Tag Archives: Boeing

Direct to Ethiopia is Still Not That Heavy

Ethiopian Airlines has been taking delivery of some Boeing 777F freighters for their cargo operations. One of the new jets was being readied for delivery while I was at Paine Field. Operations were in a northerly direction so, from the terrace on top of the Future of Flight, we were going to get a good view. I was hoping that a direct flight to Bole in Ethiopia would be sufficiently long to mean that the jet would be very heavy with fuel and would run long on take off giving us a good view of rotation. However, while there was a lot of fuel on board, the lack of any other payload meant it still got off the ground pretty swiftly. Still, it was a good view of the initial climb out.

My Rainier Arrivals

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I was picking up someone from SeaTac just before Christmas. The flight was due in just before sunset so I took the camera along just in case. I was out by the outer runway approach path but the heavies were coming in to the inner runway. This meant they passed nicely in front of Mt Rainer – assuming you can ignore the 60 odd miles distance to the mountain. First in was a Condor 767 which still had plenty of evening light on it as it landed.

Next up was a British Airways 777. It arrived as the light was fading fast. It still had a bit of illumination but you knew anything following it would be in the gloom. Being winter, there was virtually no distortion in the atmosphere, which, given the distance was a potential problem. Things looked pretty sharp in the final images.

Farewell to Hawaiian’s 767s

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Hawaiian Airlines had a reasonably large fleet of 767s for its long haul services. They introduced A330s to expand the fleet and more recently have added A321neos to serve destinations on the west coast of the US. The arrival of these planes has meant the 767s are no longer needed. Consequently the fleet has been run down and the final flights have taken place. It won’t be an Airbus only fleet for the longer flights for long though. 787-9s are on order so Boeing will return to the long haul fleet before too long.

Oh Man! More New 787s

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A nice early winter sunny day is a pleasant surprise in the Pacific Northwest and I was able to head across to Everett to see what was happening. Boeing is busy building Dreamliners too though and a couple were on test flights while I was there. One was Oman Air. The scheme is an interesting change from the boring white liveries. You can certainly hear the jets as they land because the test flight involves the deployment of the Ram Air Turbine and it buzzes away when they go by. The other arrival will deserve its own post.

Gulf Air 787-9

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I caught this Gulf Air 787-9 as it returned from a test flight to Paine Field. It was at the end of the SkyFair event so the crew will have noticed that there were a lot of people on hand to witness their landing. Not a particular problem of course but probably one of the few landings of the Boeing production tests to get a large crowd.

Plenty of 200ERs But the 300ERs Avoid Me

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While I enjoyed my visit to Haneda earlier this year, I was a little frustrated by one thing. Regular readers will know of my interest in trying to capture the articulated gear feature of the 777-300ER. Haneda provided a great opportunity to photograph this as the departing planes were rotating almost directly in front of me. It is also an airport that gets plenty of 777s. Unfortunately, all of the ones that came my way were 200ERs. There were 300ERs departing too but they all went off the parallel runway on the opposite side of the terminal to me. I could only see them once airborne and backlit. Someone in air traffic must have been trying to thwart me!

Tampa Prime Freighters

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I had a short wait at Tampa for a flight home after a work trip. The gate I was waiting at did not have a lot of traffic nearby. Indeed, judging by the total lack of lines at security, maybe none of the gates at Tampa have a lot of traffic! The view from our gate was towards a cargo ramp and there were two 767 freighters loading up. They both finished loading and taxied off while I was there. One was in Amazon Prime colors but the other was unmarked. However, a quick search tells me it is also a Prime jet but I guess they haven’t got around to painting it yet.

Another FedEx Test Flight

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Our visit to the Boeing Factory Tour at Everett with our visitors not only included the escapees from the hurricane that I covered here but also included the ongoing production test flying activities. The 767 line is only producing freighters and tankers these days and the majority of the freighters have been going to FedEx. This one undertook a test flight while we were there. We saw it head out and, when it returned, it flew a missed approach before landing.

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).

DFW

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Returning from a work trip to Dallas, I was flying out of DFW. I got to the airport in plenty of time so, with a bit of time to kill, I decided to take a ride on the train that runs between the terminals. It makes a loop of the whole airport in both directions. I decided to see what you could see from the train and did a whole loop of the airport.

First, it is not a great photo platform. Aside from shooting through the windows (which were actually not that bad), the stations are not well located for viewing the ramps and, when it has a clearer view, it is moving at speed and is a pretty unsteady base for shooting. There are always reflections too, of course.

DFW is an American hub and that is pretty obvious as you head around the terminals. No shortage of American jets including a few remaining MD-80s and one of the special scheme jets too. The longer view across the gates with the multiple fins was a shot you could get at a number of places. It wasn’t just American though. Obviously other airlines use the airport. It happened that a British Airways 747-400 had pushed as we got there and the train runs around the perimeter of that ramp so we saw it from almost all sides.

If you have a bit of spare time while waiting for a flight at DFW, I would definitely take a ride around the terminals. It is a lot more interesting than sitting waiting at a gate and the food options weren’t great either so take a ride and see what is going on and where people are going to and coming from.