As we made the crossing of Puget Sound on the ferry, I stood by one of the side openings to watch what went by. I was looking down the sound towards the city of Seattle. The silhouette of the city was obvious with buildings like the Space Needle showing up. Mt Rainier was in the background but a lot less clear given the haze in the air. With some sailboats in the water between us and the city, I figured I had to take a shot.
This goes back quite a while to a day when I was at Paine Field for some 777X activities. After all that I had been there for was done, I was getting ready to pack up and go when I saw something off to the east approaching the field. It was large but seemed rather slow. It turned out to be a C-17. It made a pass straight across the field and I was hoping that they would break into the pattern but I was to be disappointed. They turned to the south and headed off towards McChord. Still, it was a nice addition to a sunny day of aviation photography.
The wildfires that spread throughout the west in September resulted in some really bad air quality in our area. It was hard to see too far on some occasions and you definitely weren’t supposed to exercise if you could avoid it. At one point, I had thought a short bike ride might be okay but I didn’t do it and, when I went out to take some photos, I realized that even walking around the park was resulting in me feeling quite bad. Serious exertion would have been a bad idea.
I wanted to get some photos that demonstrated how bad the air quality was. However, I discovered that it was quite hard to compose a shot that showed how bad things are. You can take pictures that show distant objects as obscured by the smoke particles (although post processing techniques can reduce or increase the obscuration if you wish) but the difficulty with that is that a photo doesn’t give a good idea for the viewer of how far away things really are.
A wide lens makes even things that are close look distant and a telephoto lens brings distant things in close so you struggle to make the viewer perceive things the way you actually saw them at the time. I tried with these shots to have enough in the foreground to give some concept of how quickly the visibility fell off but I don’t think it really tells the story in the way that being there did. However, this is a record of what it was like and maybe I will come back to these pictures to remember.
Sunday afternoon at Boeing Field awaiting the arrival of a 777X meant plenty of time to catch some incoming biz jets. Sadly, rarely are they painted interesting colors. XOJet has no colors, NetJets very little and FlexJet shouldn’t have been given access to the color chart given what they chose. David and I were chatting during all of this and completely missed the G650ER that came in that was a nicer scheme but so be it. There was a nice-looking Citation X in the mix, so some color included. Here are a few of the arrivals we got.
On our way home from Port Townsend, we took the ferry from Kingston to Edmonds. We got there just as one ferry was leaving so we were safely guaranteed a space on the next one. Rather than sit in the car, I walked down to the overlook of the water so I could see what was moving out on the water. In the end, it was mainly watching the ferry that had just left as it headed away and then looking out for our ferry as it made the crossing and approached. I was quite surprised how few people came to have a look given that it was a lovely day and there were loads of cars waiting to board!
After such a long time of struggling to get shots of the Boeing T-33 chase planes, I seem to have had a lot more luck recently. One showed up at Paine Field and, rather than just shooting an approach and departing straight to Boeing Field, it made a full stop landing, taxied back, took off, entered the pattern and came around again. This was a welcome addition to a sunny afternoon. There was only one crew onboard so I guess with was some continuation training.
As the plane taxied back to the threshold, I got a good look at the upper side of the front fuselage. There appear to be quite a variety of antennae mounted on there. I didn’t know whether they were GPS location antennae or other types but there are plenty there. Whether they are used for different functions or are needed for validating test data and cross referencing, I have no idea. Some of them may even be redundant but no one has seen the need to remove them. Whatever the reasons, there are lots there!
While driving to Port Townsend, we took a diversion to Point No Point. It was still foggy as we headed up there and it turned out that there was no point in going to Point No Point. However, driving up the road towards the lighthouse, a ship appeared out of the fog. Turns out it was the wheelhouse from a ship that someone had decided to add to their property. It is a fair distance from the water and looks rather incongruous as you drive by. Had to grab a shot!
My visit to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta was for an article I was going to write and, since I was there on a media pass, the organizers made a flight available. I didn’t know who I would be flying with until close to the time but the opportunity was one I was really excited about. When the time came, I was set up with a balloon crew from near Ottawa in Canada. The pilot spoke mainly French with very little English but we managed to find a way to communicate well anyway. Nancy was able to hang out with the ground crew.
I asked what I could do to help but they had things well sorted out and I was likely to be a hindrance rather than a help. Besides, it did mean I could photograph everything that was going on. The inflation of the envelope and then heating it up and getting it upright was great to see close up. Then it was time to climb onboard and await our designated takeoff time.
When the wind is blowing in a certain direction, the balloons will fly off towards the river and is is common for them to drop down to the water and touch it with the basket before lifting off again. I was hoping that this would be something we could do but the winds were not coming from that direction on this occasion. Instead, they were doing something that is not uncommon at Albuquerque but is actually really cool.
The field is aligned north to south and, when the wind is blowing the right way, something they call the box is formed. At about 1,000’ the wind is blowing north to south but, at about 2,000’ it reverses to south to north. Consequently, you can climb up to 1,000’ and head south for a while before climbing up to 2,000’ and reversing course. Once you get far enough north, you can descend and repeat the whole process.
Having never flown in a balloon before, I knew little about the process. You can’t see upwards because the envelope is above you. However, you can see sideways and down very clearly. Therefore, the balloon above is responsible for maintaining separation from any balloons below. We were all required to keep an eye on everything around is to be sure we stayed suitably separated. Looking directly down on balloons with the ground behind them was something I found really cool.
The other thing I wasn’t prepared for was how quiet it was. Sure, when the burner fires, the noise is loud. However, most of the time you are drifting along with the wind so there is no breeze and everything feels remarkably still. The main noise is other people’s burners or the conversation in the baskets nearest you. You can hear a lot of other chatter. It is a very peaceful experience and the views are lovely. No windows between you and the view so a totally immersive experience.
After making our way around the box a couple of times, it was time to land. Normally a balloon flight involves the ground crew tracking you across the sky and aiming to get to your landing zone when you do. Flying the box meant we were able to land about 50 yards from where we had taken off and they could just wait for us to come back. We drifted back down and touched down without any issues and it was time to jump out and let them deflate the envelope (which happened surprisingly quickly).
This is, so far, my first and only balloon flight. I would be very happy to do it again. I am not so sure that I would want to be in one of the large balloons that we see flying around here with big baskets to carry lots of passengers since that might feel slightly less relaxing but I would like to go again at some point.
While walking through Fort Worden, we went through a selection of buildings to a trail up the hill. As we turned a slight corner. I looked back where we had just come and there was a deer sitting in the shade of one of the buildings we had just passed. It was looking very relaxed and I was amazed to realize I had just walked right passed it and never even noticed.
As we returned the same way a while later, I wondered whether it would still be there or not. I looked for it but the space was now empty. However, as my view opened up, I realized that a deer (I can’t say whether it was the same one or not) was strolling up the road. It came to some shade from some trees and plonked itself down to rest. We had to walk very close to it and it didn’t seem in the least bit bothered by us. I took some photos as we went by and we left it in peace.
A small twin is not going to get a lot of attention from the local photographers at Paine Field on a busy day with lots of traffic. However, it was still relatively early in the day and the air still had a fair bit of moisture in it. I took a guess that this might result in some prop vortices so decided to shoot it anyway. Sure enough, some swirls of moisture showed themselves. Not a dramatic look to them but still what I was after and there wasn’t anything else to do anyway!
