Tag Archives: washington

International Arrivals Facility Trial

Anyone that has arrived in Seattle on an international flight will know that the arrivals facility was a bit cramped and unwelcoming. The airport has been building a new arrivals facility for a while now. It was supposed to open a while back but got delayed by a variety of things, not least COVID. The new building has been built alongside the A concourse in the main terminal with a bridge connecting the South Satellite to bring arriving passengers across.

The whole thing is due to have a soft open in April 2022 and be fully open by May. The airport requested volunteers to come and help test the systems to see how they handle a volume of people. You can do a variety of tests but the true test is when a load of people show up. This is still not going to be as much load as it will get when multiple international flights arrive at the same time but it is part of the process.

I volunteered to take part. Yes, I was happy to help out but I was also keen to have a nose around the new facility. I was hoping to get to see the new bridge and the view it provides of the ramp area but was to be disappointed. Everything we were testing was on the A concourse side of things. We did have a good view of the new bridge though.

We were given assignments for our run through the arrivals procedure. We had various elements that we needed to engage with and evaluate. I was arriving on a flight with Emirates and had to connect to a Delta flight. I needed to collect one piece of luggage and then clear immigration and recheck my luggage. At two locations, we had to complete surveys based on what we had experienced. We started at a gate waiting area and then entered the gate to turn on to the route an arriving passenger would take. The route is alongside the ramp area so you get a great view of the airport as you walk through. The new buildings are quite airy and spacious and very white!

Most things worked well enough. A few things could do with tweaking and it will be interesting to see whether the areas that got backed up for us will cope when the real passengers show up and staffing is increased. Hopefully it will be a lot nicer way to arrive in SEA than was previously the case. I would avoid it in the first few days since I imagine there will be some teething issues but, after that, it should be a welcome change.

Airlift Northwest EC135 Is Busy

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For a while, I was able to shoot up at Arlington a bit. Our location there in the afternoons is close to the ramp used by Airlift Northwest. They have some Airbus Helicopters EC135s that they use for aeromedical flights. It is a nice looking airframe and theirs are painted well. (They have recently painted one in UW colors which I have only shot from a distance.). They seemed to be in action a lot while I was there so was able to get the teams crewing up, departing, arriving and shutting everything down. They are happy to give you a wave too which is nice.

Stickleback Snacks

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It is possible to spend a lot of time watching a heron hunting without seeing anything happen. Their ability to stay still for extended periods of time awaiting prey is impressive. You hope you will get some catch at some point and that it won’t happen behind something that stops you getting a shot. One of the herons in Juanita Bay was having some good luck catching sticklebacks. The only problem was that it would often get other debris at the same time.

After the strike, the bill would have a fish wriggling around in it and some leaves or twigs alongside. The trick was how to release the surplus material to allow the fish to be eaten without giving the fish a chance to head for freedom. Clearly this is a regular feature of a heron’s life and the technique has been practiced but I watched with anticipation as it got rid of what it didn’t need and allowed the fish to be swallowed. The stills don’t give you much idea of how much wriggling was still going on as the fish went down the throat!

Old School Movie Theater

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Downtown Chelan is not a big area but it has been around for a while and so has its movie theater. This theater has a look that is exactly what you would imagine for an oldie time movie theater. Having lots of cars parked up in front of it kind of ruins the ambience a bit and, if I had been around another time, I might have tried to find a way to get a cleaner shot of it at an odd time of day but this was just a brief opportunity to stroll around the town so it is what it is.

Two T-38s In Close Succession

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I stopped at Boeing Field to make a couple of calls and I was pleasantly surprised to see that a Boeing T-38 chase jet was not far out. I was able to get the camera out in good time for it to arrive and, even better, while there was plenty of cloud around, the sun popped out to allow me to get a reasonable shot. I then went back to dealing with my calls. I had noticed a USAF T-38 further east in the state but had assumed it was not coming my way. However, I was wrong. A short while later, it called up on approach. The sun was less cooperative which was a shame for a gloom black painted jet but it was still good to shoot. From expecting nothing to getting two T-38s in short order was a nice surprise.

Heron Head Shape Is Unusual

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Photographing herons is kind of a fun thing to do since they are such a large bird and so distinctive. Having got so close to some recently, I have got a lot more photos of them from different angles and this has included some head on shots of them. I had not appreciated the shape of the head of the heron until getting this view. The head is narrow, as I had know, but it is tapered. While I thought the eyes were on the sides of the head, the shaping means that they have more of a forward view than I had realized which is obviously important for hunting for fish and perceiving depth when preparing to strike. Head on it looks like a very different bird!

Singapore Airlines Max Delivery

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Singapore Airlines has been taking delivery of a bunch of 737 Max8 jets. These were bought by the Silk Air subsidiary but, after the order was place, Singapore decided to integrate that subsidiary into the main airline. Plenty of the aircraft had been painted before this decision was made and I guess Boeing’s price to repaint the jets was higher than the other options available so they were delivered in the old colors and then repainted after delivery. However, more recent jets have been painted in Singapore’s colors from new. 737 deliveries usually happen from Boeing Field but, for some reason, this jet was delivered from Paine Field. The sun popped out as it lined up to depart for Hawaii where it would stop en route. Not often you get an airline flight between Paine Field and Hawaii!

Second Go At Chelan Falls

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A few years back, we made a trip across the North Cascades Highway and back across Stevens Pass. One of the stops on that route was Chelan Falls. I was hoping to get photos of the falls but they were hard to see and the sun was backlighting them anyway. I still had a post about it but there wasn’t a huge amount to show for it. Work recently took me to Chelan and I figured I would try finding another view on the falls after the conference day was done.

Looking at Google Maps, there was a road that ran alongside the gorge that the river was flowing through. This road was confusingly named Gorge Road! It was not a paved road but it was actually a very smooth dirt surface. What was more intimidating about it was that it had some very steep drop-offs at the edge with a long drop below them!

I was able to see some of the river areas from the road but, being so far above it, meant things were rather distant. I could also get an oblique view of the lower falls and the bridge across them. It was a lovely sunny late afternoon so a nice time to be out and about with the camera. It was also a bit warmer than on our side of the mountains so a good time to explore.

Is A Phenom As Cool As The Millennium Falcon?

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While I am happy to shoot a Phenom 100 if it happens to be passing, I am not usually going to go out of my way for one. However, if I have a cloudy Sunday afternoon with nothing much going on and one is coming to Boeing Field with Millennium Falcon paint on it, why not? This jet was making a tour around the west and was coming to BFI from Bellingham. I got it arriving and the side I shot had the Falcon painted on it. Apparently the other side has an X-Wing. The underside looked like it might be interesting and I did get a departure shot but it wasn’t as special as I had hoped.

Raccoons On Patrol

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My recent visits to Juanita Bay have provided a variety of different wildlife encounters. On a recent trip down there later on a weekend evening, I got something I wasn’t expecting. I saw something moving on the shore. It turned out to be a raccoon. It was working its way along the shore and I headed around the boardwalk hoping to be in position as it continued on its way. Moving as quickly as I could without making too much noise, I got to a spot ahead of it. It turned out there were two of them!

Once they saw me, they paused for a while. Clearly, they were considering a change of plans. However, I wasn’t moving much or making any noise so they decided I wasn’t a threat and continued on their way. They came under the boardwalk and up the other side and then off into the brush. With so much growth around them, getting a clear shot was tricky but I managed to get a few as they traversed the area, keeping a wary eye on me just in case.