Tag Archives: jet

A Better Go at a Prime Air 737

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In this recent post, I showed a shot of an Amazon Prime Air 737.  With a bit more notice and better timing from an availability point of view, I saw that another jet was coming in to Paine Field from Anchorage.  It was being delivered from the conversion line in China and would have the finishing touches taken care of by ATS at Everett.  I was there and set up in plenty of time – except… I had one camera ready to go but the other one had been previously used for some video at home and was on manual focus.  I was shooting with the 500mm initially and all was well.  As the jet got closer, I switched to the 100-400 and everything was wrong.  Nothing would focus.  It seemed like forever but I must have realized fast and flicked the focus switch because I was able to shoot it as it came level with me and crossed the threshold.  What an amateur mistake.  Fortunately, I got away with it!

Ryanair Subsidiary Buzz

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Ryanair has a subsidiary based in Poland that it has been rebranded as Buzz.  I must admit I knew nothing about this until, on my way back home from a meeting south of Seattle, I stopped off at Renton to see what was on the flight line.  A Ryanair jet was parked up and next to it was a Buzz jet.  It still had some taped markings on it but it was basically finished in Buzz colors and registered in Poland.  Obviously it won’t be going to them for a little while longer but, once the grounding is lifted, it should be heading to Eastern Europe.

Philippines Airlines Spot the Difference

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Someone recently was after a picture of a Philippines Airlines Boeing 747.  When I looked up my shots of this airline, I came across a picture of one of their A340s landing at SFO.  It had an anniversary marking on the fuselage.  Just below it in the catalog was a 777-300ER which also had the same marking and was also landing at SFO.  The similarity of the aircraft in these shots amused me so here they both are in case something like this is of interest to you too.

RIAT 2010 Arrivals

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I put together a selection of shots from the RIAT show of 2006 in this post.  It was another four years before I was back for my next visit.  This time I made a visit to the Park and View East rather than the west.  This was the end at which everything was landing, and it also provided a good view of some of the arrivals as they taxied to the ramp.

The weather started out okay, but it got steadily worse resulting ion a torrential downpour.  Some movements were in such low light that it was almost like shooting at night.  The stormy weather passed and then the flying could resume.  Given the variety of things that were showing up, I will focus this post on the arrival traffic, and we can add some of the displays in a different post.

Plenty of helicopters as well as the fast jets.  I had not shot at this location before and I was not prepared for how crowded it could be and the way you needed to be at the front.  That limited some of my shots unfortunately.  Also, there was a lot of heat haze in the air so some of the nicer angles on the approach produced shots that are not sharp enough.  Still, a fun day out.  Drying out took a while that night though!

Air France A380

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The Air France A380s have gone away.  Their retirement had already been identified prior to the COVID-19 outbreak but it accelerated their departure.  I had shot them on a few occasions with SFO and LAX being regular destinations.  Since I won’t be seeing them again, here is a farewell tribute to the Air France A380.  Hope one or two of the airframes find a second life.

Royal Air Force Poseidon

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My Renton visit also produced a P-8A Poseidon.  I have seen plenty of them over the years but this one caught my eye because it is the fourth airframe for the UK’s Royal Air Force.  Sitting on the ramp on a sunny day with heat haze is not ideal but it was still worth a shot since, once it gets delivered, I am unlikely to get much of a chance to see it again.

Amazon Prime 737

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The Amazon Prime fleet of 767s has grown to be pretty huge.  Initially, I was excited to see one out and about but now they are like Southwest 737s!  However, the new addition to the fleet is the 737-800.  A bunch of them have been showing up and, prior to delivery to Sun Country that will be operating them, they have been coming through Everett, presumably for some final work at ATS.  Sadly, I haven’t been able to get up there to see them.

I did get one of them head past the house, though.  It was departing for Minneapolis and its routing took it close to us.  Not as close as I would have liked but enough for a heavy crop with a long lens.  Not ideal conditions for sure.  In the same way the 767s are now ubiquitous, these will no doubt be before to long.  However, this was my first encounter.  Maybe next time I will be a bit closer – even if it does mean moving away from my driveway!

FedEx and Mt Rainier

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No great story with this one.  I was at SeaTac for a different arrival on the outer runway.  A FedEx MD-11F was making an approach to the inner runway while I was waiting.  It provides a good alignment with Mt Rainier in the background so I figured it was a shot worth taking and I was pleased with how it turned out.  Given how little I have photographed recently, a shot like this from before everything got locked down suddenly seemed like something to share!

Phantoms

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When I first started going to air shows, the Phantom was everywhere.  The USAF was already well into the process of removing them from front line work and introducing the F-16s instead but there were still some in service.  Other air forces still had them in some numbers.  For this post I figured I would dig through whatever shots I could find of them to share.  Some are more recent including some from the USAF target program and others are a little older.  Enjoy.

Delta A220s (Or C Series for the Purist)

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The Airbus A220 is now getting more widely established in service.  Indeed, the slightly smaller and highly efficient nature of the jet means that it is likely to be pretty popular as service gets reestablished for a lot of airlines.  Sadly, I haven’t seen any other than those with Delta.  I have seen a decent number of those, though.  As a continuation of my lockdown trawl of the archives, here is a variety of shots of Delta’s A220 flight.  If you prefer to call this a C Series from its Bombardier days, feel free but that ship has sailed!