Tag Archives: airport

Dreamliner In the Mist

During the winter, I shot a British Airways 787 as it approached landing at Seattle Tacoma International.  There was some low cloud base and it was just skirting the bottom of the clouds as it passed me by.  It was appearing and disappearing from view within the clouds and, even when clear, was pulling a bit of vapor along with it!  An all-white jet against a cloudy backdrop does not make for a contrasty shot but the elusive nature of the plane with such a background made the shots interesting to process.

Qatar 777-200LR

The gradual relaxation of travel restrictions means that there are more long haul jets showing up in Seattle.  Some are still just taking freight but passenger ops have expanded.  The reduced number of passengers does mean that smaller capacity jets will suffice for some routes.  Qatar has restarted operations to Seattle.  They are using their 777-200LRs for the time being.  I caught one as it was passing overhead on final approach.

P-8 Tries to Trick Me

The afternoon lighting was looking good and, when I saw a P-8 was up, I was tempted to get some shots.  When I saw the Dornier was also coming in, it helped make up my mind.  Even better, it spared me from a fruitless trip.  The P-8 was out of Boeing Field and was scheduled to make approaches at Everett before returning to base.  I would have been tempted to shoot it up there but, with the 328Jet in the mix, I figured Boeing Field was it.

As it turned out, the flight plan for Everett was a distraction.  I watched the jet heading back up from Oregon and it looked like it was coming direct to Boeing Field.  That was indeed the case.  No approach to Everett.  If I had been up there, I would have been pretty annoyed.  As it was, I got the arrival, even if the conditions were nowhere near as nice as they had been when I first headed out.  This one was a US Navy example.

NetJets Gets the Good Conditions

In this previous post, I mentioned the good light I was hoping would be available for a Dornier 328Jet.  While that didn’t work out, I did get a NetJets Latitude arriving at that time.  NetJets colors are certainly not very exciting so they are a bland subject normally (and a Latitude is hardly the most exciting looking bizjet either.  However, with the right lighting, even this can look pretty dramatic!

Turbine Beaver

There is no shortage of DHC Beavers in the PNW, even of the turbine variety.  Plenty of them are on floats, too, so even that doesn’t make it particularly special.  However, when you haven’t been able to shoot much aviation for a long time, one is a welcome sight.  Even better when it switches to the closer runway when on approach.

The Max 737s Are On the Move

Boeing has been building and testing 737 Max jets throughout the grounding so having them flying is not a great surprise.  However, with the grounding order lifted by the FAA, things are moving into a higher gear.  United took delivery of a jet and American Airlines has indicated it will start service before the end of the year.  Two jets were up on the same day which leads me to think that they have already undergone the mod programs and are being tested prior to delivery to the airline.

Please Give Me Good Light for a 328Jet

Late in the day in the PNW, you can get lucky with good lighting.  It is not unusual to have a crappy day end with the sun, low on the horizon, cutting under the clouds and providing some briefly great conditions.  With a Dornier 328Jet due in, I was hoping that the conditions might be just what I wanted.  However, the plane was delayed from its planned time.  At the scheduled arrival time, conditions were, in fact, rather good.  I got something arriving then that looked pretty cool and will get its own post.

However, my 328Jet was running late.  I kept my eye on the horizon, hoping the sun would make an appearance but the thick cloud layer hanging on the horizon told me that things were not going to work out.  Sure enough, when the 328Jet showed up, the sky was decidedly dull.  This was all the more annoying given that it had a really nice color scheme.  They aren’t exactly rare but they are not common enough to ignore the chance to get one so this still counts as a plus for me.

It Might Be Raining, But It Is A 727!

Winter in the PNW does not mean reliable conditions for photographing planes.  If the weather is bad, you might decide it isn’t worth going out.  If it is raining and threatening to rain harder, there is a strong possibility you would skip a shot opportunity.  However, 727s are getting pretty rare these days so that seems worthy of a trip out.

The weather was unpleasant when it made its approach but not as bad as it got a short while later.  I went with my normal approach for shooting in really bad conditions by pushing the overexposure pretty high.  I include a couple of edits.  For the main image, I actually blended two different process versions in Photoshop to get the combination that most reflects how the shot looked through the view finder.  The other edit is a straightforward Lightroom edit where the angle and the light suited it.

Fourth 777X Takes Flight

My previous unsuccessful trip to Paine Field on the Saturday for the first flight of the fourth 777X was followed up by a more successful Sunday visit.  The dull and dreary Saturday weather had been replaced by clear skies (the smoke had finally gone away) and the sun was out.  The time for takeoff was not going to be great because the sun would be high to backlit, but this was a first flight so the chances of it going on time were limited.

Sure enough, things got dragged out and the sun moved to a more favorable part of the sky.  A 777F from Lufthansa Cargo was doing some test flying to provide some other interest and there was plenty of activity generally to photograph.  Eventually the 777X was towed. From its parking spot to the south entrance to the Boeing ramp where it could start up.

It taxied up the Alpha taxiway to the hold point and then pulled into position.  Normal Boeing practice is to do an accelerated and rejected takeoff before flying. They sat on the threshold and powered up, but the wingtips had not been lowered.  I don’t know whether this was a test of the system that is designed to prevent taking off with the wing tips in the wrong position or not, but it seemed that way.  Either way, the jet didn’t move.

They then lowered the wing tips, powered up, accelerated and then braked.  Taxi back to the threshold again and a long way for some other traffic before they lined up again.  The jet wasn’t heavy, but I was slightly surprised how much flap they had for takeoff compared to the other jets I have seen taking off there.  Anyway, power on and off they went.

They were due to be flying for a few hours and then landing at Boeing Field so I figured I would make the trip down there for the arrival.  On pulling up at Boeing Field, I bumped into my friend David so we were able to talk rubbish about planes for a while waiting for any arrivals.  In due course the 777X showed up on approach by which time the light was a lot nicer than it had been for departure.  Things may have taken longer than planned and meant the day was not much good for anything else but it was a fun outing and a successful trip.

Airport Birds

The viewing deck at Haneda is not a place I had gone to photograph wildlife.  However, despite the usual concerns about birds and planes not mixing well, there were a lot of small birds that seemed to be hanging out on the roof of the terminal buildings.  I imagine the number of visitors to the viewing decks means there will be crumbs of some sort for them to feed on.  They were pretty close to the people but just the other side of the fencing.  I guess they knew they were safe.