Tag Archives: civil

Once More for the Sunset Avanti Shots

A local Lynk Air Avanti coming into Paine Field might attract my interest, but I would probably skip it. However, if it is going to show up about ten minutes before sunset and the conditions are lovely, that is enough to tempt me out in the evening. (It doesn’t hurt that the journey time is really short at that time of day.) I got myself in position and waited for the arrival from the north.

I could just about make out the plane as it approached from over the sound, and it flew a quite tight base leg which meant it was clearly visible above the trees. Then the buzz became apparent as it lined up on final. I was being brave with shutter speeds since the Avanti deserves shots that make it look fast. A rapid burst of activity and it was down. It didn’t hang around on the ground too long continuing on its way about forty minutes later, but the light was done by then, so I headed home instead of waiting for it.

Local Pitts Has a Good Approach to Pattern Work

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It is not a regular occurrence, but several times I have been at Boeing Field when a local Pitts Special is doing pattern work. Most times I have been a long way from it so not able to try and get any useful shots. That changed a little while back when I was near the terminal building. The pilot flies patterns with a steep climb out, a downwind leg and a steep curving descent to land followed by powering up and flying low to gain speed before repeating the process. I decided to give some low shutter speeds a good to see how things looked.

Chinese Air Ambulance Quick Visit

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You see a fair few air ambulance operators through Boeing Field. There are often flights moving people to and from the city from Alaska and other parts of the state. The ones I am used to, though, tend to be older Learjets and US or Canadian registered. We do get the occasional one from overseas, but I was quite surprised to get a G550 from China showing up as an air ambulance. It seemed worthy of a look. It was a pretty brief stop for the jet before it headed across the Pacific. The naming seemed quite amusing – Happy Air!

Crop Duster Conflicting Arrival

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The traffic at Eloy was mainly light aircraft on training flights or jump ships for the sky diving operation. As one of the Twin Otters was lining up to depart, we saw a crop-dusting aircraft approaching the field. He seemed intent on landing from the opposite direction to that which the Twotter was going to use. We wondered how this would play out but they clearly had done this before. The jump ship got swiftly airborne and then turned left and directly towards us. This gave it separation from the inbound plane which then landed quite happily on the now vacated runway. It also meant we got some different angles on the departing plane which was welcome.

HondaJet Shapes Are Fascinating

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This HondaJet had come from outside the US, so it had to clear customs at BFI after landing. That put it right in front of me while I was waiting for something else (although I can’t remember what it was). I find the jet very interesting although I am frustrated by the way in which all the ones I see have the same paint scheme with only a change in what color is used. Since this one parked up near me, I got to look at it from a variety of angles and that is a good way to appreciate the unusual shapes the airframe has.

The pylons are cambered and the way in which the nacelles sit on the wing is more easily appreciated from behind. It is great to have something different. I look forward to seeing the big brother when it makes it into service. A shame that Honda seems to have given up on their own engines but not a massive surprise.

Allegiant’s Fleet Evolution

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Allegiant currently flies a bunch of A319 and A320 jets, but its most recent order was for some 737 Max8-200s. The first of these have been flying at Boeing Field. Unfortunately, my first encounter was with an unpainted jet, but I have since caught them looking a lot more like the finished article. It got me thinking of what I have seen of their jets over the years so I thought I would scan the archive. Plenty of the A320 family jets but I have also got their 757s and MD-80s so here are a few shots.

Twotter Jump Ship

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One of the sky diving airfields in Arizona is at Eloy. A small field in a very small town, Eloy has a lot of customers for the jump ships and the vertical wind tunnel. During our trip, I had seen some Skyvans operating as jump ships, and I was quite looking forward to the chance to shoot some Skyvan ops from close range. When we got to Eloy, it turned out that things were different on the day. The Skyvans were nowhere to be seen. Instead, it was Twin Otters providing the lift and, once we were there, only one of them. However, there were a couple of locations around the field that gave us options to photograph the Twotter with it taking off to the north and recovering in a southerly direction. There was even one departure when it turned right over us but the reason for that will show up in a future post.

Vistara Flying at Last

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With so many stored 787s at Everett in recent years, I have seen a bunch of Vistara jets on the ground. However, I hadn’t really done very well in catching them moving. Not very well is generous – I hadn’t got anything worthwhile. Then I was up at Paine Field earlier in the day for something else and a Vistara jet taxied out for a test flight. Thankfully it ran reasonably long on its takeoff roll and I was able to get some good shots of it.

A Short Time Between Two Visions

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It doesn’t take long for the weather to change in the Pacific Northwest. One afternoon I got a couple of Cirrus Vision Jets into Boeing Field. The weather was a bit overcast for one of them and then cleared up nicely by the time the second one showed up. The result was a far nicer shot for the second jet than for the first. It is amazing how quickly conditions can change and what a difference it can make to the images.

Finally, the Jetz Black Jet – Just No Sun

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Air Canada operates a charter service under the Jetz brand. While the A320s are not the focus of the mainline fleet, they are part of the Jetz fleet plan. With a lot of use in sports charters, they do show up at Seattle pretty frequently. One of the Jetz jets has been painted in a gloss black livery which looks pretty cool. I really wanted to get some shots of it but they only seemed to be bringing it in late at night and departing in the early hours of the morning.

I wasn’t going to be out that late and photographing a black jet at night was not going to be that worthwhile. Then I saw one was going to come in on a Sunday morning. I took a look at the forecast, and it was showing the potential for the sun to be out and I decided to give it a go. Finding a location on that side of the field for the morning light has got a lot worse since construction has taken away some of the options. However, there are still some things that can work. I was hopeful that the sun might be there but, with the jet turning on to approach, there was still some cloud taking away the best of the morning light. Nevertheless, the jet looked pretty good as it flew by to touchdown. I wasn’t unhappy with the results.