Boeing Field is busy with business jets and some of them are more interesting than others. However, one thing that does catch my attention is the use of reverse thrust. On bizjets, it is often used for braking when taxiing to keep the brakes cooler. Of course, it is used for landings. Usually, the reversers are stowed as the jet slows but other times they are left in until they have vacated the runway. Here is a selection of jets with their reversers in use.
Epic E1000s have shown up on the blog before and in less than ideal conditions. Sometimes you just have to work with what is available. It doesn’t stop me trying, of course, and when another one was due in to Boeing Field and the conditions looked promising, I headed out. When I was in place and they were getting closer, the sun was playing games with me. I would have some nice light for a while and then the clouds would drift back in again. They wouldn’t stay long and then sun would be back but the question was, what would it be like at the critical moment. At Boeing Field, I have often had good light further up the approach (and too far away), cloud over the ideal location and then sun again as they get to very short final but again too far for a decent shot. Would this be one of those days?
No! On this occasion, the conditions played ball and, as the E1000 came zipping down the approach, the sun was out in all the right places. I grabbed some shots and the blues in the paint really did seem to pop. I was quite satisfied. I did get one more Epic encounter at BFI before we moved away which was from the other end providing a different type of shot in good light but, after that, while there were lots of movements to BFI before we left, I didn’t have the chance to see them.
Having Boeing on your doorstep means the chance to photograph airlines that you have a good chance of never seeing in their normal operations. Arajet, of the Dominican Republic, is one such airline. As they were taking delivery of some 737 Max jets, I was able to photograph them. On one occasion, I was out at Boeing Field when one of their jets was on test and I was looking forward to getting a shot. Unfortunately, I didn’t know it hadn’t yet been painted. Instead, I got a green plane with only the rudder and winglets giving away who the ultimate operator would be
I like the green of the unpainted jets and primer finishes on other planes also look good to me. I wasn’t so upset as a result, but it wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for. Still, it looked pretty good on approach. I did get another airframe in the finished livery so I will stick that at the bottom to show what this one would ultimately look like. Not a dramatic livery but something different.
I have come across some flying with Hughes 500s at Boeing Field when someone was using a strobe to track the rotors as part of the maintenance. I figured that would be a one off but another time I was there, the same thing happened – this time with a 369. I would have loved to have been onboard when this was being done to see how the tracing of the blades looks in flight when the strobe is flashing. I imagine it would be quite an interesting engineering thing to see.
The aerodynamicist in me gets a little happy when I see shots that have the visible effects of the flow fields around a plane. Shock waves will be the most obvious example, but a trailing vortex can also cause some interesting refraction. The propeller produces a strong vortex from each blade and every once in a while, you can get a shot where the background provides enough of a pattern to allow the prop vortices to show up. I was reviewing some shots from Boeing Field of a Malibu Mirage with the PropJet turboprop conversion when I saw exactly this. Head on it can show quite well but getting it from more of a side on position was a nice surprise. Thankfully, the hangar doors in the background have vertical corrugations and this allows the flow to be seen in both directions due to the upward and downward moving blades.
I was out of position one time when at Boeing Field. Being down near the museum, departing aircraft tended to be quite high by the time they got to me. This didn’t stop me trying some shots since it was something a bit different. I was pretty happy when I got a Pilatus PC-24. They are quite popular and not a rarity at BFI but still pleasing. Then I was rather surprised to get a second not too much later. The PC-24 has great short field capability and can land on grass strips too. From the underside, you get a good look at the wing planform that delivers this performance.
I don’t know why two MC-12s might be showing up in Seattle. Maybe they have training requirements that involve deploying to random places or maybe they were intently listening in to the people of Seattle. I suspect that might not have been super interesting but you never know. Whatever the reason, there were two of them parked on the Modern ramp at BFI a while back. Normally a King Air would not get me terribly excited but stick lots of lumps and bumps on it and now I will show some interest. I was hoping that they both might fly while I was there but only one was fired up. It as a warm day and heat haze was not on my side so the ramp shots were a bit ropey. At least the one that flew came closer when it headed to the runway so I could get a slightly less hazy shot!
Since I switched to my R3 bodies, I have been playing a lot more with low shutter speeds to emphasise speed in images. This has been a topic in multiple posts on the blog in recent years. However, it doesn’t always work out well. I know that the keeper rate will fall when shooting fast moving objects at low shutter speeds, but you hope/expect that you’ll get something worthwhile from the ones you take.
However, that doesn’t always happen. During Seafair last year, the US Marine Corps F-35B departed Boeing Field for its display. I decided to go low with the shutter speed from my location up on the tower with the aim of having the airfield background blurring out and leaving me with the plane as the dominant element in the shot with little distraction. However, when I came to go through the sequence of shots that I took, I had some sharp ones as it approached me and as it flew away but nothing that really pleased me as it was closest and alongside me.
Some of them weren’t terrible but it was a huge disappointment as I clicked through the images and came to the realisation that I had blown it. You can’t always get lucky, and I knew what I was doing so I can’t be totally surprised that it didn’t work out, but it was still a bit galling. Does this mean I won’t do it again? No. Getting the record shot is fine, but I am more bothered about having a shot I really like these days. Might as well give it a go!
Boeing Field is home to a selection of aircraft belonging to one of the planets more wealthy individuals. The founder of a large software company has his biz jets and helicopters, but he also has a Grand Caravan on floats. In common with his other planes, the registration ends with WM. I have no idea whether he was onboard for this flight or whether it was a currency trip for the crew. It is a nice-looking Caravan (they look so much better on floats) and I guess I won’t be getting a chance to photograph it again for the foreseeable.
Another run back to Seafair from 2024. While I did get some good opportunities to photograph the team in the air, I also got to get a close up look at them while they were taxiing around at Boeing Field. The formation taxiing of display teams might not get much attention, but it is requiring a fair bit of concentration from the crews. Here is a combination of shots from different times during the course of the show weekend.
