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At Last, I Get a Shot of Another Icelandair Special

Icelandair painted a couple of its 757s in special liveries a few years ago. One of them, called Vatnajökull, has never been where I was or, if it was, the conditions were bad, or I couldn’t take any images. Finally, I saw that it was coming in one weekend and would be departing when there was a northerly flow, and the sun was likely to be out. I finally had a good chance to get it. Icelandair is adding plenty of Max 8s to the fleet and they are becoming more common into SEA and they will be getting some A321neos soon so the 757s might not be a reliable visitor here before too long. Consequently, I was glad to finally get some good shots of this lovely looking jet.

Afternoon Sun on the Ducks at Juanita

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It has been a long time since I was at Juanita Bay. A combination of lack of time and lack of nice weather has stopped me going down there. One afternoon after work, the sun was out, and the time was not too late, so I dropped down there for a walk around to see what was going on. The answer was not a great deal. It was a lovely afternoon but none of the more crowd friendly visitors were around. The ducks were, though. A merganser stayed too far away to be photographed by there were plenty of wood ducks and green winged teals, so I made do with them. The low sun angle picked up the colors really nicely.

Calspan’s GIII Makes a Brief Visit to the PNW

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The arrival of a Gulfstream III would be a good reason to head out in any circumstances but, when that GIII is one operated by Calspan, it definitely is worth a look. It was due to come to Paine Field but only for a very brief stop before heading back across the country. Why it was there I have no idea. It was due in early in the day so I was actually hoping for overcast weather since I would be on the wrong side for the sun. Of course, the sun burst through just as it lined up for approach. Nevertheless, it was still possible to get a reasonable shot of it.

I then headed off to the departure end to be ready for it to go. I did stop by the terminal to shoot it on the ramp but, when I saw one of the crew remove a chock, I didn’t hang around and got the departure end. The sun did last a little, so I had some nice light on it as it got airborne. The wind was very strong that day, so they were off pretty rapidly and climbing steeply. Of course, the sun was obscured as they got closer to me but what can you do?

Pigeon Dynamics

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Walking along the shore, someone had been feeding the pigeons. The term rats with wings is often applied to pigeons and you can see why. (I think rats are amazing creatures so it might be a compliment to draw the analogy.) While pigeons might not be too popular, they are incredible flyers and I find their flight and, specifically, their wings, to be amazing. As we watched from a distance, they got spooked by a dog and all flew off. However, they only circled for a short while before landing on a nearby roof. Soon, they swooped down to the railings and then back to the ground where the food still was.

They repeated the process shortly afterwards and this got me interested. Photographing wildlife can be tricky since you never know what they will do next. Having some predictability can give you better options. I decided to get around to the other side of them and wait for them to get spooked again. With so many people walking dogs in the area, it couldn’t take too long! Sure enough, they were soon back up on the roof.

I didn’t try to get any one bird. That would be very tough to do. Instead, I shot wider and with a higher shutter speed to freeze the action and waited for them all to return. They kindly performed exactly as they had done before so it was a case of waiting and shooting as they all gradually made their way back down. Some of them had really amazing poses as their wings flexed and folded as they flew to the food. What amazing creatures they are.

The Buzz-saw That is the Skymaster

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When I was first flying, I remember looking in Pooley’s guide to see various places I might want to fly to. In one I recall it saying that piston singles and twins were allowed but no Cessna Skymasters. The noise they made resulted in them being banned from this airport. I can’t remember which it was but that’s not the point. They are a bit of a noisy beast (and this from a guy that loves Avantis). There is one that lives at Paine Field, and I have been lucky enough to catch it relatively recently. You don’t see a ton of them around anymore, so it’s good to get shots of one when the chance presents itself. This one is painted in an interesting green finish which I think looks pretty good.

Putting Away the DC-8 Each Night

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NASA chose to operate its DC-8 from the ATS facilities at Paine Field while they were deployed there for the trials program with the Max 10. They would start up from there and then taxi past the fire station for departure. I was more interested in getting the landing shots so I didn’t wait for their return there but, once the plane was on the ground, I did make a rapid move to get back where they might either be shutting down or would be disembarking. Quite a few people were onboard for each mission.

Closing everything down took quite a while and, once everyone was off, the steps were removed, and the ground power disconnected. They then towed the jet in to one of the open-ended structures so that the nose was under cover while the back end of the jet was in the open. This was the process each time, so I was able to take photos from different angles each time I was there. I never happened to be there when they reversed the process. The jet was already out by the time I showed up.

EcoDemonstrator Returns in the Gloom So Video It Is!

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Boeing flew the EcoDemonstrator 777 from Paine Field for a while last year. I managed to be up there for the return late in the day, but the conditions were not that great. Having shot the plane at other times, I decided that the stills option was probably not the right one to take. They would not look that interesting. Instead, I decided to shoot some video of its return. Since going mirrorless, video shooting is so much easier because I can continue to hold the camera up to my eye as I would if shooting stills. It makes for a (slightly) more stable platform so a little less camera shake.

The Return of the F-35As on Veterans’ Day

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Quite some time ago, I posted a piece about the take off of some F-35As that were doing a flyover for Veteran’s Day. What I didn’t cover in that post was that they had to come back! They actually spent a fair bit of time out around the area as well as doing the flyover so there was some time between departure and arrival. Originally, I had intended to get some pretty standard side on shots of their return. However, earlier in the year, I had done the same thing for some other F-35s, and, at the last minute, I had a change of heart.

I rapidly grabbed my stuff and drove around to the approach end of the airfield near Ruby Chow Park. I decided a head on shot followed by an underside shot would be a better bet. Conveniently, they decided to do a run in and break rather than a straight in approach, so I was able to get some shot of them in formation as they passed overhead. Then the approach shots worked out pretty much as I had hoped. I was glad that I had done something different to my usual. If there had been more opportunities, I hope I would have tried other ideas too.

Golden Global

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Most bizjets have pretty uninteresting paint finishes but occasionally you get one that is a bit different. This Global showed up one afternoon in this gold finish which looked rather special. It had a logo on the fin which I didn’t recognize but, a little bit of searching showed the plane as belonging to Enrique Iglesias. He was in town for a show and, with Drake having brought his 767 in previously, we got another performer and their jet. I hope everyone had a good time at the show. I didn’t see him depart.

Port Gamble

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Our trip to Port Gamble was a bit of an impromptu event. We had been to Poulsbo but, having failed to appreciate that it was the day before St Patrick’s Day and the town was full of people dressed in green and drinking heavily, we figured a change in strategy was necessary. Port Gamble is a short drive away, so we headed there instead. We had only driven by, previously, so didn’t know exactly what to expect.

It is a cute little place. Developed around a mill, it is not a big place. However, they have done a nice job of preserving many of the buildings. Some are still residences, but many are now shops or tourist features. As we drove in, two large water towers on our right announced where we had come to. Their green paint was in great shape (although a polarizer was a useful thing to have to take the glare off them and let the green show through).

We walked through the town looking in the various shops as we went. We were also considering lunch options and the General Store was one possibility we went in to. While we didn’t end up eating in there, it was a very interesting building once inside. The lower level was a shop and café but upstairs had a museum. I didn’t check the museum out, but I was fascinated by the big interior space the building had.

There is a pavilion looking out over the sound that seems to be set up for events such as weddings. Nothing was going on while we were there so we could check out the grounds. On a sunny spring day, looking out over the water seemed like a great place to be. I think we chose a good time to go since the weather was nice, but it wasn’t as busy as I suspect it will be as the summer approaches. A nice day trip for sure. (Also, the place we did get lunch had excellent food!)