Tag Archives: airport

A Little SoCal Shoot As I Head Home

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Half an hour of spare time on my way back to John Wayne Airport so I figured a quick shoot of approaches was worth a shot.  It wasn’t going to be the most productive of shoots but why waste an opportunity.  There were some regional jets and some airliners while I was there but also a few biz jets showed up.  The sun was getting lower so the light was a bit more appealing.  Even so, just a few stock shots for possible future use.  Two Alaska Embraers came in but they were from different operators, Skywest and Horizon.  I know someone who has a preference there (David).

NOTAR Sneaks Up on Me (I Guess It Works)

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In the late 80s and early 90s, NOTAR was a big deal.  McDonnell Douglas Helicopters (as it then was) had come up with the concept of NO TAil Rotor and was pushing it hard.  It was seen as a safer approach, quieter and potentially more efficient.  The last one may not have been the case as, given how long the concept has been around, the successor company has continued to build helicopters with tail rotors as has just about everyone else (unless you count a Fenestron as not a tail rotor).  This example came in to BFI right over my head.  He had called up on the radio so I should have known but the quiet aspect of the aircraft was proven as I had no idea he was there until he passed directly over me.

Combat Air Takes Up Some Customers

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I got a little distracted while I was at Lyons Air Museum.  Out on the ramp were some SF-260s belonging to a company called Combat Air.  The company shared space with the museum and, while I was walking around, a couple of customers rolled up for their flights.  They were going off in a two ship sortie.  I don’t know what they had planned.  They may have been heading out to do some aeros or maybe they were going to try and see which one was the dogfighting star.

The 260 is a cracking little plane.  From a young age, this was a plane I wanted – something that has some serious performance that is enough for some militaries but is also available for anyone to buy (provided you have a fair bit of spare cash).  In piston form it is pretty good stuff but I also believe that you can get them with a turboprop which I imagine goes like stink.  Anyhow, the two customers were suited up, strapped in and they taxied out together.  We were advised that they would probably come our way on departure so I hung around for a while.  They had a fair taxi to the departure end and then needed to hold for a while but eventually they came into view and turned in formation over the top of the hangar.  I went back to looking around the museum so I hope they had a fun flight.

Big Tugs

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At the majority of airports I fly out, there are basic tugs used to push the airliners back.  They are hooked on using a towbar and push the jet out.  The tugs at Heathrow are a bit different from the ones I am used to seeing.  They are the type of tug that actually picks up the noseleg to move the aircraft out.  The leg is surrounded by the tug and elevated.  The tug then drives wherever required with the leg coming along.  They are pretty substantial beasts.  Moving a widebody needs a big tug I guess.  They can move a 747 or an A380 but in this case “only” a 787.

Are These Globals Twins?

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Within the space of a few minutes, two Bombardier Global Expresses took off from Boeing Field.  This type is a regular feature at BFI so this is not unusual.  What did catch my eye was that they appeared to have the same color scheme.  If they were NetJets aircraft, that would make sense.  However, they didn’t look like a fleet operator I know (not that I know them all).  Is this just a standard scheme that Bombardier will finish the jet in if you don’t have a preference or were they connected?  If so, was a group of people taking two jets at the same time to go to the same place?  Who knows?

A Pair of T-33s, How Nice

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A previous post talked about wanting to get the Boeing T-33s after having seen one of them flying over my office.  I saw that two T-33s were actually operating out of St Louis.  They appeared to be operating with the Catfish 757 testbed.  A couple of days later I happened to see that the two jets were operating cross country, presumably en route back from St Louis to Seattle.  Sure enough, that was what they were doing.

I was able to get to Boeing Field when they were completing the return journey.  The tow jets were operating about ten minutes apart.  The weather wasn’t great, unfortunately.  There had been some nice sun a little earlier but, by the time they arrived, the clouds had rolled in.  Even so, it was good to catch both jets.  One of them was operating solo but the other had someone in the backseat who seemed to spot me and watched me most of the way down the approach.

A Change of Location Makes for Locals That Are of Interest

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I made a stop at Vancouver International on my way to the city for a few days.  It was the end of the day when I got there and I met up with my friend Mark who gave me a few pointers of what to look out for.  The arrivals were in the opposite direction to that we had expected which messed up things a little but there were still options.  Besides, I hadn’t shot there before so I was keen to see what was going on.

When you live near an airport, you can get blasé about what comes and goes.  The same things every day can be a bit dull.  For someone who has never been there before, though, all of this stuff is new and interesting.  WestJet may be a familiar sight in Canada but I don’t see them very often.  Dash 8s may be very old hat but they have largely vanished where, replaced by the Q400 derivative, so I am pleased to see them.  It is this variety that makes somewhere new so interesting.  These shots are some of the items that sparked my interest that day.  Some more specific planes will get their own time on the blog in due course.

Raptor Turning Overhead

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The F-22 Raptor that displayed at Seafair took off from Boeing Field away from us.  It kept things nice and low building up speed before pulling hard to the vertical.  Impressive but a long way away from us.  Unfortunately, the pilot then elected to land on the opposite runway.  All of this was away from us.  The only upside was that, when he ran in to break, he ended up breaking right over the top of us.  A brief window to get some shots and rather close in for the longer lens I was using but, all things considered, it was a good consolation prize.

Billy Bishop Airport

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Over 20 years ago we took a trip to Toronto.  While we were up the CN Tower, I took a photo of Toronto City Centre Airport, located on the island just offshore from the city.  It wasn’t a busy looking airport at that time.  Since then, things have moved on a bit.  Now it is a busy hub for Porter Airlines, flying their Bombardier Q400s across Canada and into the US.  (Depending on a planning approval, they may add C Series jets to this location.)

I recently had to fly from Toronto to Chicago and, with Midway as the better airport for me, Billy Bishop Airport as it is known, provided the better option.  A tunnel has been built between the land and the airport which means you don’t need to take a ferry anymore.  It is a compact airport but pretty neat.  The tunnel provides good access and, as you come up from there on the escalators, you get some displays of the aircraft Billy Bishop flew.  There is also a statue of him on the land side of the tunnel.  If you get to fly through there, it is definitely a fun place to transit through as it is far smaller than the average city airport.

Easy to Guess Who You Work For

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At was at BFI awaiting the arrival of something and I was checking FlightRadar24 to see what was coming in.  I saw a Learjet 60 on the screen south of SeaTac and tapped on it.  As soon as I saw the flight path, it was clear who the jet belonged to.  The shot below was what I saw and the repeated patterns around SeaTac suggested it was an FAA aircraft undertaking calibration flights for the airport instrumentation.

I stopped thinking about it for a while until I saw a jet appear on the approach to BFI that I hadn’t been aware of.  Sure enough, it was the FAA Lear 60.  They plonked it down right on the keys and quickly exited to the FBO.  I imagine that flying repeated sequences of approaches is not the most exciting way to spend the day so they were glad of the break.