Tag Archives: Boeing

What Aviation Can I Shoot From Home?

The answer to that question is clearly “not much” but it isn’t zero.  We do get things flying overhead here on a regular basis.  We are on the approach to SeaTac for some arrivals and we do sometimes get Boeing Field traffic too.  It’s a rarity when there is something interesting and I am ready, though, so that doesn’t provide a lot.  However, I did recently have a T-38 from Boeing’s chase fleet come over the house.  It was a bit high but it was enough to get me out in the driveway!

We have also had helicopters fly over on occasion.  An Army Chinook came past one time while and Navy Seahawk was another transient.  In each case, I only heard them shortly before they arrived so grabbed the camera while at my desk and shot through the window.  That is not a good plan but it was all I had available at the time.  These can count as my lockdown at home aviation projects!

Dreamlifter Before Sunset

This is my first shoot of a moving plane that wasn’t taken from my yard since the virus shelter at home started.  With a slight relaxation of the state rules, I saw that a Dreamlifter was due in to Paine Field from Charleston.  It was due to arrive some time after 8pm.  With the sundown not long before 9 and the weather looking lovely (unlike the forecast for the rest of the week), it seemed like the light would be very good.  I have got a lot of Dreamlifter shots at this point so, if it had been anything other than shortly before sunset, I wouldn’t have thought of going.  With this light, though, why not.

I was tracking it on two services and they showed rather different arrival times.  I got there with some margin just in case but, even so, the jet was already getting ready to turn downwind when I pulled up.  The arrival procedure takes a while so it wasn’t a rush, but I should probably have added a little time.  The sky was so clear you could see the jet flying the approach from miles out.  As it turned to final, the low light angle even picked out the texture on the side of the jet!  The air was still so you could hear it from a long way out too.  After all that, it was suddenly so close and touched down just a little away from my spot.  Time to pack up and head home.

C-32s

The demise of a bunch of airline fleets of 757s at the moment is a shame as it is a type I was always fond of from the days of British Airways using them for shuttle services around the UK as well as being the first commercial jet I flew on heading to Lisbon from Heathrow.  The military has also made use of the jet of course.  The New Zealand 757 displays in the past have been pretty impressive and maybe that gives me an idea for a future post.  The USAF has a bunch of them, designated as C-32, and they are used for VIP transportation.

They are not a type that you often come across but I have seen them on a few occasions.  An Andrews AFB Open House provided one movement – they are based there so not such a surprise.  Another was at Nellis AFB when one launched just prior to a Red Flag launch when we were waiting between the runways for the action to kick off.  The VIP colors of the USAF jets are quite elegant and they suit the 757 nicely.

Stored 737s

After two month of shelter at home, I did finally venture out in the car to see something other than the house or my bike routes.  I swung by Paine Field to see some of the stored Southwest 737s that are there.  Planes seem to have been arriving and then heading out again so I don’t know what the overall plan is.  They also seem to have moved from where they were when they first came in.  I got to see a few of them scattered around near FHCAM.

These jets look like they are in place for a while.  The nacelle inlet which is normally unpainted metal is currently covered in some black coating which runs on to the inlet blanking.  The exhaust ducts are similarly blocked up.  The jets are arrayed around the ramp and, while behind the fencing, the use of a monopod with a ball head and the remote shooting app from Canon allowed me to see what the shots looked like and to take the pictures.  I went with a few panos since things are rather close to the fence in some places.

I hope these jets are back up and working before too long.

Omni 767s

Omni provides a lot of charter work in the Seattle area, presumably military work for JBLM.  The planes usually operate from SeaTac but then will reposition to Boeing Field.  There is often an Omni 767 parked up at the south end of the field but I have not ever seemed to have been there when they are moving.  More recently, I happened across one coming in to land after a short trip from SeaTac (I could probably have driven it faster given the routing that they had to take).  It was nice to see one up and about so it prompted this post with a few Omni 767s.

US Marshal 737 Moving People Somewhere Else

This 737 was sitting on the ramp at Boeing Field, apparently getting ready to move.  It showed up online as a variety of possible owners including Aramco.  However, I thought I knew who it really belonged to and it did indeed turn out to be used by the Federal Government.  I think it is part of the US Marshal service and I suspect it is being used to transport individuals that are not popular with law enforcement to a new location.  I don’t know whether that is internal transport or deportation but I suspect I don’t want to be on one of those flights.  They certainly don’t divert any funding to painting the jets!

Some Old SFO Jumbos

The 747 was still the mainstay of many long haul operations when I started shooting digital and SFO was a place that was served by a bunch of airlines using the type.  I used to go to SFO quite a bit when I lived in Chicago because work brought me to the Bay Area frequently.  That meant I got some opportunities to shoot the movements there.  Of course, in due course we moved to the Bay Area so I got more chances but, by then, the 747s were swiftly disappearing and the 777 was becoming dominant.

Here is a selection of shots of different marques of 747 and different operators all operating in to SFO.  Hope they amuse a few of you.

American 767s Have Gone

Another airline retiring another type.  This used to be an occasional topic on the blog but the massive reductions in airline service means I could probably almost pick one a day.  In this case it is American Airlines and the Boeing 767.  The 757s have also been grounded but they are not definitely retired yet so we’ll wait for a while.  Of course, by the time this post hits the page, that might have changed!

The 767-200 fleet went away a while back but I am going to include them here.  The 767-300s have been around until now.  I didn’t travel in them very much but have made the occasional trip.  I think I took one from Chicago to Manchester in the UK and definitely had a ride from SFO to JFK once.  There have probably been other times that I don’t now recall.  It has been quite a while since I was a regular with American.

All that aside, the fleet is now done.  Some may find a second life – possibly as freighters – but probably the majority will end up being parted out.  We might suddenly find 767 parts are not as in need as they were until recently but there is still a sizable fleet of freighters and there are still in production so maybe there is some value.

And Now It Is Qantas…

I posted here about KLM retiring their 747s early as a result of the COVID-19 related pummeling that the airlines have taken.  It wasn’t long before another airline made the same announcement – this time it was Qantas.  Qantas has operated the 747s since the beginning and it is quite a shame to see that they are no more.  Here are some of my Qantas 747s from over the years.  I should note that there is a rumor that they may not be gone for good and could return.  That would be great but I suspect it will not be the case given that they didn’t have long left anyway and things are going to be rough for a while for the airlines in all probability.

Air to Air With United Jets – Or Is It?

When putting together some images for a group online that I am involved with, a dug out a couple of shots of jets departing O’Hare I shot years back.  When coming off 22L, some of the jets make an early turn to the south and you can get a view of them that is either quite level with the wing line or slightly above.  When shooting them, they are climbing so it is obvious what you were shooting.  However, as I looked at these shots, it occurred to me that they looked a lot like an air to air position except the angles were wrong because of the climb.  Since I had shot quite tightly, re-cropping the shot required some Photoshop work.

Taking the image out of Lightroom and in to Photoshop, I selected the crop tool and rotated the image to be the sort of angle that an air to air shot might be.  Doing this crops off the nose and tail of the jet.  However, one feature of the crop tool in Photoshop is that, if you then drag the edges of the tool back out, you can expand the canvas size.  You now have the whole plane in shot but have added some white space in each corner where no image previously existed.

It is a simple task to then use Content Aware Fill to add sky back in to these areas.  The result is a shot that looks almost as if you had been flying in formation at altitude.  Would you have spotted it?  Having done it with an A320, I then had a go with a 757.  The light angle makes it look a bit like we are flying along towards a setting sun.  I was rather pleased with the trick.