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Flying Into Washington National

For the first time in two years, I made a work trip by plane. I was heading to Virginia for some meetings and was flying into Washington National Airport. I picked a seat on the left side of the plane in the hope that we would make a river approach. That gives a good view of the Mall and the surrounding area as you are on final approach. The weather was lovely with a sunny day and low sun angles as we were arriving later in the day.

At first, we appeared to be heading the right way and then we were too far to the south. I thought we were going to approach from there but then we made a 180 and headed back towards Dulles before starting down and turning on to the river approach after all. I could see the area around the mall coming in to view as I looked forward obliquely, but aircraft windows are not good enough to get a shot like that.

I waited until we were closer in getting shots of Georgetown, the Watergate complex and the Kennedy Center. Then everything was in sight and I was trying to get shots as quickly as I could. Of course, we are not moving slowly at this point so it is not long before any shots have been missed so it was a question of getting as much as you can. I was a little hinder because I was shooting on the back screen of the M6. To see this clearly means taking off my glasses but that isn’t ideal for seeing where to look out of the window. I think I made it work well enough though.

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.

Kestrel Patrolling The Taxiway

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One sunny day, I was hanging out at Arlington watching the flying activity. However, planes weren’t the only thing flying. I looked across at a taxiway light and saw something on top of it. A look through the long lens and a kestrel came into focus, if only briefly. Before I knew it the bird had launched into flight and headed away, not to return while I was there. I was rather pleased to have got something close to a reasonable shot of it in that short moment.

Gliding At Arlington

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Arlington has a gliding club and they were active on a Sunday visit. They had two gliders in action while I was there. Both are Let gliders, one a Super Blanik and the other a Solo. The tug was their Pawnee and it was busy getting them up. Neither glider was spending long airborne. They towed up to the north and were released and seemed to be straight back in to downwind and then landing. Sometimes, they beat the Pawnee back in.

They were a long way from me on the other side of the field but, with cool winter conditions, the heat haze was only an issue close to the ground and, as they climbed away, you had a pretty clear shot against the mountains.

Coast Guard Vessel

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A Canadian Coast Guard boat was up on the shipyard being worked on while we were in Victoria. A ship out of the water has a very different feel given how much it sits above you and the view of the area below the waterline. It changes the scale of the vessel to my eye. I’m not sure what work was being undertaken and wonder whether it is already back in service or not.

Floatplane 185

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This Cessna 185 looked in great condition and any plane on floats is going to get my attention anyway. The buzz saw sound of a 185 as it takes off will definitely get your attention but it is not so intrusive when it returns. Having some nice winter light on it was a good thing and floats just make any place look better.

Mist In The Distance Along The Shore

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While the weather could be quite nice during our winter visit to Cannon Beach, the steady wind and the waves meant there was a lot of water in the air. With the length of the beach, this meant that things could look quite misty as you stared in to the distance. This look makes for quite an ethereal feel to the scene and it was something that I found appealing yet hard to capture in an image. I tried some wider shots and some tighter ones to emphasize the effect. Not sure what works better.

Korean Air BBJ Is Back

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Korean Air’s fleet of bizjets come through Seattle quite frequently. Their BBJs are not uncommon. They use the airfield as the departure point for the trans-Pacific route to Korea. Unfortunately, they often arrive in the middle of the night and head straight back out again. I timed it well when they were making a daytime stop. I got the arrival and the departure this time.

Conditions were not great but, last time I shot one of their BBJs, the high sun made the livery glare a bit. Flat lighting avoided that this time. The departure was a good one for me. The route across the Pacific is a long one so the plane was pretty heavy. This meant it rotated a long way down the runway and closer to me and was still only just climbing when it was level with me. I went with a long lens which meant things got large quickly. It did give me some shots I was pretty happy with, though.

Lego Awesomeness

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For those of you that have watched the Simpsons, you may be familiar with the Homer’s bowling ball type of gift. I got Nancy tickets to a Lego exhibition in Seattle and, of course, I got to go along too. The show was based around some large scale and complex lego creations which could include various forms of reinforcement. The group that builds them is from Australia and there is a tour of their work for which this was one stop.

I will post some more specific items from the show in upcoming posts as there were some specific pieces that justify their own coverage. Today I shall just give a more general showing of what was on display. The exhibits were well spaced out and there were restrictions on attendance numbers for COVID which meant it was pretty easy to get a clear photo of some of the builds. The lighting could be a bit tricky but overall it was fine. I did use HDR sometimes in order to address the deeper shadows on some items.

The level of detail in the builds was impressive. For the more complex ones, there were plenty of Easter eggs to try and find. Signs for each one would give you clues as to what to look for. I am sure I could have spent even longer checking each one out if I had wanted and found more little elements that had been snuck in to their construction. If it comes your way, maybe make a trip to see the work.

Super Bugs At BFI

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Stopping for lunch at BFI, I was happy to be informed by someone already there that there were a couple of Super Hornets from the US Navy that had departed earlier and were due back shortly. I was able to munch on my sandwiches and do a little work while I waited but it wasn’t too long before they arrived. Initially, they appeared to be making a section approach but, as they got closer to the field, the separated and came in with about a 30 second spacing. One of the jets had some squadron colors which is always welcome these days. Not a dynamic approach but still a nice surprise.