The weather in Victoria over the Thanksgiving weekend was not great for aviation photography with a fair bit of rain and definitely only one day when the sun showed up. That day was not going to be one on which I would suggest to Nancy I go photographing helicopters. That might not have been the smartest suggestion. However, when the morning was rainy and cloudy and we were planning on a relaxing day, things could be different.
I hopped in the car and drove around to the heliport which is used by Helijet for their shuttle service to Vancouver. The Sunday schedule is not the busiest so I had to plan accordingly so I got there in time for an arrival and they were scheduled to head back out again not long afterwards. I could fit all of this in before heading back for a spot of lunch.
The S-76 is a pretty elegant looking helicopter. The design has been around for a long time and has gone through a number of iterations but the basic airframe shape is good in my opinion. It is a lot larger than you might imagine with plenty of seating capacity which makes it good for this shuttle service. One of the airframes was parked at the heliport when I got there so I got some shots of that. Then it was a question of waiting for the inbound flight to arrive.
The problem with the heliport is the fencing. It has quite a tight mesh and it is possible to shoot through it but it requires some care in aligning the end of the lens with the holes. Sometimes I do better with this than other times. When the helicopter is coming in, I have to try hard to get it right. Stepping back away from the fence does provide a little elevation but not much so shooting through the fence is going to be required.
The sky was grey and dreary so approach shots were not going to be too good but I was going to try them anyway. Once it was close to touchdown, it was a sprint to the fence. They taxi off the pad to the space in front of the terminal (generous description, I know) and then shut down. It was too long before they were firing up again. Given that the wind was not too strong, they were able to lift and head straight out. As they got on to the pad, it was noticeable just how far aft the rotor was pitched. Once airborne, this resulting in a nose high altitude and then they were off.
Singapore Airlines has been rationalizing their operations and one of the changes that they are making is getting rid of their subsidiary Silk Air and integrating its operations in to the mainline airline. Silk Air has ordered a bunch of 737s from Boeing and these are in the process of being delivered. A number of the planes were already painted in the Silk Air colors and apparently the airline determined it was cheaper for them to repaint them than to have Boeing do it. Consequently, they are being test flown in the old colors.
I assume that later jets will be painted in Singapore colors as they come off the line (depending on how much Boeing charges for that change order) but I have yet to see one in the new colors. I hope to get one before too long since I don’t have any plans to be in Singapore for a while. We shall see. I have got some distant shots of one passing near the house as it returned to BFI as well as some shots from BFI itself.
