I got a couple of Alaska Max jets on test on the same day recently. One was still unpainted but the colors were on the rudder and winglets so it was easy to see where it was going. The other jet was already fully painted and probably close to delivery. With me now traveling a little bit more and that travel being with Alaska, maybe I shall get to travel on one before too long. We shall see…
I posted about some night photography I tried on jets approaching SeaTac. After finishing that up I was heading to the terminal to pick up my colleague and I decided to go for a shot of touchdown in the dark. This was not going to be an easy one to get since it is really pretty dark at the north end of the airport so little ambient light. I was relying on the lights of the jet and pushing the ISO to a really high level. It is true that the noise gets really tough in those conditions but when looking at the image at a normal size, it really is not a big deal. Besides, it is a shot we would never have done in pre-digital days.
Some of the best shots are taken when you have access to the airfield. Sadly, that is not a simple thing to arrange. However, if the flight you arrive on has to hold prior to crossing the runway, you have a better chance of getting some shots of aircraft departing off the runway you are waiting to cross. This does involve shooting through the windows of the aircraft which are not great at the best of times and on the recent Alaska flights I have taken, have been pretty crappy. Still, it was fun to try and get some shots, even with the limitations of my older M6.
The light was getting low in the sky and I was needing to drop my rental car back at the lot to get my flight home but a Finnair A350 was on approach. I could see it was coming in to the south complex so the Proud Bird parking lot would be the spot for me. The nice evening light was going to work out well. I had shot a Finnair A350 once before when one came to SFO but this would be only my second encounter. No point in missing it. The sky was warming up nicely so it was hard to miss getting the shot.
Sometimes, when in Nevada for Red Flag, I will head down to McCarran in the morning to shoot some of the airliners prior to heading back to Nellis. This time, I barely went down that way. However, I did see a movement that caught my attention. There is a daily rotation of a Shorts 360 freighter from Phoenix up to Las Vegas. I haven’t shot a Shed for a while and figured this was worth a look.
There is a viewing area along the south runway at McCarran but it was closed for COVID and hasn’t been reopened yet. Short staffing means it is low on the airport’s priorities which kind of makes sense. Consequently, I ended up scoping out a parking lot that would give me an alternative. It was pretty hot and heat haze is always a concern plus I didn’t know whether to use the long lens or the zoom. I used a couple of jets coming in before to decide what to do and also stuck the polarizer on to cut the light down to get better shutter speeds for the props. Then the box on wings came on to the approach and I grabbed some shots. If you had told me 30 years ago I would make an excursion to photograph a 360, I would have laughed. Now they are rare enough that is exactly what I do!
I was rather sad to read that Sikorsky is shuttering production of the S-76 helicopter. The design first flew over 40 years ago but it has gone through a number of upgrades over the years. It is a sleek looking machine and quite a bit larger than it might initially appear. My first encounter with one was on the school fields of my high school when it was parked after bringing some people in for Cowes Week. I got to chat with the pilot for a while. No camera in those days, though.
When I worked in London, they had replaced the Queens Flight Wessex airframes with a pair of S-76s in a maroon color and they would often fly past our building as they landed at the palace. I have had various other times when I have seen them since but not a huge number. The most recent version is the S-76D which replaced the S-76C++ (catchy name, huh?). It has not sold particularly well and the development program was rather protracted. Without many customers, Sikorsky has called time for now. Whether it gets resurrected in the future – perhaps with production at their facility in Poland – we shall see.
The launch of the 737 Max was heavily influenced by American Airlines agreeing to buy a bunch of A320neo family jets from Airbus. American had inherited a bunch of Airbus aircraft from the combination with USAirways but buying the neos really caused Boeing to take note. The order also included a bunch of the ceo versions of the jets and I have seen loads of them over the years. However, for some reason, I had never shot an American neo until I got to LAX.
Los Angeles seems to be a popular destination for American’s neo fleet. While I was there, I saw a load of them arriving and departing. The larger engines are quite conspicuous on the neo although the A321neo seems better proportioned for that size of engine so they are less obvious than the smaller jets. I think they do occasionally make it to Seattle but whether I shall catch one up here, I don’t know.
Early morning at Washington National and I was waiting for my flight home after a work trip to DC. As I sat at the gate, a JetBlue aircraft was coming up from the south end of the field. It was painted in a red scheme representative of the fire department of NY. They have a few different special liveries on their jets but a bright red one is quite the opposite of their normal look. Sadly, the light was a bit dull but I wasn’t passing up the opportunity to get a shot, even if it was through the terminal windows.
Coming across a new airline for the first time is still a buzz for me. With so many airlines around the world and most of them never showing up at an airport convenient for me, there is always a good chance of something new when I visit somewhere I haven’t been for a while. LAX is a popular freight destination so getting new freighters there is a good chance. I was actually at SoFi stadium having a look around when a 747-400F made the approach just south of me.
I had the camera with me at that time so was able to turn around and get some shots. With the aircraft being south of me, it was a bit backlit but I bumped the exposure compensation up a bit to get good shadow detail so I could play with it in post. Later in the day, I was at Imperial Hill waiting for my flight home when it departed. Getting two cracks at a new airline was a pretty good deal. More importantly, the airline actually has a livery that is of interest – not a white jet with a few markings. I count this as a result!
It might be an old design but the MD-500 still holds some fascination for me. It is an agile machine and has a five bladed rotor which gives it a distinctive sound. Paint it in a sinister paint scheme and I am sold. This one was flying around at Boeing Field when I was down there recently and I got to shoot it a lot as it was flying a lot of pattern work. (I missed a cracking shot of it as well but that is a different story.)
The first time I was shooting it, I could see some flashing light coming from inside the cockpit. Looking at the shots afterwards, the guy in the right seat was using some device which would flash periodically. I am not a specialist on helicopters but I do know the rotor tracking is a thing that has to be done so I wondered if this device was a strobe to freeze the blades to allow them to be tracked. Anyone know whether it is.
The second time I was shooting it, the pattern was reversed so I got to see the other side of the airframe. Some cabling was clearly taped to the outside of the fuselage and then going in through one of the doors. No idea whether this was for the same purpose or something else. All good suggestions (and maybe some silly ones) are welcome.
