Tag Archives: california

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).

Tustin Legacy

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I was in southern California for a day and I flew in and out of John Wayne Airport in Orange County.  On the approach to the airport, I got a good view of Tustin.  This is a retired military airfield and, in its earlier days, it had been an airship base.  It still has two large airship hangars in the same style as those I have seen before at Moffett Field and Tillamook.

After my meetings had wrapped up and I was heading back to the airport, I took a few minutes to divert past the hangars and to grab a couple of shots of them.  They are impressive structures and appear to be in great condition.  I have no idea whether they are used much at this point and who looks after them but either they are well taken care of or the southern California climate doesn’t cause them too much trouble.

Racing Down the Approach

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Shooting parallel approaches at SFO is always fun.  Despite the fact it is a relatively regular occurrence there, it is still a nice photographic challenge.  So often, the approaches are not at exactly the same time and the planes end up being further apart than you want for the shot.  Fisherman’s Park provided an alternative view of the approaches and also gave you new options.  While the jets might be offset, you got them coming towards you, passing you and going away which meant you could use the different perspectives to bring the jets into one frame.

It didn’t hurt that there were quite a few parallel approaches while we were there.  This provided plenty of opportunities to try out some different shots.  It was also good to go wider sometimes to give some context to how the parallel approaches looked.  This is lost if you go too close on them which is something that I tend to do.

Salt Beds

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The south end of San Francisco Bay has a number of areas that are encircled with walls that allow the water to be cut off.  These are used to dry out salt beds for harvesting.  The sun evaporates the water and the salt is left when all the water is gone.  After harvesting, the tide can be allowed to flood the beds again and the process repeated.  One cool thing about these beds is that, presumably as a result of algae, they can turn some interesting colors as the water evaporates.  I was flying in to SFO for work and we turned right over the beds on to the approach.  With the sun out, the colors looked excellent.

Trailing Some Streamers

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San Francisco Bay tends to provide a bit of moisture in the air that shows up as vapor clouds in the trailing vortices of approaching airliners.  Before the planes reach Coyote Point, they are often trailing these streamers but, as they get closer to the airport, something about the conditions must change as they do seem to peter out.  However, on some occasions, the moisture content must have been higher as the streamers lasted longer.

Virgin Orbit

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Everyone seems to have a plan for getting into space these days.  Some companies have more than one!  Virgin already has their Galactic operation that is based on the Spaceship Two design evolved (a lot) from the original Scaled Composites design.  However, they have a second approach that is a small satellite launcher rather than a passenger craft.  This one is going to be launched from a Boeing 747-400.  They have provided one of the old Virgin Atlantic aircraft for this purpose.

I was down in Long Beach recently and saw the plane sitting on the north side of the field.  Sadly, the light from the south side was very nice but it was too far away.  A trip around the field did get me closer to it although now backlit.  Not far away are the offices of Virgin Orbit.  The launcher will be mounted on a pylon under the port wing making use of the hard point that was included to allow the ferrying of a spare engine.

How things develop we shall see in a reasonably short time I imagine.  The operation seems to be pretty significant and will need to deliver something before too long.  In the mean time, here are a couple of shots of Cosmic Girl when she was in passenger operation.

Combat Air Takes Up Some Customers

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I got a little distracted while I was at Lyons Air Museum.  Out on the ramp were some SF-260s belonging to a company called Combat Air.  The company shared space with the museum and, while I was walking around, a couple of customers rolled up for their flights.  They were going off in a two ship sortie.  I don’t know what they had planned.  They may have been heading out to do some aeros or maybe they were going to try and see which one was the dogfighting star.

The 260 is a cracking little plane.  From a young age, this was a plane I wanted – something that has some serious performance that is enough for some militaries but is also available for anyone to buy (provided you have a fair bit of spare cash).  In piston form it is pretty good stuff but I also believe that you can get them with a turboprop which I imagine goes like stink.  Anyhow, the two customers were suited up, strapped in and they taxied out together.  We were advised that they would probably come our way on departure so I hung around for a while.  They had a fair taxi to the departure end and then needed to hold for a while but eventually they came into view and turned in formation over the top of the hangar.  I went back to looking around the museum so I hope they had a fun flight.

A Pair of Douglas’s Finest

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The Lyons Museum included a few larger types in the hangar.  At one end they had both a DC-3 and a C-47.  While notionally different types, they are in principle the same aircraft and one that Douglas churned out in huge numbers.  The DC-3 was configured in a slightly more comfortable way than the C-47 though.  Troop transport was not a luxury business.  Get as many people and bits to where you are going as you can.  The paying passengers were a more demanding crowd and the interior is designed to make them feel like they were being treated accordingly.  Either way, they are both great looking aircraft.

Above Half Dome

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I was staring idly out of the window as I was flying across California when a shape on the ground below caught my eye.  I grabbed the camera as I realized we were coming across Yosemite.  From above, the most conspicuous shape is that of Half Dome.  However, it looks very different when looking down on it than it does when you are on a level with it.  It almost seems distorted.  I grabbed a few shots as we zipped overhead and then it disappeared behind the wing.

Fuddy Duddy

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The Lyon Air Museum has a B-17 as part of its collection.  Named Fuddy Duddy, I was told by a docent that it is airworthy.  I don’t know whether that means it is still flown or not and a quick search has not brought up any recent photos of it but maybe it is out and about at times.  I walked around it in the hangar and got a few shots of it in amongst the rest of the museum collection.  It looked to be in great condition but I have no idea what is beneath the skin.