Tag Archives: washington

Whatcom Falls Park

We took a trip up to Bellingham to walk around Whatcom Falls Park. Nancy had come across some trails described in something she was reading so we figured walking somewhere new would be fun. With a mild and sunny day, we lucked out. The park was a lovely place to stroll which, despite plenty of other people being around, never felt crowded.

The start of the trails is very close to the falls themselves. At this time of year, the water level is pretty low. The falls still looked nice but it wasn’t hard to see the wear patterns in the rocks from where the water can flow when things are a lot more energetic.

Aside from the falls, there are nice water features throughout the park. You walk through tree lined trails and then get an opening up on the lake. It is a very pleasant spot on a sunny afternoon.

Heritage Flight Museum Fly Day

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Thanks to my friends, Bob and David, I became aware one Saturday morning that a fly day was underway that day up in Skagit County. The Heritage Flight Museum was going to have a few planes flying so I made a quick change of plans and headed up there. The conditions were a bit overcast so not ideal but it was still worth a look. There were a few of the regulars up there too so it was a chance to see some people I hadn’t seen for a while.

Of the various warbirds that they had flying that day, the A-1 Skyraider was the one that was of most interest for me. It was the only one I hadn’t seen at previous events so I was keen to get a chance to photograph it. On takeoff, it seemed to be trailing a fair bit of smoke. Since it was recently off overhaul, this concerned me a bit but it seemed to clean up as they flew for a while so everything seemed to be fine.

There were straight passes across the field from various formations followed by some arcing turns over the museum ramp individually. I backed up the road a bit to try and get a bit more of an angle on the planes as they ran across. It would certainly have been nicer to have a bit more light on them but it was still good fun to be shooting something different. I’m very grateful to the guys for giving me the heads up.

Renault 5 Turbo 2

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Exotics@RTC provides cars of many vintages but I always find myself drawn to cars from the 80s. Since I was a teenager in that decade, they were the cars that I was paying attention to – assuming they were available in Europe at the time. US cars of that vintage are generally a mystery to me. The appearance of a Renault 5 Turbo 2 was a really nice surprise. The Renault 5 was not a particularly wonderful car. I drove one for a while and, while it could go quite quickly in a straight line, it didn’t have great grip.

However, the similarities between that car and the Turbo version were basically the name and nothing else. The Turbo was a monster of a vehicle in comparison. It went like stink and it was so wide, it was basically a different car. There wasn’t even a back seat because the engine had been put there instead. The owner happened to open up the engine cover while I was walking by which was a lucky break. It showed up again at a following meet so I was able to get a few shots of it from various angles. I was back to being a teenager dreaming of a hot hatch.

UPS But Not The Best One

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The shot you didn’t get. How many of those do we have. It’s easy to get blasé about something and decide not to bother. Of course, many times, this will be just fine, otherwise we wouldn’t be blasé in the first place. A couple of UPS jets had arrived. One was an MD-11 and one was a 767. A second 767 was on approach and I figured why bother. As it touched down abreast my location, something looked decidedly odd about the radome.

I talked to Nick, who had been next to me and had photographed it and asked him to take a look at his shots. Sure enough, the radome was a complete mess. Presumably a bird strike had smashed it during the flight although whether it was early on or during the approach we couldn’t know. It was quite the scene of destruction and I didn’t get a photo of it. 99 times out of a 100, it wouldn’t have been anything but this time… Oh well.

It’s Trains, Not Planes, Honest!

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I might be sneaking some planes in to a post that would normally be a non-aviation day but I am going to claim that this is a post about trains rather than planes. If you don’t agree, I shall refund your subscription fee! The BNSF main line runs alongside Boeing Field and I saw a train run past the north end of the field heading south with three 737 fuselages on their railcars. I figured I wouldn’t be able to get around in time to see them up close but then the train seemed to slow.

I figured it was worth a shot and drove around. The train has stopped but it was also behind another stopped train so I couldn’t see it easily. Instead, I head further along the track to a location where you could look up towards the train and where you would have an angle on it as it moved again – assuming it did of course. There was quite a wait for some passing commuter trains before it finally got going. The three fuselages will probably have been switched out at the yard just south of where I was and then moved to the Boeing factory at Renton.

Sierra Pacific -500 Is Old School

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It must be a sign of aging how surprising it is to find something that was previously so common as to be boring suddenly is a rarity and has novelty value. Sierra Pacific is an odd operator anyway but they have some 737-500s. These were not the most popular of that generation of 737 but they sold reasonably well. United had a bunch of them that I have shot and Southwest had a fair few, some of which I have flown on. The follow up with the 737-600 and that was a poor seller.

Sierra Pacific was bringing their example in to BFI and I was able to get some time off to see it arrive. It was scheduled to be a brief stop so the chances were good of getting it arriving and departing. The -500 was a short jet – similar in length to the -200 and the last version to come of that generation that started with the -300 and then got stretched to the -400. They were both more popular with the airlines. It now looks like a toy compared to the current crop.

The skies had been a bit overcast but a bit of sunlight showed itself as the jet was on final approach. Not fantastic light but certainly an improvement on a little while before it appeared. It touched down and headed for Modern’s ramp. It wasn’t long before a bunch of people were around the plane and then a fuel truck showed up so it looked promising for a speedy departure. Sure enough, it was soon taxiing. Bigger jets have to cross to taxi to the threshold but you always worry that they will instead take an intersection departure. This day was a good day, though, and they crossed and taxied right by me. They were heading to Omaha so we’re pretty heavy so it wasn’t an early rotation but, since it was later in the day, the heat haze was not so bad.

Ryan Evening Flight

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Arlington’s air show included a brief performance by the replica of the Spirit of St Louis. I have only shot the plane once before and understand it is up for sale so it might not be around for much longer. A chance to get it again was welcome and, since it was an evening air show, maybe some good light would be on the cards. Sadly, it was pretty late by the time they got ready to go and the evening was overcast anyway. Instead of good light, it was barely any light.

Even so, you go with what you have. They taxi out passed our location which is nice to have. Takeoff was away from us so they were a bit distant by the time they were airborne but still not too bad. Some passes over the field and then a landing form the other direction and that was it. They did taxi back in our direction of course. Nice to see it again but, oh to get it in nice light.

Island Sheriffs Clearly Need Fast Boats

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The ferry terminal at Orcas isn’t the only dock available and it is the home of a boat used by the local Sheriff’s department. We didn’t often see them out and about while we were staying there but they did come by a couple of times. The boat is clearly capable of a good speed. No doubt, if you are the sheriff, you don’t want to be outrun by people that easily and you also need to be able to get to places promptly. That means power in the form of some chunky outboards. I suspect it is quite a fun boat to drive.

T-38 Up Close

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After a very lean start, I have done a lot better in recent times with getting shots of the Boeing chase T-38s at Boeing Field. I have shot them airborne and in good light so nothing to be unhappy about. However, the one thing that I haven’t had in the past is a good close up shot of them while on the ground. They have either been landing when on a northerly flow or coming from the other direction and so they haven’t taxied close to me.

Finally managed to break that one not long ago. Some tankers were heading out – one appeared to be a production test flight for an Air Force example while the other was one of the Boeing development airframes. The T-38 followed it out – presumably their flights were connected but I don’t know for sure. It taxied right passed me so I got a good look at it on the ground for a change. It took off, of course, so a little extra chance to get some shots with a cluttered background!

Kenmore Air’s 75th Anniversary

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2021 is the 75^th anniversary of Kenmore Air. Since we moved to the Pacific Northwest, I have been grateful to Kenmore for providing plenty of floatplanes for me to see and some convenient locations to photograph them. I have also had a fun flight with them. When they announced that they were holding a public celebration I was in for that. It was a free event at their Kenmore Harbor headquarters and it was a lot of fun.

I put together an article for Global Aviation Resource that describes the event in more detail so, rather than repeat all of that here, the link to the article is https://www.globalaviationresource.com/v2/2021/09/07/aviation-event-kenmore-airs-75th-anniversary/. I will pop a few of the images of the event here as well and will cover some details of the proceedings in future blog posts.