Everett is a busy production facility. 787s are being built at a fair rate while 777 production continues, albeit at a reducing pace. There are some 747s and 767s coming out as well. The flightline for their testing is consequently rather full. I figured a panorama was a good idea but they are hard to put on the blog without making them too small. Time for zoomify again. You can pan around and zoom in to see what was on the line this day.
Grumpy got airborne using the Doolittle technique I posted about here. During the takeoff, there were some puffs of smoke from one of the engines. Initially I thought this might just be some oil blowing through but, as they climbed out, the output from the engine was clearly not as it should be and the one engine was clearly not healthy. They cut short the flight (although not as short as it could have been) and brought the plane back down. I saw Grumpy fly a few weeks later so I guess they dealt with whatever the issue was.
Paine Field held an open day which included some flying from the local aircraft. The Heritage Flight Museum had a number of the aircraft taking part including their B-25, Grumpy. On one of the takeoffs, they used a technique that was reminiscent of the Doolittle Raid. They applied power and full back controls to lift the nosewheel from the ground and roll down the runway in a wheelie. It was quite an interesting thing to see.
I am catching up on some things that happened quite a while ago. The visit of the Patrouille de France to Mather for a display as part of their US Tour was a combination of fun and frustration. I was covering the visit for GAR and had arranged to be there for the arrival, the practice and the show itself. They were supposed to show up relatively early but they had some serviceability issues and, when they finally showed up, the sun was setting.
There was still some light when the first jets flew into the pattern. As they taxied in, the light on them was rather nice. By the time the last jets (of the day) showed up, it was dark. The crews were very cheerful despite their difficult day and they spent a lot of time with some local kids for a French school. They didn’t all make it though. Two jets had diverted with problems and they would show up until late the following day. The A400M didn’t arrive until after I had left and it headed straight out the following morning to go and fix the two stragglers. The second day practice and flyby over the Golden Gate were scrubbed as a result with the flyby being achieved after the display rather than before.
It was a few days with a mix of good flying and disappointment but such is the way with aviation.
I keep spoiling Pete with some of his favorites. I hope he appreciates this one. You don’t see a lot of Piper Aerostars about. It is a quite unusual aircraft, apparently designed originally for possible conversion to a jet in future versions. However, the piston version is the only one that was produced. The empennage is quite unlike most similar aircraft. The one I saw was looking like it was very well taken care of. The paint was certainly in great condition. It landed at Paine Field and taxied off to park. I understand it is something of a regular so I will hopefully see it again.
I like bizjets but, if I am honest, my preference is for the bigger jets. The small jets are probably a more useful business tool but the big ones just look cooler. I recently have come across a steady stream of the smaller products though. The majority of these have been from the Cessna stable with CJs of various sizes popping up in front of me. Normally I don’t give them too much attention but today I am going to share a selection of the little fellas.
Online forums can be a great source of information. They can also be full of rubbish. With the introduction of the split scimitar tips on the 737 fleets, Southwest was an early adopter on their 800 series jets. However, I read that they had not been happy with performance and had stopped adopting them. They definitely weren’t going to have them on the 700 series. Above is a 700 series with split scimitars. A number of airframes have now been fitted including this one so I guess those people were not the most accurate source of info!
A gear up landing is never something you want to have. What is worse is doing it in front of a lot of people. However, the crowd can sometimes be a benefit. The open house at Paine Field included some flybys by various types and one Navion was the last in his group to recover. Coming down the approach with flap deployed but no gear he looked very odd. I imagine the horn should have been blaring but, whatever the reason, he continued. Much frantic waving by the crowd and a call from the air boss had the desired effect, fortunately. A go around ensued followed by a normal approach a landing. I understand many beers were bought that night.
When you consider the large cabin corporate jets, there is one jet that has not had as much success as it deserves. The Legacy 600 from Embraer is a derivative of the E135 regional jet but transformed into a longer range and far more comfortable jet. It hasn’t done much to dent the market that Gulfstream, Dassault and Bombardier have been operating in. It doesn’t have the super long range of some of the competitor products but, given that many operators never go off the US East Coast, that range is not a big deal for many customers. Prestige is though and the Legacy has never had the same cachet given its regional jet heritage.
This one showed up at San Jose on a sunny winters day. The interesting thing was that something very similar was also flying that day. The second aircraft is not a Legacy, though. It is an E145 that is operated by Intel. They have outfitted it as a corporate shuttle. It runs their staff between their locations. I don’t know what the interior is like but externally it looks a lot like a bizjet which, I guess is what it is.
Antonov 124s make a regular appearance at Paine Field. Boeing obviously receives a lot of shipments which I am guessing may be engine deliveries. Plenty of the flights come from Columbus OH which is near a GE plant and the GE90-115 fan is too big for most freighters when installed. However, it could be for something else. Anyway, I got one coming in to Everett recently. Paine Field is a popular field for light aircraft so you get a lot of them flying patterns on the main runway. One called up on final when the Ruslan was turning on to final. They made it in without any trouble but it was quite amusing to see the little plane on final with the unmistakable silhouette of the Antonov not far behind.
