I had never heard of a Vashon Ranger before I looked up the registration of one I saw flying up here in the Pacific Northwest. On this day, a couple of them were out flying and, while it isn’t the most sleek shape or the highest performer, it is a different little beast and therefore worthy of attention. I will have to do some research about the company behind them and how many there are but I imagine I shall see more of them around.
Does this blog post count as an aviation post or a non-aviation post? It is about Lego so let’s say it is non-aviation. However, some of you may beg to differ. At the Lego Awesome exhibition, there were a few different aviation subjects that were on display. They had gone for scale in what they built and had selected subjects that had scale too. How much more scale could you go for than an Antonov AN-225 Mriya. They had a model that was half of the 225. One side was the complete airframe and the thing was cut in half to show the interior of the jet. It was a huge build and very neat. Using a technique like a fueling team under the wing to provide support was very clever.
A Mil Mi-26 was the other large scale subject that I liked. The 26 is a beast of a helicopter and quite unlike anything else. They had done a great job of modeling it in UN colors dropping loads in flight. Suspended from the ceiling it looked really cool.
The Epic E1000 is a development of a kit built turboprop aircraft called the Epic LT. It has been around for a while and the development from kit built to certificated production aircraft has been very drawn out. While many similar projects falter, this one seems to have hung in there. I think there are a only one or two of the production E1000 aircraft at the moment and one came to BFI. I caught it rolling out after landing and then taxiing to the Modern ramp. It is a curious looking airframe.
It later departed but it was hard to get a good shot. It got airborne early and there was quite a crosswind so they nosed in to that and towards my position. I effectively got head on and underside shots only so barely identifiable. Still, it was good to see it. I have seen some of the earlier airframes in California and at Oshkosh but not for a while!
If I see a GIV these days, it barely gets any attention from me. Sure, I’ll take a shot, but I am not getting excited. Go back a generation, though, to the G-III and suddenly I am definitely paying attention. One came to BFI recently and, while I was at the wrong end for an arrival airborne shot, I did see in the distance on final (no heat haze thankfully) and then as it rolled out and headed to the ramp at Modern. It was also in a nice dark paint job and it looked pretty cool.
It didn’t hang around too long. I watched it taxi across the field and up to the departure end. Then it was time for the long lens. The old Spey engines don’t have as much grunt as the later Tays so I anticipated a longer takeoff run and was not disappointed. I then watched it climb out with the Speys belching smoke. The engines are hushkitted but are still noisy beasts. As it climbed away, I got a clear view through the hush kits including the lobes of the exhaust diffusers. What a fun thing to see.
One sunny day, I was hanging out at Arlington watching the flying activity. However, planes weren’t the only thing flying. I looked across at a taxiway light and saw something on top of it. A look through the long lens and a kestrel came into focus, if only briefly. Before I knew it the bird had launched into flight and headed away, not to return while I was there. I was rather pleased to have got something close to a reasonable shot of it in that short moment.
Arlington has a gliding club and they were active on a Sunday visit. They had two gliders in action while I was there. Both are Let gliders, one a Super Blanik and the other a Solo. The tug was their Pawnee and it was busy getting them up. Neither glider was spending long airborne. They towed up to the north and were released and seemed to be straight back in to downwind and then landing. Sometimes, they beat the Pawnee back in.
They were a long way from me on the other side of the field but, with cool winter conditions, the heat haze was only an issue close to the ground and, as they climbed away, you had a pretty clear shot against the mountains.
This Cessna 185 looked in great condition and any plane on floats is going to get my attention anyway. The buzz saw sound of a 185 as it takes off will definitely get your attention but it is not so intrusive when it returns. Having some nice winter light on it was a good thing and floats just make any place look better.
Korean Air’s fleet of bizjets come through Seattle quite frequently. Their BBJs are not uncommon. They use the airfield as the departure point for the trans-Pacific route to Korea. Unfortunately, they often arrive in the middle of the night and head straight back out again. I timed it well when they were making a daytime stop. I got the arrival and the departure this time.
Conditions were not great but, last time I shot one of their BBJs, the high sun made the livery glare a bit. Flat lighting avoided that this time. The departure was a good one for me. The route across the Pacific is a long one so the plane was pretty heavy. This meant it rotated a long way down the runway and closer to me and was still only just climbing when it was level with me. I went with a long lens which meant things got large quickly. It did give me some shots I was pretty happy with, though.
For those of you that have watched the Simpsons, you may be familiar with the Homer’s bowling ball type of gift. I got Nancy tickets to a Lego exhibition in Seattle and, of course, I got to go along too. The show was based around some large scale and complex lego creations which could include various forms of reinforcement. The group that builds them is from Australia and there is a tour of their work for which this was one stop.
I will post some more specific items from the show in upcoming posts as there were some specific pieces that justify their own coverage. Today I shall just give a more general showing of what was on display. The exhibits were well spaced out and there were restrictions on attendance numbers for COVID which meant it was pretty easy to get a clear photo of some of the builds. The lighting could be a bit tricky but overall it was fine. I did use HDR sometimes in order to address the deeper shadows on some items.
The level of detail in the builds was impressive. For the more complex ones, there were plenty of Easter eggs to try and find. Signs for each one would give you clues as to what to look for. I am sure I could have spent even longer checking each one out if I had wanted and found more little elements that had been snuck in to their construction. If it comes your way, maybe make a trip to see the work.
Stopping for lunch at BFI, I was happy to be informed by someone already there that there were a couple of Super Hornets from the US Navy that had departed earlier and were due back shortly. I was able to munch on my sandwiches and do a little work while I waited but it wasn’t too long before they arrived. Initially, they appeared to be making a section approach but, as they got closer to the field, the separated and came in with about a 30 second spacing. One of the jets had some squadron colors which is always welcome these days. Not a dynamic approach but still a nice surprise.
