Tag Archives: seafair

Osprey Getting In On The Seafair Action

I spent the Friday of Seafair down at the shore of Lake Washington watching the flying demonstrations (and taking the occasional work call).  The planes weren’t the only aviators over the lake though.  Despite a TFR being in place, a local osprey decided to ignore it and cruise along the shore line.  I never saw it actually dive after any prey for the whole time I was there.  Instead it would just start towards the south end and gradually drift northwards.  After it had completed the leg, it would return to the start and repeat the process.

Fortunately, it was very close to the shore and nowhere near the display box so there was no risk being posed to the performers in the show.  However, it was quite a distraction to everyone around where I was and we would turn to watch it rather than the display aircraft each time it came through.  Initially it was a little offshore and a bit of a reach with the long lens but it came progressively closer in and was right overhead on a number of occasions.

If You Can’t See Where You Are Going, It Is Your Fault!

We relocated to the other end of Boeing Field for the return of the Blue Angels.  They ran in across the field trailing white smoke.  Unfortunately, with little wind, this meant a pall of smoke was now hanging over the airport.  As they broke into the downwind and then turned onto final, it was sometimes hard to see them at all.  A healthy boosting of the contrast makes some of the shots a bit more visible but, in truth, the viz was really awful.  I only hope they had a slightly better view of the ground than we had of them since their being able to see was slightly more important.

Raptor Turning Overhead

The F-22 Raptor that displayed at Seafair took off from Boeing Field away from us.  It kept things nice and low building up speed before pulling hard to the vertical.  Impressive but a long way away from us.  Unfortunately, the pilot then elected to land on the opposite runway.  All of this was away from us.  The only upside was that, when he ran in to break, he ended up breaking right over the top of us.  A brief window to get some shots and rather close in for the longer lens I was using but, all things considered, it was a good consolation prize.