San Francisco Bay tends to provide a bit of moisture in the air that shows up as vapor clouds in the trailing vortices of approaching airliners. Before the planes reach Coyote Point, they are often trailing these streamers but, as they get closer to the airport, something about the conditions must change as they do seem to peter out. However, on some occasions, the moisture content must have been higher as the streamers lasted longer.
The top of the Space Needle is a good place to watch the floatplane traffic in to Lake Union. They tend to fly really close by. Shooting through the glass is not ideal but the passing Otters are too good to pass up. If you can, getting to the gaps between the glass is a good idea but it is hard to do this and get a good angle on the planes as they pass. Boeing also helped out with an Oman Air 737 Max taking off from Boeing Field and coming our way.
We made a trip to West Seattle with our guests while they were here. We were looking at the view of the city and also wondering what wildlife might show itself. I got a benefit in that departures from SeaTac and Boeing Field were coming to the north. I got a couple of nice airliner shots as they climbed out over us. They weren’t the only ones though. A KC-46 launched out of Boeing Field and climbed over us as it went off to its test area. I wasn’t paying attention, but my guests spotted something rocketing up behind it. An F/A-18C Hornet from the Strike Test unit was following it, presumably for some test work. It climbed rapidly but then leveled out, I assume to stay below the departure routes from SeaTac. Not a bad bonus for me while showing the sights to my guests.
When I first saw images of the A350, I did not think much of its looks. The nose profile seemed odd and I was disappointed. However, something about it has got to me. I have been seeing a lot more of them in service recently and something about the jet in person is appealing. It doesn’t hurt that a few of the airlines I have seen have interesting liveries.
Narita seems to be a popular destination for the type and I got to see examples from Delta, Thai and Vietnam Airlines while I was there. Deliveries have really ramped up now so it will not be long before I am seeing them regularly. Asiana has been using it to SeaTac for a while and China Airlines is bringing them in to Vancouver. Good that I like them since I will be seeing a lot more of them. Now I need to fly in one to see what it is like as a passenger.
Everyone seems to have a plan for getting into space these days. Some companies have more than one! Virgin already has their Galactic operation that is based on the Spaceship Two design evolved (a lot) from the original Scaled Composites design. However, they have a second approach that is a small satellite launcher rather than a passenger craft. This one is going to be launched from a Boeing 747-400. They have provided one of the old Virgin Atlantic aircraft for this purpose.
I was down in Long Beach recently and saw the plane sitting on the north side of the field. Sadly, the light from the south side was very nice but it was too far away. A trip around the field did get me closer to it although now backlit. Not far away are the offices of Virgin Orbit. The launcher will be mounted on a pylon under the port wing making use of the hard point that was included to allow the ferrying of a spare engine.
How things develop we shall see in a reasonably short time I imagine. The operation seems to be pretty significant and will need to deliver something before too long. In the mean time, here are a couple of shots of Cosmic Girl when she was in passenger operation.
Aside from FedEx, MD-11s are becoming pretty thin on the ground. Lufthansa Cargo has had a decent fleet of them but there will come a time before too long when they are all gone. I figured one weekend I would nip out and get the arrival of one of them. The arrivals of heavy jets, particularly freighters, are often put on the inside runway which gave me a bit of a chance but, at that time of day, there aren’t great spots. I found a place that is rather close to being underneath the jet but it would have to do. I still think it is a nice looking jet, even if it didn’t prove to be a success in its originally intended role.
I’ve taken so long to write this post that it has been expanded. I got an ABX 767 freighter coming in to SeaTac one time in overcast conditions. I had been meaning to write about it for a while but other topics had seemed more appropriate to cover first. Then, while out hunting for an MD-11F, I happened to have another example fly over me as I was parking up. (This one is an ABX jet but they are a common fleet.) The camera was to hand so I was able to get some shots for almost directly beneath. I guess this was the trigger for me to finally write the post!
The 787s fleeing the hurricane weren’t the only aircraft arriving at Paine Field while we were there. The regular schedule of 787 component deliveries was underway with the Dreamlifters. One of the jets landed just after we got there. We watched from the rooftop as it taxied in, the crew opened up the tail and a fuselage barrel section was offloaded. There was another Dreamlifter already parked up when we got there.
Once our tour was over, we headed back upstairs because this Dreamlifter was now ready to go. It pushed back and taxied out. I decided to try some video of it rather than more stills. The jet was off to Japan and was fueled up. Consequently, it used a good chunk of the runway to get airborne. I was watching through the camera and can admit to being a little surprised how long it ran. The video I got is below.
With visitors in town, I took them to the Boeing factory tour at Everett. I know this might seem like I was doing this for my own benefit but I think they were happy to go and it helped to be doing something indoors on a rainy day. When we got there, we arrived in time to see a bunch of jets landing. There was a stream of them coming in it seemed and I was surprised to see that there were 787-10s coming in. The Dash 10 is not built at Everett. They are only assembled in Charleston so they wouldn’t normally be at Everett. Some Hainan 787-9s had also made the trip.
It turns out that they were evacuations from the impending hurricane. South Carolina was in the path of a major hurricane, Florence, heading towards the southeast coast of the US. Apparently, Boeing had decided to get the jets that were airworthy out of there to minimize the risk of damage. I suspect they would move more if they could but this was the best that they could do. The thing I found interesting was that they brought the jets all the way across the country and that there wasn’t somewhere closer that they could have as a refuge. Perhaps it is easier logistically to manage but it is a long flight to make.
I was walking along the trail that goes through the park next to the airport at Renton taking a look at the stored jets. There is a bridge across the river that is used by Boeing to move jets from the production areas to the flightline and, as I got close to the bridge, I could see the tractor hooking up to a China Southern 737-800 that had yet to be painted. They looked like they might bring it across the bridge. I figured I might linger and see what was up.
Sure enough, they started to pull the jet out and towards the bridge. I stayed out of the way but the wings of a 737 hang over the trail when they are moving it. This was not a problem so they were happy for me to stand there as the jet was moved out. I figured a little iPhone video was in order.
They pulled the jet onto a taxiway and left it there so I figured it might be heading out on a test flight. With the light now slightly to the other side, I chose to go back to the car and move to the overlook on the west side of the field. The jet was starting up but they clearly had a few things to run through so I had time.
They taxied to the south threshold which initially disappointed me. The wind had flight operations in the other direction which would have meant a takeoff towards us and into the light. Going the other way meant they would be airborne a long way away and heading over the lake. What I hadn’t figured on was, just like at Everett, they would do a run with an abort first prior to flying. They carried this out and were then at the north end of the field.
A turnaround at the far end of the field and they were soon lined up. A floatplane was flying about in the background as they got ready to take off. Then it was power on and rolling. There was a lot of crap in the foreground and this was a bit of an obstruction at the point of rotation but I was able to get some good shots as they got airborne and climbed out past us. The green primer/protective film was glinting in the sun. The flight will have ended at Boeing Field where I hope everything was trouble free.
