Tag Archives: stratotanker

Metrea Defeats Me Again – Sort Of

I was heading to a meeting south of Seattle when I got a message from the person I was joining that they were running late. I stopped off at Boeing Field to wait for their call and to see if anything cool was around. One of the Metrea KC-135Rs was on the Modern ramp. It was the nicest of their paint schemes and the winter light was lovely. Naturally I grabbed a shot as I waited. They were looking ready to go and I hoped that they would take off before the call came through. I was to be disappointed. I heard from my contact that he was en route, so I left. About ten minutes after I did so, the jet took off. I can only imagine how good it looked in that light.

A few days later, I was back in Georgetown to meet some friends, and I saw that the jet was out again on a mission. It was due back shortly before sunset so I hoped I might get lucky with the light clearing up. It certainly wasn’t as nice as it had been previously, but you never know. As it turned on to the approach, conditions were getting better but not what I was hoping for. Despite that, the jet still looked okay as it came into land. It could definitely have been better but not a total bust.

Refueling the Hornet

Two quite different versions of the same thing here. The Comox Air Show this year included demonstrations are aerial refueling with the RCAF Hornet. The first of these was perfectly sensible because it was the Hornet formating on the C-130 Hercules fitted with refueling pods. The Hornet took up station behind the drogue units to demonstrate how refueling would be done.

Later in the show, there was a slightly odder version of things. A USAF KC-135R Stratotanker (which was carrying Kadena tailcodes which might be a first for me) was airborne and the Hornet formated on this too. Some KC-135s do carry hose drogue units on the wings or a drogue adaptor on the end of the boom but this was not one of them. Instead, they simulated the boom refueling. The Hornet can’t refuel from the boom but, since it was just an airshow, I doubt too many people were bothered by this.

Girls Fly 2 Arrivals

Each year, there is an event held at Abbotsford International Airport to encourage the involvement of young women in the aviation business.  You get quite a few military aircraft arriving for the event, and they focus on female crews from the units to bring the planes in.  While this is in Canada, the US supports the event well.  I headed up to see what the arrivals would include.

Weather was a bit overcast so not ideal given that plenty of the planes coming in will be grey.  However, there were hints of sun periodically although it did end up throwing down more rain around the time I was leaving.  Aside from the A-10s and a Cyclone, the arrivals I saw were dominated by transport and tanking types.  The KC-135s had come quite a long way but the one I was probably happiest to get was the C-5 Galaxy.  No TF-39 whine, these days, but still a cool jet to see flying.

Private KC-135s Look Best Without Barbed Wire

When the Singaporean Air Force wanted to add tanker capabilities a few years ago, they bought some surplus KC-135Rs from the US to operate.  More recently, they acquired some A330 tankers from Airbus and the KC-135s were, again, surplus.  This time they were picked up by a company called Meta Aerospace that bid on refueling work for the US Navy.  I think Meta has changed its name to Metrea – presumably to avoid being confused with the Facebook parent.

Whatever the name, they brought one of the aircraft to Seattle for a little over a week for work that was being undertaken over the Pacific off the coast of Washington.  They have their tankers painted in a rather nice livery with the company logos and I was hoping to catch one.  As it happened, one was up one afternoon and there was a chance of getting there after work to get it.  I headed down thinking I had some time in hand.  I was wrong.  They came back a little earlier than expected, the airport changed runways which meant I had to go further and traffic on that extra section was backed up.  I got to the fence just as it was coming over the threshold and I managed a few weak shots with sections of barbed wire cutting through the airframe in most.

I wondered whether I had missed my only good opportunity but, thankfully, they were around for longer than expected and one of the flights again gave me a chance to get there after work.  This time I was there with a bit more time in hand and was able to get some shots without the added benefit of wire foregrounds!  The plane was on the ground at other times but, at this time of year, the heat haze at Boeing Field is pretty bad.  Only on a crummy Saturday when my friend Chris was in town, was it possible to get a reasonably clear shot of it parked up.  I wonder if we will see it back here at some point in the future.

Red Flag Night Launches

Adobe periodically updates the processing algorithms that are used by Lightroom and Photoshop. Each update provides some improvements in how raw files are processed and it can be good to go back to older shots and to see how the newer process versions handle the images.  I find this particularly useful for images shot in low light and with high ISO.

I have some standard process settings I use but have also experimented with modified settings for use with high ISOs and the higher noise levels that come with them.  I got to some night launch shots from an old Red Flag exercise and had a play with the images.  The E-3 launch was actually as the light was going down but it still had some illumination so it didn’t need much work.

The KC-135 and B-1B shots were a different story and were at high ISOs and with very little light.  I was able to update the process version and apply some new settings I had worked out since the original processing and it resulted in some pretty reasonable outputs considering how little light there was to work with.

Military Surprises at Boeing Field

I was sitting at Boeing Field awaiting the return of a couple of jets.  Apps like FlightRadar24 allow you to keep an eye on where things are and when they are due in.  What they don’t usually cover is military flights.  Fortunately, I had the radio scanner sitting on the dash so, while I was busy doing something else while waiting, the sound of someone calling up on approach caught me by surprise.  I finished what I was doing and then got the camera just as a KC-135 hove in to view.  What a nice surprise.

A while later, something similar happened.  Another plane called up with what sounded like a Navy callsign.  This time I had a bit more time to get out and look up the approach to see what it might be.  A P-8 was coming in.  They got bounced around on short final by the gusty conditions which were combining with the airport buildings to make things pretty interesting for the crew.  I had an easier time taking the pictures I think.

OKC Military Jets

wpid13122-AU0E8614.jpgJust a quick one here. I was departing Oklahoma City for home and, as we taxied out to the departure runway, we passed the Arinc facility on the side of the field. They had a selection of KC-10s and KC-135s on their ramp for work and a KC-10 was actually taxiing in after landing as we lined up. I grabbed a couple of shots of the ramp before we turned around for departure.