Tag Archives: gulfstream

Return of the G-III On A Sunny Sunday Morning

A G-III is going to be of interest but when it comes on a Sunday morning when the sun is out and conditions look nice, I am going to try and be there. This was the One Flight jet which I had seen before but I wasn’t going to pass it up because of that given how good the conditions were. I got there in time to see it land and it parked up on the ramp a little north of me although not easy to get a shot of. It wasn’t staying for long so I was able to catch it taxiing back out for departure and then taking off too. Not a bad result for a start to a Sunday morning.

Puma G550

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A bizjet with cool paint is always going to get my interest. In this case, the paint made it pretty easy to determine who the jet belonged to. If you know your sports equipment providers, you will recognize this logo as that of Puma. I guess the sports business is good and a G550 is a useful thing to have. Nike has a fleet of jets. Does Adidas?

Dark Gulfstream Day

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I do like shooting bizjets and they can provide a bit of variety amongst the regularity of the other aircraft around. However, there is one thing that can disappoint and that is the unimaginative way in which they are usually painted. Airlines have adopted the variations on white but the bizjets have been doing this for ages. Consequently, when one shows up that is not basically white, I am really pleased.

Black painted bizjets look so much more interesting. The engineer in my finds myself wondering how well they keep cool out in the sun on the ramp but, since I am not the customer, not a problem I need to worry about too much. Instead, I can just be pleased to shoot a jet that looks a little out of the ordinary.

Not Only a G-III But A Cool One

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If I see a GIV these days, it barely gets any attention from me. Sure, I’ll take a shot, but I am not getting excited. Go back a generation, though, to the G-III and suddenly I am definitely paying attention. One came to BFI recently and, while I was at the wrong end for an arrival airborne shot, I did see in the distance on final (no heat haze thankfully) and then as it rolled out and headed to the ramp at Modern. It was also in a nice dark paint job and it looked pretty cool.

It didn’t hang around too long. I watched it taxi across the field and up to the departure end. Then it was time for the long lens. The old Spey engines don’t have as much grunt as the later Tays so I anticipated a longer takeoff run and was not disappointed. I then watched it climb out with the Speys belching smoke. The engines are hushkitted but are still noisy beasts. As it climbed away, I got a clear view through the hush kits including the lobes of the exhaust diffusers. What a fun thing to see.

A Pair of G500s

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Of the new generation of Gulfstream jets, the G500 was the first to test and the first to service. It might have taken a long time to get certificated but it is now in service. Even so, I haven’t seen too many of them yet. However, I managed to get two on one day. One of them was an approach to Boeing Field and what appeared to be a Gulfstream owned airframe was also parked on Modern Aviation’s ramp.

I think they are a pretty good looking airframe and have addressed some of my misgivings about the older generation Gulfstreams. Now there are going to be a bunch of variants with the G500, G600, G700 and G800. There is also going to be a G400 but I don’t yet know whether that is the same airframe design base or something different. Probably similar though. Can’t see much future for the G650 with all of these, though.

Marine Corps C-20G

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Military movements don’t usually show up on things like FlightAware but they can make an appearance on FlightRadar24 or ADSB Exchange. I hadn’t been checking either of them as I was getting ready to leave when one of the other people nearby let me know a C-20 was inbound. It turned out to be a C-20G from the US Marine Corps. I’m usually happy to shoot a Gulfstream but one in military markings is a bit more unusual and the Marine Corps even more so. Glad to have had the tip not to go too soon.

Return of the G600 Testbed (In The Rain)

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A rainy Saturday afternoon had very little going on except the return of a G600 test aircraft to the Pacific Northwest. I have no idea why Gulfstream has not painted this jet but it is still in primer. I half expected to see it had been painted when it arrived, but it was still green. The conditions were alternating between torrential rain and patches of sun. Indeed, the sun was out five minutes before the G600 arrived but, no surprise, it was back to rain by the time it came in. When conditions are like that, I go with a heavy overexposure and then pull things back down in post. Hopefully, before too long, I will be experimenting with a new body, and we shall see whether I need to modify my exposure techniques in bad conditions.

Avanti Taunting Me At Sunset

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Given my recent Avanti posts, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I had some bad luck again. After the arrival of the 777X, the local Avanti was showing due to arrive just before sunset. The weather had been very overcast but, as is often the case up here, the sun was sneaking occasional appearances below the clouds as sunset approached. The Avanti was due soon and it looked like it could either be great or crap. About five minutes before it was due in, the sun popped out. Things looked great for a Cessna that was on approach.

It couldn’t last, though. The clouds took over again and then things got worse. The Avanti, instead of turning on to approach, went off on some weird looping flightpath to the north. I have no idea what it was up to but the time it spent meant the sun was now definitely gone. Now I was playing “How High Can the ISO Go” as the conditions deteriorated. At least modern camera are pretty amazing with little light to work with.

I got some shots of it as it came in and they really came out quite well. At the north end of Paine Field, things are a bit further away so, with a smaller plane, I can make use of the 500mm and f/4 certainly helps in the low light. Just behind the Avanti was a G550 so I figured why not wait for it to come in too. The light was even worse but it was still worth a go. Low light is not great but it can provide some nice shots if you are lucky and this was okay.

Gulfstream’s GIII Is A Nice Surprise

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Vintage business jets are a nice thing to come across and, while the modern generation of Gulfstreams are a common sight around the US, the G-III is now something of a rare beast. Seeing one at Boeing Field parked on the Modern ramp was a nice surprise so I was just hoping for it to depart while I was there. Fortunately, I was in luck. It eventually powered up and taxied for departure. The hush kits on the old Spey engines are a bit of a giveaway but they aren’t that effective. The noise on takeoff was definitely a sign of something from a previous generation.

Under a G650

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When photographing bizjets, you can tend to get the same sort of shot all the time so it is nice to get something a little different. Getting close to the underside of the jet when it is on short final provides a different angle on things and can also bring in some of the scenery around the location. I did that for a Gulfstream G650 just to play around.