Tag Archives: civil

The Avanti Just Fails to Catch the Light

I was having a really lucky day.  I had caught a few really cool photo subjects and the lighting had been really good.  I was about to pack up and go when my friend reminded me of something I had forgotten.  An Avanti was scheduled in at the end of the afternoon and I had figured I would have been gone so had let it slip to the back of my mind.  Since a couple of other movements had got delayed, I was there later than expected and now the Avanti was on the approach.

The light was looking amazing, but it was still some distance out.  The Avanti is pretty fast, but I was watching the hillside beyond the field start to lose the sun and I knew that it wasn’t going to last long enough for my Avanti.  Sure enough, as it came into sight, the light was gone.  We had a gloomy look to things as it buzzed past.  Not as it could have been just three minutes earlier, but its an Avanti and it rounded out an excellent day nicely.

Is This My Last Kalitta 727?

The 727 is a rarity already and one of the remaining operators, Kalitta, is close to ending their operations too.  I read that they only have two left and that they will both be gone later this year.  Consequently, I was rather pleased when one was due into Seattle.  Unfortunately, it was due to land at about 8pm.  I did think of getting out to try and see what the ambient light would be like but decided against it.  It then got delayed and didn’t arrive until after 10pm.

They filed to head straight back out that evening so I figured I would miss out.  However, something was not right with the jet, and they didn’t leave.  The following day, when I saw that they hadn’t gone, I was able to come by and see if they were still there.  Indeed they were.  It wasn’t long before I heard the sound of an engine running and thought I might be in luck.  Sadly, the open panels were a sign that they were just doing an engine test.  I had to leave shortly afterwards and was wondering whether they would depart while I was absent.

Luck continued to be on my side, and they were still there later in the day.  No flight plan filed, and I was wondering whether they were either not going at all or might wait until after dark.  I was pondering driving around to the other side of the field to see if I could find out anything when my friend messaged me that a flight plan had been filed for a departure shortly.  Now, I never trust the timing of a flight plan for a freighter, but this was still promising.

Needless to say, they did not go promptly.  This was not a bad thing, though.  As I waited, the conditions were steadily improving with some nice light.  At this time of year, though, that light doesn’t last too long, and I was fearing it might disappear before they left.  Fortunately, they finally fired up and taxied past me.  The light was looking great. Now to hope that they didn’t have a long wait for ATC release.

I had wondered whether they would get off the ground fast or not.  The 727 was capable enough in short fields but they don’t leap off the ground.  I chose a location that I thought might be good for rotation shots and I am glad I did.  I had just about the perfect spot.  They rotated in front of me, climbed out in lovely light and disappeared.  I wonder whether this will be my last Kalitta 727 shot or not.

The KF Centre of Excellence

Usually, when I go somewhere new, I have done some research on what aviation related things might be in the area should there happen to be any spare time to squeeze something in.  I had actually been checking out the layout of the airport at Kelowna before our trip since I knew that Kelowna Flightcraft had their operations and there was an Alaska Airlines paint facility.  I figured it would be worth a drive by if time allowed.

As it turned out, our planned hike got scrubbed because the snow made access to the trail, we intended to try impossible for our not off-road optimized car.  We were looking for something else to do and I asked Nancy is a quick drive by at the airport would be possible.  With nothing else in mind, so generously acquiesced.  We drove up the west side of the airport and passed a pair of Convairs up a side road with a sign saying Open to the Public.

I had no idea what this could be but, when we came back, we drove up to take a look.  Much to my surprise (and Nancy’s bemusement that I didn’t already know), we were at the KF Centre of Excellence.  This is a new museum that the owner(?) of Kelowna Flightcraft has established.  The building itself is a lovely structure.  It is loosely designed to resemble the layout of a plane with a central fuselage element and two wings which are hangars.  The external styling is very nice, and the interior is tastefully finished with lots of wood.  We paid to have a look around with the front desk being a converted nacelle.  (Much of the furnishing is aviation components that have been repurposed.  An office desk from a tailplane, nacelles that have been modified and the café seating is all old business class seats.

The center section of the museum has a lot of exhibits about flying including engines, fuselage components and even an old simulator.  It is quite informative and educational.  We enjoyed looking around.  Then it was to the hangars.  One has a Second World War vintage to it.  The largest item was a DC-3 but it was probably the least exciting.  Alongside it was a Mosquito that had only recently been flown in.  Beside that is a Hawker Tempest which is in an advanced state of restoration to flightworthy condition.  It may well be the only Tempest I have seen.  I’m not sure if I have ever seen one before.

Across to the other side and things are still quite empty.  Clearly there are plans to add more aircraft in due course.  A Staggerwing and a few floatplanes are in place but the two-seat F-104 Starfighter is definitely the most exotic.  It was airworthy until relatively recently.  Sadly, it is rather tight to the wall which made getting shots from different angles tricky.  Still cool to see it though.

I had no idea about the museum.  I had heard something about the Mosquito flying out of Vancouver to a new owner but hadn’t really pieced together what was going on so didn’t realize it was Kelowna.  The whole thing was quite a surprise.  Finding such a collection and in such a lovely building was a shock.  Oh yes, parked out front were two Convairs.  One was the old Honeywell testbed that I have shot prior to its retirement and the other is a retired water bomber.  How cool.  (As an aside, the Honeywell 757 testbed was just down the road undergoing some maintenance work.)

It Might Have Been Green but the Light Was Excellent

An Air Tanzania 737 Max 9 made its initial flight from Renton and was due into Boeing Field at the end of the day.  The timing of its arrival was looking promising.  However, I was dealing with something else, and it was a higher priority.  If that could be completed in time, the Air Tanzania might just work out.  Having shot their 767 freighter, I was hoping that it would already be painted.  That was not to be the case with only the rudder and winglets showing the colors that are to come.

The evening light was developing nicely so the green of the protective covering really looked pretty good.  However, the real benefit was once the plane had passed me.  The sky to the east was developing a really cool purple hue.  The evening light was working wonders with the clouds over there.  Stick a green 737 in front of that and things really did look good.  I hope I get to see it once painted before it heads off to its new home.

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.

Alaska Air Cargo’s Newest Freighter – Finally!

Alaska Air Cargo has a bunch of converted 737-700s that it uses to run freight around Alaska and down to Seattle.  The -700 is not a popular freighter conversion with the -800 being the basis for most NG freighters around the world.  Alaska must have decided that they too need the additional capacity and are converting a pair of their passenger jets.  The first returned from Kelowna, where the conversion was undertaken, and entered service.  I went out one weekend to catch it heading north.  I waited a long time as its departure time slipped and slipped before it eventually canceled.  It then flew to Oklahoma City for some work of some sort.  It did return but then went back to OKC so something was clearly not right.

Recently, it finally returned to Seattle.  The weather was not great but it was a weekend and I had some time so I decided to catch it coming in from Ketchikan and then heading back the same way.  With the cargo door in the front fuselage and the Air Cargo markings added, it looks pretty good.  It hasn’t been used hard yet, so the paint is in good shape.  Let’s hope its teething troubles are behind it and I might catch it in nicer conditions.  Its sister ship is in conversion currently, so we should have a pair of them before too long.

Omni 777 Takes the Band to Houston

The appearance of UW in the national championship game meant a lot of people flying from Seattle to Houston.  That included the band and I believe they were the ones to fly in an Omni Air International 777-200ER.  We get plenty of Omni’s 767s at Boeing Field but a 777 was an interesting change.  I hung around quite a while one Saturday waiting for them to depart.  As with so many charters, they went late.  (Late enough to mean I got stuck on I-5 heading back for lunch when a protest closed down the interstate.)  I took a chance by going with a long prime rather than a zoom and, fortunately, they rotated just early enough for that to work out for me.  I was rather pleased with the tighter shots of them getting airborne.

Playing With an Old CRJ Moon Shot

For some reason, I recently came back to an old photo I took of a Delta Connection CRJ900 as it climbed out of O’Hare.  It had climbed right by the moon as it was rising in the eastern sky towards the end of the day.  I had liked the photo at the time but now I was thinking about how to do a better job of editing it.  Now I have been using the masking tools in Lightroom a lot more, I figured I could take different approaches for the jet and the background.  The results were a lot better than my original efforts and I quite like how it now looks.

Lockheed 12 Heading East

Airport roads can sometimes throw up interesting surprises.  I was driving around Paine Field one weekend and came upon this fuselage sitting on a trailer.  I had a chat with the guys loading it up.  It is a Lockheed 12 and was heading to Minnesota for restoration to flight.  They suggested a lot of work was needed and it would be a while before it was flying again.  However, I was just taken to see it sitting beside the road as I happened to pass by.

Grab It While You Can – Or Will I Be Wrong?

UW had some success with their football program this year which meant a few charter flights took place.  Some of the charters that they arranged were with New Pacific Airlines.  This is a relatively new airline that originally was going to be Northern Pacific until BNSF Railway, which owns that name, objected to their using it.  Their plan has been to operate transpacific flights via Anchorage in a similar model to that of Icelandair.  Things have got off to a slow start.  They are doing some domestic US flying but those routes have been erratic too.  The fleet is a pair (I think) of Boeing 757-200s so hardly cutting edge.  I think they might not last long.

Consequently, when their jet showed up at BFI, I figured I should definitely get photos since I might not get the chance again.  Winter conditions are not going to be the greatest, but I was able to get a few that I was pretty happy with.  I don’t wish the airline any harm at all, but they don’t seem to be giving off the vibe of a great success story.  Let’s hope the charters can fill in until they get something more solid going.