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EcoDemonstrator In Good Light Finally Arrives

Boeing has been running a program for the last 10 years called the EcoDemonstrator program. They have used a variety of aircraft over this time – often ones that were bailed back from operators or that had not yet been delivered. The most recent aircraft to participate was an older 777-200ER. I am not sure why this jet was picked but I do wonder whether they pick up aircraft that don’t have a lot of hours left before a major inspection so they are more affordable.

This one has been flying around for quite a while but I have never seen it moving. Then, not so long ago, I finally got to shoot it but it was a miserable day with low cloud and awful light. I felt like I was destined to never get a shot of it in nice conditions. Things changed when I went to Georgetown to see the Steam Plant. I was in the plant having a look around shortly after arriving when something large took off overhead. I pulled out my phone to see what it was a saw that the demonstrator was powered up on the Boeing ramp and scheduled for a flight.

This was a lucky break – not just that it was flying but that I happened to look at my phone to see it. I went back to the car to change lenses when I saw it had started to move. I was tricked a little, though. They moved it to the exit of the Boeing ramp and then it stayed there for ages. However, eventually it did taxi down the field and take off. It was quite high as it came by me but I was able to get some shots of it and the underside had some graphics about being powered by sustainable aviation fuel so that was something I hadn’t seen before.

I then finished my visit to the steam plant. The demonstrator was down off the Oregon coast flying various profiles on their test card. When Boeing Jets fly down there you are left guessing as to when they might return. They will be flying towards you and then reverse course to do more test points. There were some interesting departures from SEA early in the afternoon so I was hoping to shoot them and then return to Boeing Field for the demonstrator. I saw it head towards me but figured it would reverse course any time.

I was wrong. It was coming back and soon. This was not in the plan. The departures from SEA would have been good but this plane is unique so it was getting priority. I headed back to Boeing Field where I was not alone. Plenty of people had come out for it. A sunny Saturday was clearly good news for the local photographers. I then watched the planes come out of SEA that I had wanted to shoot but that would have to be accepted. Not long before the 777 showed up out in front of Mt Rainier and then it was on approach. I was happy with my results. Chatting with some of the locals, they said it was not long before it heads to storage in the desert. I know it flew a few times after this but maybe this was my last chance. Thank goodness the conditions were good and that I even realized!

Trumpeter Swans Back In Juanita

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The winter is a good time for swans to show up back in Juanita Bay. They are there to eat and rest so are not always the most fun to shoot but sometimes they will get a bit more active. There is a bank of silt in the bay where they can stand and rest so having nothing happen for long periods of time is not impossible. I was there one Sunday morning and they were eating quite close to the shore. However, it was winter and, while the sun was out, they were in the shade.

Every once in a while, some of them would get energetic and I could get some shots of them taking off and flying towards each other. I’m not sure how competitive this all was since things never got terribly aggressive but they did seem to be sparring half-heartedly. A whole family came in to the bay at one point but, rather than flying in when the light was very nice, they just swam in. A touch disappointing but it is nature photography. What can you do?

A Pair of Max Delivery Flights

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At the rate Boeing is building 737s at the moment (the actual rate rather than the one that they would like to be building at) means a delivery on any giving day is a possibility. I happened to be there when two deliveries went out in close succession. The nice thing about deliveries is that the planes are usually a lot heavier as they are fueled for a longer flight. When they are departing to the south, that means that they will rotate a lot further along the runway so will be easier to photograph.

Two airlines were taking delivery on this day. One was Lion Air for its Batik Air subsidiary. The other was COPA. The light wasn’t great for either of them but sometimes the dark skies make for a more interesting background provided the light on the aircraft is not terrible. I did okay on this occasion. I have been making better use of the processing capabilities of Lightroom since they introduced the more advanced masking functions so that certainly helps.

Guemes Ferry Needs Some Paint

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During the pandemic, I got to take photos of a lot of ferries. One of the ferries I checked out was the Guemes Island ferry in Anacortes. After I had finished my visit up in Anacortes, I had my lunch with me and was looking for a spot to eat it. I figured I would go to the parking lot by the ferry and see if it was in use. It certainly was and seemed to be operating more regularly than I expected. I did get a few photos and videos of it coming and going. The ferry looked a little scruffier than I recall from previous visits. I wonder whether it is due to be dry docked soon for a repaint!

A Coot For Dinner

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A few times recently I have been down at Juanita Bay Park when the eagles have been hunting. While everyone thinks of bald eagles eating fish, they are also happy to eat birds if available. We have had large flocks of coots on the lake and they are a plentiful food source. They stay close together on the surface but, when the eagles fly close, the flocks will get startled and start fluttering around as they try to evade the predators.

The eagles are not bothered about the flock. They just want to isolate one of the birds which they can then take out. They will swoop around until they can take out one bird which they then land on top of and sit on it while it drowns. Once it has stopped moving, they take off and carry it back to the pole in the bay where they can eat at their leisure.

Before you eat a coot, you need to pluck it. The eagles make quick work of this and, with a breeze blowing, the air is quickly filled with feathers as they clean up their kill. Once that is done, time to tuck in to dinner. A coot is quickly eaten and then they fly off to a log to wash up before retiring to a tree to rest and digest. If there is anything left of the carcass, you can guarantee that the crows will be paying close attention and will close in to take care of matters.

https://youtu.be/xy8UeqNzxRQ

Pipes And Valves

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In a previous post I talked about the visit to the Georgetown Steam Plant. I mentioned in that post that there are all sorts of interesting details around the plant with the old technology of vale’s and pipes – technology that probably is still pretty relevant today. This post is a sequence of shots that I got while wandering around the plant that show some of the more interesting detail elements.

Experimental Grand Caravan That Was Lost

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I was down at Renton and drove around the back of the ramp. There was a Cessna Grand Caravan parked up and I was tempted to get a shot. They have made that area a lot harder to see recently and I didn’t bother. However, I was up on the other side of the field at the overlook when it taxied out for departure. I heard the call sign was experimental which caught my interest and I grabbed some shots as it took off.

A few days later I heard of a plane crash up near Snohomish. I had seen this plane flying patterns up there when I was looking earlier in the day and, when I saw pictures on the news sites of the crash, I could see the registration was the same plane. I understand they were trialing something new – perhaps a baggage pod – but I have no idea what happened. It looked as if the wing had separated in flight since it was a long way away. The test pilot was one of the Kenmore Air staff. He died along with one other person on board. A very sad story.

FedEx Skycourier Arrival in the PNW

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Late in 2022, an interesting arrival came to SEA in the form of a Textron Cessna 408 Skycourier. I had seen my first example of this plane at Boeing Field as it transited from Alaska back to Wichita. That had been a crappy weather day and this was no improvement. This was the first example to show up in the region in the colors of FedEx. I am not sure whether it was delivered or just coming for familiarization with the local operations but it was using an Empire call sign and Empire is the local operator of FedEx feeder services.

It was due in later in the day and the weather was already looking bad with low cloud and the possibility of snow. It was also a little behind schedule which didn’t help. The light disappears early in December and it is a lot worse when the weather is bad. I was waiting watching the ISO levels creeping upwards. Meanwhile the cloud was creeping down. A couple of planes came in and then a few jets started making missed approaches including the British Airways Heathrow arrival. I then saw the Skycourier change course. I thought it was heading to the inner runway instead. I made a quick move down the street to that location and checked again and now it had switched back left. I had a frantic return to where I had been and it transpired that they were actually going for the middle runway. I hadn’t even considered that. This meant they were a bit far away but not as bad as it could have been. Light was terrible so ISO was cranked up high. Was it worth it? They will be very common here before too long but that’s not the way my brain works apparently.

Inside A Boiler

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Within the Georgetown Steam Plant, one of the docents was keen to show off the details of the boilers. These were originally oil fired but, during the Second World War, they were converted to operate using coal. After the war, they were reverted back to oil and there are hardly any signs left of the coal configuration.

The layout of the pipes within the boiler is quite complex. It is designed to create a circulating flow of the water in the pipes and create the stream at the top of the boiler to feed the turbines. These pipes lie in a triangular framework angled over the make everything operate as intended. These were assembled and the walls of the boilers were then constructed around them.

There are access hatches which allow you to see into the boiler and see the pipe arrangements. It is very dark in there and a flashlight is needed to see anything at all. The boiler walls are metallic but they are lined with fire bricks. These bricks had a limited life so there would be a time when they had to be replaced. People would have to climb in through the narrow hatches to knock out the old bricks and pass them out before installing the replacements. They would also have to clean off the pipe work exterior as this would accumulate debris from the hot gases of combustion.

Accessing the interior of these boilers looks extremely unpleasant. It would be far too claustrophobic for me to think about and that is before considering the hard work in a hostile environment. These guys were tougher than me! The boilers are in pairs with a gap between each pair so I guess they would have to close down both parts of the pair to allow a temperature that was acceptable for entry. Even then, I doubt it was a good place to work.

The Support Kodiak Comes In

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I posted some shots of the K-Max that came to Snohomish to support the firefighting operations on the Bolt Creek fire. They flew in from another location and needed some material to support their planned stay. They made a call to their base and arranged for some parts to come up on a support aircraft. This turned out to be a Daher Kodiak 100. I was actually getting ready to leave when the Kodiak showed up making a tight pattern to land. I was out of position so just watched it but, they were a bit high and fast on the approach so made a go-around. This gave me time to get somewhere better for the second approach.