Tag Archives: crj

How Did I Miss the Radar Testbed?

I was walking around the new Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Tukwila after the opening ceremonies had concluded.  A few things took off while I was there but nothing caught my eye.  Then I heard another jet get airborne.  I looked around and saw a CRJ climbing out.  However, this was no normal CRJ.  It was one of the Northrop Grumman radar test beds.  These have replaced the BAC1-11 jets that are now all retired.  I got the camera up late (settings weren’t ideal either) and shot it as it disappeared into the distance.  I had no idea it was on the ground (and would have gone looking for it had I known).  Oh well, win some lose some!

Skywest’s Own CRJs

Skywest provides feeder services for a number of airlines around the country.  They do also operate under their own name for some routes though so you do occasionally come across their aircraft in their own colors rather than those of their customer airline.  I have shot a number of the aircraft over the years and here are some of them.  The interesting thing is that they rarely seem to be in the same colors.  I don’t know whether this is because they have changed their colors a number of times or because they are leftovers from schemes they wore in other uses or from previous operators.  Whatever the reason, there has been some variety.

I’m not sure what the long term prognosis is for the CRJs with Skywest.  These jets are rapidly disappearing from service with various operators as larger jets with more seats are more affordable to operate.  Skywest may have plans for them or may operate them on services that can justify the cost or maybe they will all disappear quickly and we will barely notice that they have gone.

Formation of United Jets

AU0E1764.jpgThe parallel approaches at SFO are well enough known. I have blogged about them myself here and here. Getting two planes in the same shot is a cool result but it isn’t often that you get three and all of them from the same airline. I was out with Hayman and Roger when a pair of jets came down the approach almost perfectly together. We all got shots of them as they came in. I didn’t notice anything further until I was looking through the shots back at home. Apparently, a United jet was departing prior to the arrival of this pair and it happened to fly out on a path that aligned with my view of the pair. Three jets in one shot!

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