Tag Archives: airliner

Horizon schemes

Seattle is a busy airport with plenty of operators coming through. However, the home airline is Alaska and their regional affiliate is Horizon. Consequently, both of them are very busy. Horizon operates a fleet of Bombardier Q400s. They used to have some CRJs too but these have been moved to another operator and now they are dedicated to the turboprops.

They do seem to have really gone to town in applying special liveries to some of their aircraft. These are focused on a lot of the local colleges and universities. They do paint up a lot of planes in school colors! While I was there, I got a surprising number of them passing by. Here are a few samples of the different schemes they have (along with one normal one just to show that they aren’t all specials).

FedEx shots

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A recent trip to Seattle gave me some time at the very beginning and end of the day to pay a visit to SeaTac. Plenty of interesting things are to be seen there. One specific area of interest for me was the amount of traffic for FedEx. They had a lot of movements with a variety of types. (A contractor operates Cessna Caravans for them which I saw but did not get any shots of sadly.) With FedEx just having announced a reduction in types in their fleet plan, this was a more interesting opportunity than it might otherwise have been.

Two McDonnell Douglas types came through while I was there. The MD-11s are busy as usual but I also got MD-10s. Meanwhile, the Airbus A300s were also in use. I don’t get to see them often and, since they are going to be retired in large numbers soon, I might not get many more chances. With movements at the beginning and end of the day, I was able to catch them several times. They were busy. I am assuming the middle of the day is quieter for them so I didn’t miss much while at work.

The only unfortunate side of shooting the FedEx jets was their departure profiles. When on the departure end of things, I was generally in a good location to catch the jets as they came by. FedEx was the exception. I don’t know whether they practice rapid climb outs due to flying into some dangerous places or just for noise abatement (they do have some aging aircraft) but the result is that they climb fast and are much higher than average by the time they reach you. Nothing much I can do about that of course but it was a bit of a shame. Approach shots were not an issue of course. The three degree glideslope is the same for everyone! Time to enjoy some of these jets before they go for good.

Cloudy KC

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Our journey home came through Kansas City. We got the airport in plenty of time so were hanging around waiting for our flight. The clouds were working their way across the sky and the beams of light that cut out of them at times could be quite attractive. An airport ramp is not the best foreground for that type of shot but you don’t ignore something because of that. Here are a couple of examples of how it looked.

Under Your Nose at King County

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Hayman and I had a few hours to kill after we arrived in Seattle and before we had a ferry to catch (of which more in another post). We decided to stop off at Beoing Field to have a look around. We checked out a number of places including the excellent pilot shop they have and ended up near the end of the runway. I had looked at this location on a previous visit but not shot there. A 737 was up on a test flight and due in soon so we decided to hang around.

Before the 737 appeared, we did have a couple of corporate jets show up. Identifying them from underneath is a little hard to do, even for those of us with far too familiar a knowledge of this things. However, I was more interested in getting a slightly different shot from underneath. With power lines nearby, there was a relatively short period of time in which you could get a clear shot.

The 737 showed up shortly afterwards. We did get to shoot it as it passed overhead but I did remember to stop shooting at one point and just look. The view through a wide lens tends to make everything look small. However, having something the size of a 737 right over your head is very impressive and you need to stop taking pictures and just have a look every once in a while.

Sunset Above the Clouds

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As the spring moves closer to summer, the view on my flights home changes. The timing is not any different but I get further east before the sun gives up and disappears. Arriving in the light is not far off now but I am still getting to experience the sunset while airborne. Sometimes it doesn’t appear to be very interesting. I guess this is a function of where the clouds are relative to us. However, one recent trip included a very nice looking sky. Looking back across the wing, I could just make out the sun going down.

The light on the top of the clouds looks particularly nice from above. Sadly it is one of those events where I am disappointed that the image can’t replicate exactly how it felt to be looking out. However, maybe it will give you a small example of how it looked or, if you have seen the same thing yourself, remind you of how nice it looks.

Boeing 737s In Progress

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While there might be changes afoot in Boeing’s production locations, Seattle is still the heart of what they build. A short distance from Boeing Field is Renton, the home of 737 production. However, the plant at Renton is an assembly facility as much as a production location and, while they do build chunks of the aircraft there, a substantial portion is made elsewhere.

Most notable of the parts coming from other places is the fuselage. Boeing used to own a plant in Wichita that builds the fuselages but they sold it a few years back and it now goes by the name of Spirit. The production of the fuselages is still done there under sub-contract and the finished fuselages are shipped to Renton by train. The train comes along the tracks right behind Boeing Field. Earlier in my visit I had been driving when a train with a couple of fuselages on it went by. I was pretty annoyed to have missed it. However, I would get lucky when another train with several more fuselages on board came by.

Supposedly the journey across is not always trouble free. There is no issue with the length of the fuselage. However, some of the residents along the route are not as concerned with the well-being of an expensive piece of airplane. Repairs are often required after they arrive including patching the occasional gun shots. I guess those people are not planning on flying on the plane any time soon or maybe they might be a little less cavalier!

Not so long ago, this would have been boring

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One evening after work I had some time to hang out at King County Airport, oath wise known as Boeing Field. In the evening light, this is a nice place to observe aviation. It has quite a variety of activity and, with quite a lot of freight activity focused later in the day, getting there after work can be productive. I shall tell more about the other movements in upcoming posts. Today is focus on one of those things that the passage of time brings. There was a Boeing 737 and I was excited by it. Why? It was a 200 series jet. For many years these were the only type of 737 around and, even when the 300 series came along, they were still very common.

As a sign of my age, I remember when the 200 series was called the “classic” compared to the newer 300-500 series jets. Now those are called classic compared to the NG jets. With the 7X, 8X and 9X coming along, will the NG now become classic and the previous two generations will need a different moniker? Anyway, 200s are not terribly common anymore so seeing one getting regular use was a nice change. It has a cargo door in the forward fuselage which, I suspect, it didn’t have earlier in its life. I hope it has a good few years left.

More SFO Activity

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The head on shots weren’t the only ones I got at SFO. Rather than go to Coyote Point, I decided to hang around by the Bay near the airport. Here you don’t get as close to the aircraft but you do get to see them land and also hope for a parallel approach or two. One problem with being further away is heat haze.

I thought I might be okay on this trip. It wasn’t particularly warm (although the sun was out) and the tide was in so, rather than mud flats between you and the planes, there was a lot of water which means less heat haze. However, I guess the power of the sun was going to win. Haze was a lot more of a problem than I expected and the shots are okay but not terribly usable.

However, it was nice to spend some time out in the sun watching planes so I can’t really complain. There were a few interesting things to see including the first JetBlue A320 fitted with Sharklets and a United 737 in a retro Continental scheme.

More Head On Attempts

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During a previous visit to San Francisco I had a go at shooting head on departures and wrote about it here. I also tried some head on shots at O’Hare and that made it on to the blog here. I was back in San Francisco for another project and the weather was a little better so I decided to have another go.

This time, the light was a lot better but there were other conditions to deal with. Nice weather tends to bring with it more heat haze. This was certainly true here since the aircraft are coming across a heavily developed area that radiates a lot of warmth on a sunny day.

Additionally, the wind was obviously beneficial to departures as a few of the heavies were going off the cross runway rather than coming towards me. This is a pretty unusual occurrence although not totally unknown. However, it is pretty frustrating to see the big jets going away from you when they are the majority of traffic you can expect. However, I did get a few corporate jets coming my way which helped a little.

Despite all of this, it was still a productive shoot and I got a few good pictures before the light started to give up entirely.

O’Hare Excursion

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Another benefit of the recent trip to O’Hare was getting into a conversation with some guys who know the area better than I. One of them suggested a location I hadn’t tried before. It is on the west side of the field so gets better light as the day wears on. Moreover, the departure routes were favorable on this day and the sun was proving very cooperative so I decided to check it out.

The location is very good. If the aircraft turn out towards you, the angles are very good. Some of the local crews are quite aggressive on their turns and come very close overhead. Even the aircraft heading out or turning away look good. You do have a view of them on the runway but the combination of power lines and foreground junk mean these shots are not too valuable. All of this got better and better as the sun went lower and the light got warmer. Then, to top it all off, the moon rose in the background. What a great end to the shoot. Thanks guys.