Tag Archives: KBFI

The Honeywell Demonstrator Comes Back to Seattle

Honeywell’s Boeing 757 demonstrator has been on the blog before. I caught it at Paine Field during some awful weather. More recently, it was back in Seattle and I managed to get it again. This time the weather was a little better. It was actually getting a bit of a tour of the region in with passes at Paine Field, SEA and Boeing Field. I thought I was going to be in the wrong place for it but I was fortunate enough to catch it twice in one flight.

I was at SEA as it came in on the outer runway. A little bit close in on the underside but I figured it would show off the unusual pylon for engine testing that is mounted on the upper side of the front fuselage. It wasn’t landing there, though. It then continued on and headed for Boeing Field. They changed the flow direction around the same time so I was actually able to make it back to Boeing Field before it landed there. It did then park up at Modern for the day.

Air Canada Instead of Jetz

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It’s not unusual to see Canadian A320s in Boeing Field. They provide a lot of sports charters but, until recently, these were usually undertaken by Jetz aircraft. More recently, it seems that they have transitioned to jets in the Air Canada core colors. Since Air Canada has been taking delivery of lots of 737 Max aircraft recently, maybe they are cascading some of the older mainline jets to the charter operations. I don’t really know. I only know I have shot a few of their aircraft at Boeing Field recently.

Sun on the MU-2

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Regular readers of the blog will know that there are certain types that I seem destined to struggle to shoot in decent light. It might be the nicest of days, but the sun will go behind a cloud just before the intended subject appears. I thought the Mitsubishi MU-2 was one of those types but, a few months back, I finally got lucky. One came into Boeing Field on a day with good sun. Not the perfect conditions but it was still a relief to finally get some shots when it wasn’t overcast!

Playing With the Bizjets to Experiment

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I have been messing around with low shutter speeds for traffic at Boeing Field a lot this year. Some of those shots have made their way into posts on here. One sunny afternoon, I was at the field and there was a lot of business jet traffic but nothing terribly special. This provides a good opportunity to try different things. I had the polarizer and a neutral density filter. The polarizer is good on sunny days for taking down the glare and it also cuts the light. However, the neutral density can really pull the shutter speed down.

Since I didn’t care if the shots were a failure, I was willing to just keep bringing the shutter speed down and down. I compensated by cranking up the frame rate in order to increase the probability of getting a sharp one. This is an interesting challenge. Normally I spend a bit of time culling out shots that just aren’t sharp but, when playing with silly shutter speeds, you need to re-calibrate just how sharp things should be. What is a little off when zoomed in might be of no concern when looking at the full image. That is not an excuse to let plainly bad shots through though.

Here are some of the results that weren’t too bad. Even an average Challenger can look a little more interesting with a very blurry background!

Everts MD-83 Freighter While I Am Waiting

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My buddy Chris was visiting Seattle but was stuck in the arrivals line at the airport. I was waiting to pick him up but, since it was taking longer than expected, I was checking out some other movements. An Everts MD-83 was scheduled out of Boeing Field. The weather was not great, and I didn’t know when Chris would finally get through immigration, but I figured I would give it a go. Sadly for Chris, the MD-83 got moving faster than him. It was on its way long before he finally got out. I had plenty of time to get back to SEA to pick him up.

Someone Forgot to Close the Gas Cap

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Talon Air’s Hawker 4000 came to Boeing Field and my shots of its arrival have already had their own post. However, while I was reviewing the shots when I got home, something seemed a little odd between the shots. Something seemed to be flapping around on the lower rear fuselage. I zoomed in to the shots and there was an access panel that was unsecured. Its angle was changing between shots, so it was clearly moving around in the airflow. From what I can gather, this is probably where the fueling port is located. These doors are tough, so it was probably fine, but I wonder whether any damage was done on a long flight.

Woohoo! – Another Hawker 4000

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A few times a year, Boeing Field is treated to the arrival of a Hawker 4000. This was not a successful jet for Hawker and so they are far from common. I have shot them on occasions, and they have probably got blog posts when I did. I saw this one coming in one weekend so headed over to see it. When I looked up the operator, Talon Air, I was interested to see on their website that they have quite the collection of 4000s. I guess owning a bunch of them makes supporting them a little easier. Annoyingly, another one was at BFI while I was there and got towed near me before I realized what it was. It didn’t fly while I was there unfortunately.

A Dornier Is Worth an Excursion

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The Dornier 328Jet is not a total rarity but it is unusual enough to get attention. Earlier this year, one showed up as coming through BFI. Since I was able to be there, I decided it had to be worth the trip. Sure, it is just another landing shot of a small airliner but I spend too much time thinking back to things I never bothered about at the time that are now gone so I’d rather not add to that list.

Marine Corps Hornets Leave Boeing Field

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It’s been a while since I posted some images of Marine Corps Hornets having issues starting up to depart from Boeing Field after a weekend visiting for training. I didn’t include any images in there of them actually taking off. I got a reasonable spot to try and see them take offs even though the weather was not really great. I was surprised at just how quickly the jets got airborne. They were already quite high by the time that they came by me. I was still able to get some reasonable shots of them. Fast jets are always a nice change to the usual Boeing Field traffic.

Black Gulfstreams in the Rain

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Previous posts have shown that I like a bizjet that isn’t painted like all of the others and being painted black is even better. It won’t surprise regular readers, therefore, that when I got to see not one but two black Gulfstreams on one afternoon at Boeing Field, I was quite a happy chappy. The weather was not great, though. It was raining pretty steadily which doesn’t make for ideal conditions. However, it isn’t all bad. Sunny days with black jets can produce some harsh contrast conditions while overcast light is more even and soft so it might not be all bad.

Rain in the shots is still going to be an issue though. Depending on the shutter speed you choose, you may well end up with the raindrops being visible in the images. A bit of tweaking of the settings when processing can boost the contrast a little, but those raindrops are not disappearing. Still, the subject is an interesting one to me and that’s what counts.