But of course it is! This Pitts lives at Arlington and I got to get some time watching its owner doing some pattern work. He ran it up near where I was prior to getting airborne and then proceeded to fly around the circuit for a while. Generally the approaches were a continuous turning descent which made for some top side views. Of course, the Pitts is not a large plane so, even with a long lens, it was still a bit small in the viewfinder but enough to get some reasonable shots.
The forecast for the day of the Amazon lift was not ideal. It was going to be cold and rainy. Just what you want for photographing something and even better when the helicopter you are most interested in is grey! Oh well, what can you do? Things were scheduled to kick off at 7am so I headed up to Arlington early to be ready.
Naturally, like many things aviation related, it didn’t start on time. I suspect there were other things that they had as part of the plan, but we weren’t privy to that so were just waiting for a helicopter to lift off. It was not very cold, but it was definitely cold enough and damp. I should have dressed warmer and trying to get shots at a low shutter speed when you are shivering is not ideal.
One advantage of a crummy weather day is that you can roll the shutter speed right down and not have silly apertures. That means less need for dust spotting later! On the 100-400, I would have just used a polarizer, but I don’t have one for the 500 so was okay with shooting that at the speeds I wanted to try for.
The Astar was the first to lift. The initial lifts were very slow, but things improved a little as the crews on the roof got into the groove. The Astar was obviously doing the smaller lifts, but it still has significant capabilities and was taking up some big pieces of equipment. Watching it bucking around in the turbulence over the roof as the wind picked up was quite eye opening. I got stills but, since the conditions were not great, I instead went with a bunch of videos. The stills just won’t be that exciting, but video gives you more context.
It was quite a while before the S-61 started up. We had a few false starts when the Astar appeared to land but it was just swapping out lifting lines. Finally, the S-61 got airborne and it started lifting the heavier loads. We had heard that about 50 lifts were planned for the S-61 and 30 for the Astar. After getting some shots and footage, I headed to a few different locations to see whether they had a better angle on things. You never know which bit of the roof will be the site of the next load so a location might be good for a bit and then too far away and obscured. More importantly, I was getting pretty bloody cold. If conditions had been nicer, I would probably have been inclined to hang around a lot longer, but I just couldn’t be bothered. I figured I had enough, and it was time to head home and get warm. I think they extended the NOTAM so things must have taken longer than intended but I was long gone by the time that they finished.
Trying to see the wolves at a zoo is not always an easy task. They tend to like to find a place to relax that is out of sight so, unless they are active, you might struggle to even see them. We got lucky on our last visit to Woodland Park Zoo as we came past the wolf enclosure (the second time as it happened) just at the time they were being fed.
I’m not certain what they were being fed but it looked like rodents of some sort. They would toss the food to the wolves and they would grab something and then head off somewhere away from the others to eat in peace. That included one that came our way. It was making quick work of its snack. The sound of the food being bitten through was slightly unnerving but, thankfully, the pictures don’t convey that so you only have to look at the outline of whatever it was they were eating!
National Airlines has a single A330 and, with their livery being far from dull, it is a neat looking aircraft. It was coming to Boeing Field to drop off a bunch of troops. Why it didn’t go to McChord, I don’t know and I don’t care. I was able to get it on approach and then move down the field to see it parked up on Modern’s ramp. A bunch of coaches arrived to collect the troops and you could see them lining up to grab their kit from the hold.
With everyone on their way, the A330 headed off to its next destination. They had to cross the runway to get to the taxiway on the southwest side of he field since it is the only one able to accommodate widebodies. Then they were heading my way for departure. I stuck with the long lens to get a better rotation shot and then went for a close up of the gear retracting and the National logo on the underside of the plane. Shame the conditions were a bit dull for such a nicely painted plane but still a nice catch.
Evening light can make many things look better than they do in the middle of the day. The warm evening light just makes things look better with the warm color and the softer shadows. In those conditions, even a container terminal looks interesting. From the roof of the hotel we were staying in downtown last year, we got a good view across Elliott Bay towards the terminal.
I am not sure of the reasons why, but Croman moved both of the helicopters used for the Amazon lift over to the site the day before the operation. They were a short distance from Arlington but apparently there was a reason to not start from the airport. Fortunately, they did this late in the afternoon after the Astar had arrived. I had moved across to a parking lot near the site ahead of time hoping to be in a good spot to get them arriving and also to see whether it would be good for the lift itself.
Both helicopters approached my side of Amazon prior to landing. This meant I got a good head on view of them and a reasonable view as they approached landing. They did, unfortunately, go directly over my head which limited the shots a little but still wasn’t too bad. The sun was more on their tails as they made their final approach which wasn’t ideal, but it was the side I was on so could have been worse. They landed behind some concrete walls so disappeared from view as they went in. The S-61 was first followed by the Astar. Now to see how the lift itself went.
This winter, the area around Shilshole Bay in Seattle has had some new residents. It is not unusual for sea lions to be in the area at this time of year but this year they have taken to hanging out on the floating docks around the bay. One favorite spot for them is the barrier alongside Ray’s Boathouse. This barrier has a flat top to it but is based on cylindrical tanks. Consequently, while a bunch of sea lions might be on top of it, another one climbing on or one jumping off can cause the whole thing to rotate and, if they are not careful, they can get dumped in the water.
A lot of people have been coming down to watch them hanging out. A bunch will be on the floats, some asleep and others barking at each other or the sea lions trying to get on. More can be seen swimming around in the surrounding area. It was fun to watch them for a while but it was pretty chilly the day we were there so we didn’t hang around for too long!
The A330 has been a huge seller for Airbus. The A330neo has not sold as well. As an upgrade of the basic jet, it didn’t get a huge amount of interest from customers. It has started to seek a bit better and it is basically a good jet. It comes in two version and the A330-900 is the larger of the two and by far the more popular. The A330-800 has not sold well at all with a few going to operators, one of which is Uganda Airlines.
For some reason, they brought one of their jets to Seattle. It arrived on a cloudy day and didn’t leave for quite a while. It’s departure was late at night and I didn’t even bother trying to be there but I did catch it arriving. It certainly got a lot of attention from local photographers. It has a bit of nice color in the livery but isn’t the most distinctive of planes. However, I don’t know when I shall next catch an 800 so this could be it for a while for me!
The city of Federal Way between Seattle and Tacoma is the end point of a project I am working on. The transit center in the middle of the city is being rebuilt to accommodate the light rail system’s arrival and that includes the parking garage that is currently there. From the top of the garage, you get a good view of the work underway. You also get a close up view of a slightly unusual clock. It is designed to look like it is a giant log with a clock built in. It clearly isn’t wood but it is a little different!
Amazon is finishing up a huge fulfillment center up in Arlington WA. I understand it will be over 600k sq ft of space. The structure is approaching completion and they needed to install the air handler units on the roof. The most efficient way to do this is by helicopter so, after my many times with helicopter lifts in Chicago, I was looking forward to this happening.
They contracted with Croman Helicopters. This is an operation out of Oregon, and they do a lot of firefighting work. The lifting is. A smaller part of their business. However, it is still a good line for them. They brought two helicopters up for the lift. One was an Astar (which might have been theirs or might have been chartered since it had a different name on it) and the other was one of their S-61s. I’ve shot S-61s a couple of times but not often, so this was something I was looking forward to. They came up ahead of the lift and parked on the main ramp at Arlington. Conditions were pretty good and I was able to get some shots of the airframe.
Most of the pictures I have seen of their S-61s have them in a yellow scheme but this one was a dark grey. It was a nice-looking finish but a bit tough if the lighting wasn’t great. The S-61 has plenty of rivets which make for some cool textures in the right light. It was also fitted with a good bubble window for monitoring the load along with some duplicate engine gauges on the outside in the line of sight of the lifting pilot. I had fingers crossed for good conditions to get it in flight…
