The weekend started with the first flight of the day from PBI to JFK. The flight on the whole was great - just one flight attendant brought a bit of a downer to the flight - I won't go into details here but needless to say, jetBlue have heard about it already. I'm not one to normally complain, but, in this case I felt it was warranted. My friend Andy picked me up from the new T-5 at JFK - wow - what a nice terminal! I really like it! And - so the weekend game of runway hunting started. We started off at Bayswater Park and were there 5 minutes before the first runway change happened - and so off we head to the spotting location for runway 31R. There it was time to hook up with some more friends to enjoy the morning/afternoon.
We spent a good deal of time there - a lot of arrivals - some old - some new, before the obligatory runway change to 22L (22R was closed for repairs). Off to a location called the Mounds to catch the European arrivals - and - hopefully the A380. I will say that the minute I heard the callsign "Emirates 201 Super" and the landing instruction "VOR/DME runway 22L", I was - well, my friends will say- I get a little over-excited! And, she came in - right in front of us in perfect light.
After the runway change again to 13's, we headed back to Bayswater park to catch the international departures for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, it turned out that all the pictures were heat hazed - a pity - we got some lovely departures - A340's that crawled into the sky at such a low vertical rate, some that literally jumped off the runway and climbed straight out. Total variety! It was time for dinner after that - and - another great evening of conversation and editing and another great day was over.
Sunday morning was a glorious morning - and they were on the 31's from the start. We tried one new location that yielded some great shots - like the Air India B777-200LR arriving from Mumbai.
Once the light was off for that location, we headed off to the same spot as Saturday morning to get some more arrivals.
Then - of course, the runway change happened - and off we headed to the Mounds again for the European arrivals that yielded another A380 and a whole lot more of the same stuff as normal.
In no time, it was time to head back to the airport and catch my flight back to West Palm Beach - this time an awesome flight! We followed out the NWA Amsterdam flight (this picture is for the NWA captain that will soon start a few of these legs) and a busy international ramp taken on our departure.
The above are just some of the 40+ pics that I have edited for upload to jetPhotos - please check the link on my profile to see the rest when they are uploaded over the next couple of weeks.
It really was another fantastic weekend - to all the guys - Kenny, Moose, Tom, Joe, Nick, Adam, Sergio, Gordons (Jr and Sr) - it really was a great weekend again! Andy - of course- thanks for everything my friend!
For anyone considering a spotting trip to the New York area - go to http://www.nycaviation.com - all of us are on there - ready to help anyone coming to town!
3 comments:
Morning Mark,
I pulled myself away from my annual study material to study your photography for a while. You've put together wonderful stories with your photos. I won't be updating for a while so plan to make a note on my site linking yours. I'm flying JFK- AMS from 21 May thru 31 May and will look for Kenny, Moose, Tom, Joe, Nick, Adam, Sergio and the Gordon's. Thanks for the 757 shot!
Rand
Love the A380 shot Mark. Was it worth the wait?
Definately worth the wait - I' ve got the A380 from Sunday as well - will try to put some of those on the blog later today.
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