Tag Archives: bizjet

How Long Can a Falcon 50 Remain in Reverse?

The Falcon 50 only has a single thrust reverser, and it is fitted to the centerline engine.  The nacelles on each side are not fitted with reversers.  I was quite a way down the runway from this Falcon when it landed, and I could hear the reverser kick in.  I was not expecting it to stay in reverse for very long, but they kept it in all the way through the roll out and even as they exited to the taxiway.  Is that normal procedure?

A Rapid Turnaround for a G700

I managed to get some shots of one of the Gulfstream G700 test aircraft earlier in the test program.  Certification (at time of writing – not sure when this post goes live) is still not complete but they have built a lot of jets.  One of the test fleet (I think, based on the registration and the Experimental markings) filed to fly in and out of Boeing Field.  It was coming up from Monterey in California and then turning around quickly to go to Portland.  It was a quiet Saturday so I headed out. I had also seen some shots of this jet and it looked like it had a nice livery compared to the average bizjet.

The conditions were not great with a lack of light and some washed out skies, but I still managed to get some okay shots of it landing.  I then headed down the field to be ready for the departure.  Normally, I see a scheduled time and figure it will be a bit later.  Not this time.  By the time I got there, someone was already doing the walk around checks.  It was not long before they fired up and taxied.  Unfortunately, I had chosen a location quite a way down the runway.  The performance of these jets is good, and Portland is a short hop, so the jet was light.  They rotated very early compared to where I was.  I still got okay shots but a little less dramatic than I was hoping for.  Certification can’t be too far off so we might start seeing a lot more of these jets soon.

Comparison of Two Globals

When Bombardier launched the Global 7500, I was quite keen to see them.  My friend was the engineering director on the project and, despite me giving him crap at every opportunity, I think he probably did a good job on this one.  Sadly, I haven’t shot as many 7500s as I would have liked.  Global 6000s, on the other hand, I have shot plenty of.  There have been a few, though, so I decided to see what the obvious visual differences would be.

With some bizjets, counting windows is the way to know.  That rarely helps me out as I can never remember what the appropriate numbers are.  For the 7500, though, I think the windows look very different.  They seem to be a lot larger and squarer.  That is a bit of a giveaway.  Then there is the fin top.  The 7500 has a more angular top to it which actually looks a bit like some of the CRJ versions.  Last, there are the flaps.  The 7500 flap system seems to be more complex than that of the 6000.  I have included images of NetJets and VistaJet examples of both types at similar angles for comparison.  See what other differences you spot.

The Sun Arrives for the Falcon 20

Autumnal weather can make for unpredictable conditions when photographing anything but especially planes.  I was up at Paine Field for the NASA flying but was pleased to see that a Falcon 20 was also due to make a stop.  This was an IFL Group aircraft making a short stop before heading off again.  The clouds had been rolling through, but they parted just before the Falcon showed up.  We had great light on it as it landed.

Conditions didn’t stay great and, by the time it taxied back out to depart, it was not so good.  Not terrible by any standards but certainly not the lovely light we had for the arrival.  It’s rare that I see a Falcon 20 being used for personal transport these days but the fact that they still have a good role for freight usage means we get to see them around still which is welcome.

Other Sunny Sunday Bizjets

One Sunday earlier in the year, I was up at Boeing Field for the arrival of an old Gulfstream.  That proved to be a successful encounter and has been on this blog already.  However, that was not the only bizjet traffic that day.  I ended up with a variety of corporate aircraft movements.

There was a Canadian Challenger as well as some NetJets examples.  A Falcon 7X was on the move which is a cool looking aircraft.  There was also a Falcon 50 parked near the road alongside a Hawker.  An Excel came through which isn’t that special but then we got an Eclipse which certainly is.  It was a fun time to be out photographing with a lot in a short space of time.  Here are some shots of those planes.

Drake is in Town, But Not at a Good Time

Drake recently announced he was stepping back from touring, but this comes after he has been on quite a touring schedule.  Seattle was one stop he made.  He has his own 767-200 that is operated by Cargojet for him.  It is painted in a distinctive sky-blue livery.  It came into Boeing Field for the duration of his stay in the city.  Sadly, his schedule means he finishes a show and jumps on the plane to fly to the next location overnight.  That meant it arrive some time after midnight and departed at an inconvenient time too.  I only got it while parked and the light was not great either.  Still…

Where Have All These Learjet 60s Come From?

A while back, I had a spate of photographing Lear 60s at Boeing Field.  The Lear 60 is not a rare jet but nor is it particularly common so seeing a few in a short space of time, caught my attention back then.  The 60 was Learjet’s effort to stretch as much as they could from what they already had.  They took the existing wing and added a bigger fuselage.  This was possibly the limit of what could be done with that wing.

I think it is a slightly disproportionate looking aircraft.  The fuselage looks a bit chunky, the wing seems small for the fuselage, the undercarriage appears to have been carried over so the wheels look particularly small for the overall size.  It is a bit of an odd one.  Even so, I still like it when they show up. Since they have been out of production for a while, they will start to disappear.  They will be around for a while but will progressively become less common.  I wonder how many times I shall have so many encounters in a short space of time.

Playing With the Bizjets to Experiment

I have been messing around with low shutter speeds for traffic at Boeing Field a lot this year.  Some of those shots have made their way into posts on here.  One sunny afternoon, I was at the field and there was a lot of business jet traffic but nothing terribly special.  This provides a good opportunity to try different things.  I had the polarizer and a neutral density filter.  The polarizer is good on sunny days for taking down the glare and it also cuts the light.  However, the neutral density can really pull the shutter speed down.

Since I didn’t care if the shots were a failure, I was willing to just keep bringing the shutter speed down and down.  I compensated by cranking up the frame rate in order to increase the probability of getting a sharp one.  This is an interesting challenge.  Normally I spend a bit of time culling out shots that just aren’t sharp but, when playing with silly shutter speeds, you need to re-calibrate just how sharp things should be.  What is a little off when zoomed in might be of no concern when looking at the full image.  That is not an excuse to let plainly bad shots through though.

Here are some of the results that weren’t too bad.  Even an average Challenger can look a little more interesting with a very blurry background!

Someone Forgot to Close the Gas Cap

Talon Air’s Hawker 4000 came to Boeing Field and my shots of its arrival have already had their own post.  However, while I was reviewing the shots when I got home, something seemed a little odd between the shots.  Something seemed to be flapping around on the lower rear fuselage.  I zoomed in to the shots and there was an access panel that was unsecured.  Its angle was changing between shots, so it was clearly moving around in the airflow.  From what I can gather, this is probably where the fueling port is located.  These doors are tough, so it was probably fine, but I wonder whether any damage was done on a long flight.

Woohoo! – Another Hawker 4000

A few times a year, Boeing Field is treated to the arrival of a Hawker 4000.  This was not a successful jet for Hawker and so they are far from common.  I have shot them on occasions, and they have probably got blog posts when I did.  I saw this one coming in one weekend so headed over to see it.  When I looked up the operator, Talon Air, I was interested to see on their website that they have quite the collection of 4000s.  I guess owning a bunch of them makes supporting them a little easier.  Annoyingly, another one was at BFI while I was there and got towed near me before I realized what it was.  It didn’t fly while I was there unfortunately.