Tag Archives: airplane

Later Than Planned, But Hawaii Mars Gets Airborne

In a previous post, I shared images of Hawaii Mars as it was moored up on Sproat Lake on Vancouver Island. Our plan had been to get it while it was taxiing out and taking off. Our understanding of previous flights was that they had gone a long way up the lake before turning around and taking off back towards their starting point. We had limitations on how far we were allowed to take the boat and also the time we had to get back to our drop off point.

The understanding was that they would fire up just after 5pm and be airborne at 5:30. With our rental ending at 6:00, this gave us a bit of a narrow margin for racing back. However, it should be able to work. However, that relied on them hitting those times. That wasn’t happening. We got a message that they were going to start just after 6:00. Now what to do. With no sign of movement, we headed back to the drop off to see if anyone else was renting the boat after us. No, they were shutting down for the day. We begged with the guy who told us he was due to end shift. However, he had a couple of things to close out so told us we could have half an hour tops.

We thanked him profusely and headed back out. We wouldn’t have the time for the original plan so, instead, we headed down towards the narrows that we anticipated they would have to come through and waited. We finally saw engines start cranking. With all running, they taxied away from us to the end of the lake. Then they turned and started back our way. As we watched, the spray on the fuselage grew larger and it became apparent that they weren’t going to be taxing past us but were actually taking off.

As they motored towards us and got larger and larger in the viewfinder, the question was how low a shutter speed was acceptable when shooting a moving plane from a boat bobbing around on a lake. Caution was appropriate plus a high frame rate. They roared past with gorgeous light on the airframe. A helicopter was filming them and also came in to frame which was a nice addition. A little beyond our location and they were airborne. What a result. We then high tailed it back to the dock where our excellent person was waiting for us. It could hardly have gone better.

My First Encounter with a Kodiak 900

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We get a lot of Kodiak 100s in the Seattle area. Both Boeing Field and Renton have them based or passing through. With the factory across the mountains in Idaho, we aren’t that far from their origin. Recently, Daher announced the creation of the Kodiak 900. This is a larger airframe that has been cleaned up to improve performance. I don’t know whether it retains the short and rough field capabilities of the 100 or not but it is still a rugged looking type.

I had not seen one until we got a visit from one at Boeing Field. Others have been through but I had not caught them. When I saw this one was on its way, I was looking forward to comparing it to the original aircraft. I saw a picture of the airframe online which suggested it was plane white which was not great but you can’t have everything can you? Well, I guess I was lucky as they had painted the aircraft up in a type of faded camo look. They seem to be aiming it at some sort of surveillance role judging by the markings on it. They will probably become very common before too long as have the 100s but, for now, it was a nice thing to get a chance to shoot.

Thunderbirds Show Up (As Does Their Support)

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While Mark and I were in Arizona, we heard about the potential of Harriers being at El Centro. We decided an additional leg to our trip was worth it and headed for California. As we came up to the base after a few hours of driving, we saw something rather unanticipated over the airfield. The USAF demonstration team, The Thunderbirds, were flying around over the field. It turns out that they had gone to El Centro to spend some time working with the Blue Angels that were still there for winter training.

This had us worried. If the teams were going to be flying, that would stop the other base operations, and our trip would have been futile. Fortunately, they landed and were going to spend the afternoon on the ground talking about whatever demonstration teams talk about. Operations would continue. We did get one flight with a Thunderbirds call sign, though. The C-17 that had come to support them headed off. It had a Thunderbird call sign and did try a sporty take off and climb out. I’m not sure whether everyone was really buying it though.

A Hot Day at Concrete

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The Concrete Fly In this year was a little different. Our friend Bob couldn’t make the trip because he was not in good shape. Little did we know it at the time, but Bob was going downhill and would not pull out. Knowing this now makes the visit to Concrete without him feel very different. However, on the day, it was a lot of fun. Plenty of interesting planes, some rather hot weather, finding spots in the shade to take it easy, watching the usual bunch of slightly awkward approaches and landings alongside plenty of perfectly normal ones. There is nothing quite like being able to be so close to a runway while planes come and go with everyone happy to be there. If you haven’t gone, do try and get there at some point.

F-15s Arriving for the Flyovers

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Seattle was hosting two football games in one weekend. The Seahawks had their season opener on Sunday and the Huskies were playing on Saturday. The 142^nd FW from Portland sent up three jets to undertake flyovers for both games. Each flyover involved two jets so the third was a spare should one be needed. After all, these jets aren’t young. Indeed, with the wing taking delivery of F-15EX jets, it won’t be long before the Charlie models are gone.

They showed up at the end of the day which made it easier to be there to catch them. Since there were three of them, I decided to use a relatively high shutter speed for the first jet, a slower shutter speed for the second and then lower still for the last jet. That way I should get a result on the early jets and hopefully would get something more dynamic on the last one if I was lucky. Things turned out well enough and the last jet even popped the speedbrake on touchdown which was welcome. The skies were a bit red as a result of the smoke in the are from wildfires but that might have softened the light a little.

A Better Perspective at BFI

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Oh how good it is to know people that know people. My friend, Annie, called to ask a favor. In return, she would be able to get me on the tower at Boeing Field on the Sunday of Seafair. Her friend, Reed, was king enough to allow me to tag along and the lift Annie needed hardly seemed that much of an effort when compared with getting to spend an afternoon on the tower walkways! I have photographed at many locations around and on Boeing Field over the years but the tower just provides a better view of things.

The arrivals and departures of the performers are obviously the high points of being there but it is also great to get a different perspective on the airfield as a whole. The stockpile of Boeing jets either in production flight test or stored awaiting a customer delivery is great to see from there. Looking across the various ramps and hangar areas is also cool. Even looking at the locations I might otherwise be occupying was fun. Was I looking down on the other photographers? Literally, yes. Metaphorically, well probably yes too!!

I will post a variety of shots of specific performers in future entries but, in the meantime, here are some shots of a more general nature. The team from the tower were very welcoming. I spent quite a while chatting with the boss and hearing about the various things that they do. I would love to go back and see the operations rather than just to photograph (although let’s not kid ourselves, photography from there is definitely welcome!).

Tango Really Does Like to Get Those Jetpipes Close

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Those that have seen photos from the air show scene in 2024 may well have seen the spirited departure that the Royal Canadian Air Force Hornet demo includes. The CF-188 gets pulled aggressively to the vertical and the speed of rotation is chosen carefully so that the engine nozzles get very close to the ground, but the airframe is already lifting and climbing so that no contact is made. It makes for some cool shots. At Abbotsford and Comox, I was nowhere close enough to get a good look at the moment of rotation, but Bremerton provided a better chance. Rather far away so a bit hazy but still pretty cool. Shame the special demo jet broke again, and we had the twin tub instead.

Erickson Makes the Bremerton Show Interesting

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The Bremerton Air Show had some interesting displays, but the biggest contribution came from the Erickson Air Collection. Aside from the Grumman Duck about which I have already posted, they brought a P-47 Thunderbolt, a P-40 Kittyhawk, a Bf-109 and an F4U Corsair. The Corsair was for the Legacy Flight at the end of the show, but the others went up together for a sequence of passes. Great to see these different planes out and about and congratulations to Erickson for having added so much to the show.

What Sensors Are Behind These Panels?

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I was working through some shots of the 777X development aircraft as it landed at Boeing Field and I noticed a couple of the front windows were blanked out. One was a conspicuous sensor of some sort but not far behind it is one blank that looks a lot more normal but also seems to have some sensor protruding from it. No idea what they are sensing but I imagine it is important.

Shooting Deliberately Tight on Arriving Airliners

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The arrival of the Starlux A350 has already appeared in a previous post. I got there a little ahead of its scheduled approach and, since I was playing around with using my longer lens, I decided to try shooting some of the preceding arrivals with the same lens from head on to get some tighter compositions and see just what would work before the planes got chopped off by the limited field of view. I had a variety of types coming in from the little E175s to 777Fs. They gave me some things to work with and I quite like how some of them came out. A bit of variety is good when the subjects are very repetitive.