Tag Archives: airplane

Royal Air Force P-8

The RAF has been taking delivery of its new maritime patrol aircraft. The retirement of the Nimrods left the RAF without a maritime aircraft for about a decade which is a strange choice to make. Finally, the P-8 Poseidon was ordered to reinstate that capability. They started coming off the line here in Seattle a while back. The fourth aircraft has been undergoing testing ahead of its delivery. It was returning from a test flight and was coming straight for our house. It is not unusual for planes heading to Boeing Field to come our way so I grabbed the camera and got a couple of shots as it flew by. It even turned slightly giving a slightly wing down view in one shot.

Under the American Max

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Production of 737 Max jets is underway again and that means some flight testing of new jets. I was heading back from Boeing Field but stopped at the approach end to get a shot from the underside. I almost didn’t get there in time so was not exactly where I wanted to be to take the shot but it still worked out reasonably well. I do like a different angle every once in a while and underneath is certainly worth a go every once in a while.

Pegasus Heading Out and Back

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Boeing seems to have addressed a lot of the problems with the KC-46 Pegasus program (but not all of them yet) and so the Air Force is taking delivery of jets at a regular rate. Since plenty have been built, there are enough to deliver. I was at Paine Field a while back when one of the jets was heading out on a test flight. I ended up being there for both the departure and the arrival since the flight was not that long. The good summer light that Seattle gets but we don’t like people to know about meant I got some reasonable shots of it.

Kodiak Buzzing the Pattern at Paine

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Unusual visitors to an airport are obviously welcome and give you the chance to get something new. However, that also means you want to make sure you get the shot so you don’t want to experiment too much with settings. Having someone bashing the circuit for a long time and flying a variety of different approaches means that you can take as many shots as you like and try all sorts of different things.

My Sunday at Paine Field included a pretty smart looking Quest Kodiak doing some training flights. Lots of approaches, some straight in and others curving. All the opportunity I could want. Wide shots, tight shots, how low will I dare go with the shutter speed? I had the 1.4X teleconverter on the 500mm so shooting at 1/100^th of a second at 700mm is going to have a pretty low success rate but I was pleasantly surprised how many came out nice and sharp. Not bad to have a day of panning practice.

The Kodiak is an interesting looking plane. Having a turbine means a nice high prop speed on approach which certainly helps but it is also something that can be thrown around easily so the training flight included a bunch of different approaches. I appreciated the effort they made on our behalf. Now to get the light on the prop to show it up nicely!

Omni 767 Visits ATS

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The Omni Air International 767s are a regular feature at Boeing Field. I have even blogged about them recently when I caught one actually flying as opposed to the usual being parked up near the Kenmore ramp. However, I have not seen one up at Paine Field before. Having one arrive while up there at the weekend was a bit of a surprise. I believe that it was heading to ATS for some maintenance work. I guess it was a bit if an unusual thing for the crew too since, once they had run all the way to the far end of the runway, they seemed to struggle a bit with where they were supposed to go next. They worked it out eventually, though.

Cirrus SF50

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I have a soft spot for Cirrus SF50 jets. They are not the most elegant of aircraft but they are quite effective and seem to be selling well. There are quite a few based on the PNW and more seem to visit on a regular basis. This example was coming in to Paine Field on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Since it is a small jet, I can stick with the prime when shooting it there which can make for some nice sharp shots. I would be interested to know what they are like to operate and whether they provide a good performance boost to their owners.

Noisy Buzz that is the Super Skymaster

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The 777X wasn’t the only thing I got to see on my Sunday at Paine Field. A buzzing from a distant plane was the announcement of the impending arrival of a Cessna 3337 Super Skymaster. This is an unusual aircraft with two engines in a push-pull configuration. It is a noisy thing and is often banned at airports that otherwise allow piston twins. I understand it is a bit of a pain to maintain too! I haven’t seen one for ages so was glad to get it on approach.

Even better, it didn’t stay too long so we. Got it taxiing out and taking off too. Quite a novelty to get to photograph one these days.

Lucky C-17 Overflight

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This goes back quite a while to a day when I was at Paine Field for some 777X activities. After all that I had been there for was done, I was getting ready to pack up and go when I saw something off to the east approaching the field. It was large but seemed rather slow. It turned out to be a C-17. It made a pass straight across the field and I was hoping that they would break into the pattern but I was to be disappointed. They turned to the south and headed off towards McChord. Still, it was a nice addition to a sunny day of aviation photography.

A Day of Biz Jets

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Sunday afternoon at Boeing Field awaiting the arrival of a 777X meant plenty of time to catch some incoming biz jets. Sadly, rarely are they painted interesting colors. XOJet has no colors, NetJets very little and FlexJet shouldn’t have been given access to the color chart given what they chose. David and I were chatting during all of this and completely missed the G650ER that came in that was a nicer scheme but so be it. There was a nice-looking Citation X in the mix, so some color included. Here are a few of the arrivals we got.

T-33 Pattern Work

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After such a long time of struggling to get shots of the Boeing T-33 chase planes, I seem to have had a lot more luck recently. One showed up at Paine Field and, rather than just shooting an approach and departing straight to Boeing Field, it made a full stop landing, taxied back, took off, entered the pattern and came around again. This was a welcome addition to a sunny afternoon. There was only one crew onboard so I guess with was some continuation training.

As the plane taxied back to the threshold, I got a good look at the upper side of the front fuselage. There appear to be quite a variety of antennae mounted on there. I didn’t know whether they were GPS location antennae or other types but there are plenty there. Whether they are used for different functions or are needed for validating test data and cross referencing, I have no idea. Some of them may even be redundant but no one has seen the need to remove them. Whatever the reasons, there are lots there!