Tag Archives: storage

Visit to The Shop

It is always strange when you have lived somewhere for a few years to find out about a place that is nearby, and you should have heard of but that you knew nothing of. Even more embarrassing is to find out from a friend of yours from another state that visited it while in the area and then told you! Such is the case with The Shop. Located in the SODO part of Seattle, I must have driven close to it more times than I can imagine.

This is a storage location in which people can keep their cars and even have restoration work undertaken (although the waiting list for the restoration guys is quite long apparently). There is a heated shed if you want to pay more or an unheated one if you are less fussed. When you want your vehicle, you let them know and they will retrieve it from the location in which it is stored (which might be above another vehicle or behind one) and you can drop off your daily driver for them to look after while you take out your precious beast.

They provide tours of the facility which, while quite brief, do give you a good look at what is stored there. There are some seriously expensive vehicles kept on site. A Ferrari Dino was one of the more valuable ones but not the most expensive while we were there. The young lad showing us around was happy to regale us with the information on some of the more unusual types on show. Owners were not generally discussed but they were not hiding that some of the vehicles belonged to Macklemore.

While there are some exotic vehicles in there, there are also some rough looking cars that are going to get restored at some point I imagine. They are clearly prized by their owners, but they might not be top of the list for others. Given how they are stored, it isn’t always easy to get a clear look at some of the more interesting vehicles – particularly if they are behind others and in the shade. Doesn’t stop you having a good nose around, though, even if the guide does keep you moving. They are not too officious and seem to welcome the fact you are curious.

Backblaze Online Backup

After asking a few people on Facebook for experience with online backups, I have recently committed to using Backblaze to provide a separate backup of my entire data.  There is a NAS backup system I use as well as BluRay disc based backups but all of these are in the same place so are vulnerable to a single event taking them out.  Having an online service was something I had contemplated for a while but finally I have done something about it.

I picked Backblaze because they have an unlimited data plan for about $70 per annum.  I could use Amazon Prime for some of it but their plans are quite specific and the add ones become quite expensive.  Backblaze is all in.  I have about 13Tb of data currently.  I switched my Xfinity plan to unlimited for the upload phase.  I have a good connection so, after about 14 days of uploading, I was about halfway through so it should be done within a month.  I shall then see what the impact on bandwidth is going forward.

I have already had cause to use it.  I had a hard drive failure in my desktop.  Almost everything on it was already backed up but it turns out there were a couple of folder on there which, while recreateable, were lost initially.  Fortunately, Backblaze had already backed them up so I was able to get them back quickly and easily.  I hope I don’t need it again but having the entire system backed up will make me feel a lot more comfortable and having it constantly working in the background will be easy.

More on the Stored Southwest Jets

When the pandemic first hit in a big way, I wasn’t going anywhere to shoot but, once it was okay to make trips without interfacing with other people too much, I did got to Paine Field to see the stored Southwest 737s and I wrote about it in this post.  I was back up there recently and, while they have been cycling jets in and out, there are still a lot of their 737s parked there – predominantly but not only, 737-700s.

Some of them are up near the old cross runway and lined up in a good spot for a shot when the morning light is on them.  I was a little later than ideal but I still managed to get something.  Many of them are around near the FHCAM facility – still sadly closed and with no idea what the future might hold.  I had brought some steps which meant I could shoot over the fence.  The planes are really tight in there so I may a lot of use of panos to get decent coverage of the planes.  I did also get some of the planes further away.

The coverings on the openings on the airframes were pretty comprehensive.  Everything that is exposed has been taped over to prevent moisture or creatures getting in and causing harm.  There have been various stories coming out of the issues affecting planes that have been in storage for a long time so, while this prep is good, there will still be much to do when these planes are returned to service.  Meanwhile, Southwest is now taking delivery of its Max jets so it will be interesting to see how many of these planes do have a future.

The Backlot at Boeing’s Renton Plant At Last

I had seen some photos of the lake side of the Boeing plant at Renton with 737s parked up there.  Looking on Google Maps made me think these shots were taken from the deck of the Hyatt hotel by the lake.  I drive down there one time to investigate but I was not planning on hanging around and didn’t feel like paying to park in one of the lots there so skipped it.  However, riding my bike down through there was a different story.  I detoured to the hotel and walked up to the deck area.  Turns out you get a good view of the back of the factory.  Not a lot of jets parked there but a few to see.  Ryanair and their affiliate Buzz in this case.

Edwards Storage Yard

I had a recent post of some shots from the USAF museum at Edwards AFB.  It reminded me of my first visit to Edwards in 1990.  On that trip I saw both the USAF side of things and the NASA side.  The NASA hangars were great and there were lots of amazing types being used for testing purposes.  I didn’t see everything I was hoping for there but it was still fantastic.  One thing that really excited me was the storage lot.  There were some interesting airframes parked up there.  An F-8 Crusader that had been used for supercritical wing testing was there.  I think that has since been taken care of and is now restored.  The fly by wire testbed was also there.

There was also a weird hybrid airframe.  I think it was called RSRA which stood for rotor systems research aircraft.  This was a hybrid of rotor and fixed wing technologies.  One of them was modified for the X-Wing program which was canceled before it could fly.  Not sure which one I saw but I think it was the unmodified one.  These things could have A-10/S-3 engines fitted to them for higher speed research work.  Oh, to have seen one in action.  This lot would have been definitely worth some time looking around if it had been possible.

The 767 That Never Was

Prior to the KC-46 Pegasus, Boeing had another go at selling the 767 to the USAF as a tanker.  The aircraft that they had intended to be the solution at that point was a different configuration to what ultimately made its way in to the inventory.  They went as far as building a speculative airframe for the project.  However, when the project was aborted (for reasons that are far too complex for a simple blog post), the airframe lay unfinished.  It was stored for a while at Paine Field before eventually being scrapped.  Here is a shot of it prior to its demise.

Lots of Max Jets in Storage

The grounding of the 737 Max fleet has resulted in plenty of parked jets.  I have shown them at Paine Field but Boeing Field seems to be a big storage location.  The employee parking lot has been turned into a 737 parking lot.  I have seen jets over there before either awaiting engines or from customers that can’t pay but nothing on this scale.

I took a trip to South Park so I could walk across the bridge and get a good view down into the storage area.  I made a rough count and think there were probably over fifty jets stored there.  While Boeing cut the production rate after the grounding, they only took it down to 42 a month so jets are still coming out at a prodigious rate.  This area is full so, aside from Paine Field and Renton, I believe they are flying them to other storage locations.

Stored Max Jets Filling Up the Place

The grounding of the 737 Max fleet worldwide means that they have been coming off the production line and going in to storage.  A few of them were scattered around the Boeing ramp at Paine Field.  One was particularly interesting though.  It seemed to have the front fuselage wrapped in something while the rear fuselage windows were not covered but had individual panels sealed across them.  No idea what this was all about but it did look unusual.

Tankers at Sunrise

Boeing started delivering KC-46s to the USAF as I covered in this post.  However, it didn’t take too long before the Air Force found various items of tooling in the aircraft that shouldn’t have been there and stopped taking delivery.  Consequently, rather than delivering the backlog, it has continued to build.  Paine Field had well over a dozen aircraft in various locations when we were there including three over by the Heritage Flight Foundation’s hangars.  Here three were illuminated nicely by the sun as it rose across the field so a pano seemed in order.

Chino Backlot

The Planes of Fame museum at Chino is a fantastic place to visit for any aviation enthusiast.  Many hangars are open and they are filled with all sorts of interesting aircraft, restored either to static or flying condition.  However, they are not all that is there.  There is a backlot in which other aircraft are stored awaiting either their own restoration or for them to provide parts for the restoration of something else.  Some great looking vintage aircraft here including jets that it would be so good to see back in the air.  I decided to dedicate this post to some shots of these less glamorous residents.