Tag Archives: Boeing

Shooting at SEA After Sunset

One of the things that photographers that have only used digital cameras can’t appreciate is ability to shoot in low light conditions.  When I was shooting film, you were already struggling with image quality with ISO 400 film.  Early digital cameras got very noisy as the ISO got ramped up but, these days, the capabilities of shooting in very low light are truly amazing for those of us that are old enough to remember what it was like.  ISO1000 black and white film was adventurous!

Now I feel quite comfortable trying all sorts of silly things.  I had gone down to SEA one evening to try and get a departure that was possibly going out just before sunset.  Sadly, it didn’t play ball and the sun was gone by the time it headed out.  However, I was there and the camera can do silly ISO numbers so why not.  It still needs to drop the shutter speed down quite low but, with a fast burst rate, the chances of getting a reasonable shot are not bad.

I figured I would play around with shooting departure shots as the last of the light was fading away.  It was more about trying something different rather than aiming for the perfect shot.  I did have some interesting planes to play with but also plenty of Alaska 737s.  The  light was pretty dim  and ISO51200 is quite something to work with but the image quality is really very impressive considering what conditions you are shooting in.

United 787-10 Arrival at Paine Field

The 787-10 has a center section that is too long to fit in the Dreamlifter.  This means that they can only be assembled at the North Charleston plant.  The conspiracy theorists amongst us may think this was a deliberate part of the plan to focus production there and close the Everett line but, whether that is true or not, Everett is now only addressing issues with airframes already built and is not building any new 787s.  However, some continue to come here from the east coast for rectification work prior to delivery.  That means we get some 787-10s showing up and one of them was for United.  I hadn’t planned on it but was there for something else and got this as a bonus.

C-40 Follows Out The C-32

A while back I posted about the visit of a C-32 to Boeing Field in support of the visit of the Vice President.  It wasn’t the only aircraft to be there, though.  The USAF also had a C-40 that was providing support.  The motorcade delivered everyone to the aircraft but the C-32 departed swiftly while the C-40 was in less of a hurry.  I imagine that they were sweeping up the stragglers before heading off.  Needless to say, I waited around for them to go.  They didn’t get quite the same priority as the C-32 but taxied back and took off – presumably heading back to the east coast.

How Many 747 Operators Have I Shot?

The delivery of the last production 747 got me digging out a lot of older shots of operators long gone or unusual ones that I had come across.  This then triggered me looking through my collection of 747 shots to see just how many operators I had got images of.  There are others I have seen but didn’t photograph in my younger days like Continental but, once I added them all up, I was surprised to see that, including some government jets and some testbeds and counting freight operations separately from passenger for some airlines, I have over 70 operators that I have shot over the years.  I was rather surprised about that.

I am not going to include a shot of all of them.  That would make for a very long post and I doubt too many people would get to the bottom.  Instead, I shall just provide a selection of some of the more unusual ones.  The full list is as follows:

British Airways, Air Canada, Cathay Pacific, Virgin Atlantic, JAL, Asiana Cargo, Air Atlanta, Lufthansa, United, Pan Am, JAL Cargo, South African Airways, Qantas, Korean Air, Singapore Airlines, Singapore Airlines Cargo, Polar Air Cargo, Air New Zealand, KLM, EVA Air, Kalitta Air, Tradewinds, NCA, PIA, Thai, Saudia, Air France, Northwest, Air China, Air China Cargo, UPS, China Airlines Cargo, Southern Air, Korean Air Cargo, Cargo 360, Northwest Cargo, Focus Air, Malaysia, Air Pacific Fiji, Air India, China Cargo, NASA, Delta, Southern Air, Great Wall Airlines, Yangtze River Express, Atlas Air, Evergreen, Asiana, Cargolux, British Airways World Cargo, China Southern Cargo, Rolls Royce, Centurion Cargo, State of Kuwait, Japan, TWA, Global Supertanker, Sands, Qatar Amiri Flight, Boeing, Qatar Cargo, UAE, Wamos, Virgin Orbit, SF Airlines, Cargo Logic Air, Cathay Pacific Cargo, Pratt and Whitney, Western Global

What A Difference A Few Minutes Makes

Paine Field is getting rather full of spare 777X airframes.  They are getting stored in all sorts of locations and a recent spot for them is alongside the main assembly building at the north end of the field.  I was using the long lens and so, rather than change lenses, I shot a few images to make a pano.  It was a little dull but more of a record shot.  A few minutes passed by the the clouds behind me had moved on and the light on the airframes had improved significantly.  I reshot the scene before it changed again.  Looking at the two shots, it is hard to believe that they were only a few minutes apart.  What an impact a change in lighting can bring to a shot.

MD-10s Quietly Bow Out

FedEx acquired a large fleet of DC-10 freighters over the years and, more recently, put them through an upgrade program to make the cockpits common with their MD-11Fs.  They were renamed the MD-10s.  However, they were old jets and their time was coming due.  New jets have been added at a good rate with FedEx taking 767-300Fs new off the line at Everett.  With a downturn in business for FedEx, the fleet needed a trim and the MD-10s were the ones to go.  Here are a few that I have shot over the years.  They certainly provided good service.

SOFIA On The Ground

The aerial display by the SOFIA was a high point of the Antelope Valley Air Show 2022 at Edwards AFB.  When it finished, it landed and taxied in to it parking location.  I was at that end of the ramp so was able to watch it come in and position prior to being maneuvered into its final position.  Being that close to a 747 is always pretty impressive since even the SPs are large jets.  Everyone was crowding to see it come in and it was drawing attention away from some of the flying display!

Firefighting Chinook – Just Not Now

We had a few helicopters show up in the region during the firefighting season.  One was at Arlington and that was a Boeing Chinook owned by Billings Flying Service.  Based in Billings MT, they provide a variety of aviation services including this helicopter for firefighting duties.  It was parked on the ramp at Arlington and had a logo on the airframe to show its home base as well as a text logo on the fuselage near one of the navigation lights that referenced the Police song, Roxanne.

I would love to have seen it fly but the weekend when I was up there, it was just parked and work really gets in the way of having fun with aviation on weekdays.  The paint scheme was really cool and it was fitted with an internal water system along with a snorkel for picking up water when needed.  I would love to see this in action but that hasn’t happened yet and there is something very unfortunate about getting to see firefighting operations underway since it is a sign that bad things are happening!

An Atlas 777F For MSC Air Cargo

A lot of attention has been focused on the end of 747 production at Boeing (and this blog will not avoid that topic) but, in the meantime, Boeing continues to produce 777 freighters which are selling well.  One evening I was able to be up at Paine Field when a 777F that will be operated by Atlas but is under contract for MSC Air Cargo, a subsidiary of a large shipping organization, returned from a test flight.  Getting a nice shot in good light is what you want when you have a new livery to shoot.  Sure, it isn’t like some artistic masterpiece, but it looks pretty good.

NASA Formations

Edwards AFB might be the home of the USAF flight test center but it is also home for NASA’s Armstrong test center.  Consequently, NASA was included in the flying display.  They put up a three ship formation that mad a series of passes.  The formation was led by a Gulfstream with an F-15 and an F/A-18 on the wing tips.  The Eagle is one that has been with NASA for years and is painted in a white scheme.  The Hornet was still in Strike Test colors from Pax River but I have no idea how long it has been with NASA.

The two jets also did some demonstrations of sonic booms as they maneuvered high above the crowd with the booms reaching the ground at different times depending on how high they had been created.  The sound was also modified by the maneuvering of the jet. Formations like this don’t appear regularly at air shows so this was a welcome addition to the flying program.