Tag Archives: piston

Flyby Planes for the 100th Anniversary

The 100th anniversary of the round the world flight by the Douglas World Cruiser was celebrated in an event at Magnussen Park in Seattle – the location from which they had departed a century before. I didn’t go to the park for the celebrations themselves but instead decided to be at Boeing Field from where the participating planes were due to launch. This included the B-29, Fifi, which had been sitting on the ground since its arrival the previous week as discussed in a post I wrote earlier.

The selection of planes taking part in the flyby was a little odd. High point for me was a Bellanca replica that lives across the state but came in for the event. It was to be one of the last planes taking part. A WACO was also included but then it came down to a selection of more modern light aircraft including some types that had no obvious connection to the event.

Initially, everything was parked up on the ramp at the Museum of Flight. You were able to wander around between the planes and have a good look at them. I arrived a little late to the event and only just in time. I wandered through the planes for a while and then they started clearing everyone out to be ready for the start up and taxi out. At that point, I needed to change locations anyway since I wanted to photograph them from a different place.

They all launched out in sequence for their times over the event before returning – except for two that went straight home afterwards. Not stellar conditions for the event but it was something different and the more unusual types were worth a look.

Philippine Mars Awaits Its Turn

By the time this post goes live, Philippine Mars will probably have made its final trip from Vancouver Island to Arizona where it is joining the Pima museum collection. Whether I have got to see it on that journey or not, I don’t know when I am writing this. It is supposed to make a couple of stops en route but will I be there? During the visit to see the Hawaii Mars prepare for its last flight, Philippine was sitting on the ramp at Sproat Lake being prepared for its move. From the water we could get a reasonable view of it up on the slipway. Fingers crossed I get to see it fly but who knows.

Fifi Shows Up in Seattle

Since we have lived in the Northwest, we have had a visit from a B-29. That was Doc with Fifi’s previous visits having predated my arrival. I had seen Fifi elsewhere in the US but, when I heard that the CAF was bringing her up, I was looking forward to seeing her. She was due to arrive early in the week and then sit around until undertaking some rides at the end of the week. She was coming up from California and arriving at the end of the day, which meant I had a chance to be there.

A B-29 is not speedy so you can track her progress and know you have enough time. When they arrived, they did request an overhead break by ATC was unable to comply. When we saw her out on the approach, she seemed to be doing something odd. Apparently, they had got too close to the preceding aircraft (although it was a bizjet and she is a lot slower, so I am not sure how that happened). The result was that they broke off the approach and made an orbit before resuming the approach.

After that, things were pretty normal. She came down the approach with some nice evening light. The rumble of those engines as she came by was impressive and then she was flaring for landing. I was optimistic about trying a variety of angles the following weekend when she was due to undertake the rides. Directly under the approach path was one I had in mind. Sadly, one of the crew had to return home and they didn’t have enough for the rides to be carried out, so she sat on the ground for almost the entire visit.

When the TFR is Suspended, Everyone Moves!

During Seafair on the Sunday, I was up the tower watching the departing and returning performers. For much of the time, a Temporary Flight Restriction or TFR was in effect which meant that no one was flying in the area other than the performers. There was a part of the schedule in the middle of the afternoon that did not involve the high-performance aircraft and, during this time, the TFR was suspended so aircraft could get in or out of Boeing Field.

It was rush-hour at the airport. The first arrivals showed up and seemed to be diving for the runway. Others had been waiting to get out, so they were firing up and taxiing for departure. We had a steady stream of smaller planes and corporate jets making their moves. I don’t know whether the arriving planes had been holding somewhere or had just timed their arrivals well. Whatever it was, it seemed that everything got moved in or out smoothly before the next fast jet display was on the schedule and the TFR was reintroduced.

Later Than Planned, But Hawaii Mars Gets Airborne

In a previous post, I shared images of Hawaii Mars as it was moored up on Sproat Lake on Vancouver Island.  Our plan had been to get it while it was taxiing out and taking off.  Our understanding of previous flights was that they had gone a long way up the lake before turning around and taking off back towards their starting point.  We had limitations on how far we were allowed to take the boat and also the time we had to get back to our drop off point.

The understanding was that they would fire up just after 5pm and be airborne at 5:30.  With our rental ending at 6:00, this gave us a bit of a narrow margin for racing back.  However, it should be able to work.  However, that relied on them hitting those times.  That wasn’t happening.  We got a message that they were going to start just after 6:00.  Now what to do.  With no sign of movement, we headed back to the drop off to see if anyone else was renting the boat after us.  No, they were shutting down for the day.  We begged with the guy who told us he was due to end shift.  However, he had a couple of things to close out so told us we could have half an hour tops.

We thanked him profusely and headed back out.  We wouldn’t have the time for the original plan so, instead, we headed down towards the narrows that we anticipated they would have to come through and waited.  We finally saw engines start cranking.  With all running, they taxied away from us to the end of the lake.  Then they turned and started back our way.  As we watched, the spray on the fuselage grew larger and it became apparent that they weren’t going to be taxing past us but were actually taking off.

As they motored towards us and got larger and larger in the viewfinder, the question was how low a shutter speed was acceptable when shooting a moving plane from a boat bobbing around on a lake.  Caution was appropriate plus a high frame rate.  They roared past with gorgeous light on the airframe.  A helicopter was filming them and also came in to frame which was a nice addition.  A little beyond our location and they were airborne.  What a result.  We then high tailed it back to the dock where our excellent person was waiting for us.  It could hardly have gone better.

A Hot Day at Concrete

The Concrete Fly In this year was a little different.  Our friend Bob couldn’t make the trip because he was not in good shape.  Little did we know it at the time, but Bob was going downhill and would not pull out.  Knowing this now makes the visit to Concrete without him feel very different.  However, on the day, it was a lot of fun.  Plenty of interesting planes, some rather hot weather, finding spots in the shade to take it easy, watching the usual bunch of slightly awkward approaches and landings alongside plenty of perfectly normal ones.  There is nothing quite like being able to be so close to a runway while planes come and go with everyone happy to be there.  If you haven’t gone, do try and get there at some point.

Erickson Makes the Bremerton Show Interesting

The Bremerton Air Show had some interesting displays, but the biggest contribution came from the Erickson Air Collection.  Aside from the Grumman Duck about which I have already posted, they brought a P-47 Thunderbolt, a P-40 Kittyhawk, a Bf-109 and an F4U Corsair.  The Corsair was for the Legacy Flight at the end of the show, but the others went up together for a sequence of passes.  Great to see these different planes out and about and congratulations to Erickson for having added so much to the show.

After Many Years, I Finally See a Duck Fly

My aviation interests are varied but my favorites are modern and recent jet fighters if I am pushed.  However, vintage aircraft and warbirds are still pretty cool even if they are not something I know a huge amount about.  There will be occasions when such a type might be enough to get me out and about.  I was on the fence about going to the Bremerton Air Show but, when I heard that Erickson was bringing its Grumman J2F Duck to fly at the show, my interest was piqued.

I have seen a few of these amphibious planes in museum collections but I have never seen one airborne.  It is such a quirky looking airframe; I was really interested in getting some shot of it flying so that tipped me over the edge with regard to heading down to Bremerton National Airport for the show.  This is the sort of thing that then results in the plane going tech and me being disappointed.  However, that was not to be the case this time.

Mike Oliver flew the display in the Duck.  We were seated in a location close to where it was parked so got to watch it from start up to shut down.  No great aerobatic performances for a plane like this but the nice thing was that they got their whole collection airborne together and then everything else went off to hold while the Duck took center stage.  A few nice passes and then it came back into land.  The light could have been better, but it was still pretty good.  I finally have ticked it off.  I guess now I’ll see them everywhere!

Floatplanes in Nanaimo Harbour

Vancouver and Vancouver Island are busy with floatplane activity.  It should have occurred to me that, when we were staying in Nanaimo, that there would be floatplanes to see.  It didn’t, though.  When we took a walk along the waterfront, I had only taken a camera with a short lens attached.  This was not ideal for getting images of the planes in motion but it worked out just fine when they came in close.  We walked along one of the breakwaters surrounding the harbour and, when one of the planes taxied in, it came right by the end of this breakwater.  Sometimes a short lens will do the trick!

Canso Details

For the benefit of my Canadian friends, I will get this out of the way first.  Despite what the operators say and what is written on their signage, this plane is a Canso, not a PBY Catalina.  Okay, with that out of the way, the plane came to the Olympic Air Show in Olympia.  It looked excellent in its dark grey painting and had plenty of people around it on the ramp before it flew its display.  As with many planes of its vintage, it has lots of lumps and bumps.  I decided to spend a little time looking at some of the details rather than the whole plane.

Of course, you have to get some larger shots of the plane.  You can’t just stare at the rivets.  Also, I knew it would be flying and I would aim to get some shots of it then but that can be another post at some point.  For this, the bulbous curves of the nose area and the details of the bits that make it a flying boat were the focus.