with cool paint is always going to get my interest. In this case, the paint made it pretty easy to determine who the jet belonged to. If you know your sports equipment providers, you will recognize this logo as that of Puma. I guess the sports business is good and a G550 is a useful thing to have. Nike has a fleet of jets. Does Adidas?
