Tag Archives: amphibian

At Last, This Otter Is Nicely Lit

There is a privately owned DHC-3T Otter that lives in the Puget Sound area, and it comes in and out of BFI on a regular basis. I have seen it plenty of times but have always struggled to get either a nice angle on it or favorable light. I won’t claim it is my white whale, but it has begun to frustrate me somewhat. Therefore, I was delighted when I heard it call up on approach one evening when the sun had popped out from behind the clouds and the warmth of the light was nice.

I saw it far out on approach as it angled in towards the longer of BFI’s two runways – occasionally disappearing behind the trees as it maneuvered in. I was using a lot of lens to see it and even then, it was a bit distant but, since the conditions were favorable, I wasn’t struggling with haze issues. Soon enough it was on short final, and I finally was able to get the types of shots I have been hoping to achieve for a long time. Now I can move on in peace!

After Many Years, I Finally See a Duck Fly

My aviation interests are varied but my favorites are modern and recent jet fighters if I am pushed.  However, vintage aircraft and warbirds are still pretty cool even if they are not something I know a huge amount about.  There will be occasions when such a type might be enough to get me out and about.  I was on the fence about going to the Bremerton Air Show but, when I heard that Erickson was bringing its Grumman J2F Duck to fly at the show, my interest was piqued.

I have seen a few of these amphibious planes in museum collections but I have never seen one airborne.  It is such a quirky looking airframe; I was really interested in getting some shot of it flying so that tipped me over the edge with regard to heading down to Bremerton National Airport for the show.  This is the sort of thing that then results in the plane going tech and me being disappointed.  However, that was not to be the case this time.

Mike Oliver flew the display in the Duck.  We were seated in a location close to where it was parked so got to watch it from start up to shut down.  No great aerobatic performances for a plane like this but the nice thing was that they got their whole collection airborne together and then everything else went off to hold while the Duck took center stage.  A few nice passes and then it came back into land.  The light could have been better, but it was still pretty good.  I finally have ticked it off.  I guess now I’ll see them everywhere!

Canso Details

For the benefit of my Canadian friends, I will get this out of the way first.  Despite what the operators say and what is written on their signage, this plane is a Canso, not a PBY Catalina.  Okay, with that out of the way, the plane came to the Olympic Air Show in Olympia.  It looked excellent in its dark grey painting and had plenty of people around it on the ramp before it flew its display.  As with many planes of its vintage, it has lots of lumps and bumps.  I decided to spend a little time looking at some of the details rather than the whole plane.

Of course, you have to get some larger shots of the plane.  You can’t just stare at the rivets.  Also, I knew it would be flying and I would aim to get some shots of it then but that can be another post at some point.  For this, the bulbous curves of the nose area and the details of the bits that make it a flying boat were the focus.

Murphy Moose On Floats At Olympia

I’ve posted shots of Murphy Mooses (or however that should be as a plural) in other posts including one with a turbine engine.  This one showed up at Olympia during one of the Olympic Air Shows.  It’s an average looking plane but stick it on floats and it immediately looks more interesting.  It landed and taxied in and then didn’t move again while I was there but at least I got some shots of it.

The Frogs Always Justify My Attention

While sitting on the deck one evening, a frog was climbing up a post.  I didn’t know how long it would hang around, so I grabbed a few quick pictures with my phone before going inside to get the camera with the macro lens.  It hadn’t gone too far when I got back but I was glad I had taken the phone shots when I did.  The frog was now climbing up the post and it jumped in to one of the hanging baskets.  This made getting shots a touch trickier.  There were also bits of plant getting in the way.  I ended up using the focus stack function to get a sequence of shots which I then processed in Photoshop later.  I just love close up shots of wildlife like this.

Frog Visiting the Garden

Playing with macro photography is fun and, when I came across a small frog in our back garden, I grabbed the macro lens.  Clearly, the frog was not totally impressed by my interest in its presence, but I tried to get close to it without spooking it.  It did allow me to get a little closer but getting a good focus on its head when things are dynamic was a little tricky.  I got a lot of shots with the body in focus but not the eyes.  Still, a few worked out okay.

Catching An Italian Floatplane Going To And From Oshkosh

While driving around the back of Renton, I saw this nice floatplane.  It is a SIAI Marchetti 1019 – a utility aircraft with a turboprop powerplant.  Based on the Cessna O-1 Bird Dog, it had a decent military career and now plenty of them have found their way into civilian hands.  A short while later, I saw pictures of this airframe at Oshkosh for the annual EAA gathering.  Our paths were to cross again, though, when it showed up at Boeing Field, making an approach to the short runway.  A bit further away than ideal but definitely cool to catch it again.

Kodiak Floatplane Returning To Renton

A sunny Sunday afternoon had me driving past Renton so I figured I would stop off to see a few things.  I swung by the floatplane base after I had done whatI came for and things were quite quiet.  I had just missed a few planes and wondered whether I would bother hanging around.  Then a Cessna made an approach, as covered in another post, and, while it was taxiing back to the dock, I saw a Kodiak heading towards us down the lake.  Initially I thought it was going to make a straight in approach but, since the main Renton traffic was operating to the north, I guess it had to fit with that.

Consequently, it made a path that took it towards the eastern shore of Lake Washington before carving a sweeping, descending turn towards the lake.  With the hills of that shoreline behind it, things looked pretty impressive.  There were plenty of people out on the lake in boats, kayaks and paddle boards and they would have got a really good view as it came in to the lake to touch down.

They taxied back towards the base and I hadn’t appreciated what their plan was.  I figured they were tying up at the dock and I had moved away slightly but they had dropped the wheels and were coming up the slipway.  A good dose of power was needed to come up the ramp.  I wish I had shot that or, better yet, got some video.  I will have to go back to the seaplane base there.  The new fencing is not great but there are still some good photo opportunities to be had.

Did You Know SeaBees Can Reverse?

I was up at Arlington when the Croman helicopters guys were in town.  One of the local aircraft is a Seabee.  It had pulled up on the ramp next to the S-61 – presumably so they could have a look at the visitor.  When they were done, they taxied off.  I figured I would shoot a little video of them pulling away.  What I hadn’t considered was that they would reverse off the ramp.  They backed away before adding some power to taxi north in the normal fashion.  Here is some video of them.

Floatplane 185

This Cessna 185 looked in great condition and any plane on floats is going to get my attention anyway.  The buzz saw sound of a 185 as it takes off will definitely get your attention but it is not so intrusive when it returns.  Having some nice winter light on it was a good thing and floats just make any place look better.