2011 Miami Airline Collectibles Show and Aviation Photography Fest Ramp Tours

Every year, this show comes to Miami - from what I remember, for the last 21 years! Each year, there has been a ramp tour of Miami International Airport. This year, for the first time, there was an additional ramp tour of Fort Lauderdale International Airport and I was lucky to be able to go on both tours this year. It's an amazing show organized by Joe Fernandez of Air 72 Aviation Photography and between him and Eddy Gual, they organize the most incredible ramp tours, as well as an amazing Collectibles Show and Photo Fest!

First, the highlights from Fort Lauderdale apart from the air Jamaica Boeing 737-800 that I added to the blog the day of the event. The airport was on westerly operations and so the first photography point was at the end of runway 27L. Capital Cargo operates a daily Boeing 727-200F into Ft Lauderdale.

Another of the Sunwing hybrid schemes - another from Thomson aircraft still retaining it's G- registration.

Being so close to the runway allowed us good access to some nice take off shots.

Another of the great take off's - this time a Continental Boeing 737-800.

We then spent some time over on the north side of the airport - somewhere where we normally get no decent shots at all because of the distance and the heat haze that messes up the shots. This time, close to the Monarch Air Freight area, we got their really nice Swearingen Merlin "Spirit of Freight Dog".

And on the Monarch ramp was their old DC-3.

A little bit further down the north side was this glorious float plane - first time I've seen this and I love the name - Whale Force One!

On Friday, it was on to the ramp tour at Miami. Just as well organized and co-ordinated, we got amazing access on Miami International Airport - and the first part of this was at the American Airlines Maintenance Center where we had total access to a Boeing 777-200ER and a Boeing 757-200 - thanks SO much to the great staff at American who left the APUs running so the cockpits were lit up.

First the cockpit of the Boeing 757-200.

Then the cockpit of the Boeing 777-200ER.

And thanks to Bryan Rivas who was on the tour with me, this is me in the important spot of the Boeing 777-200ER. Now hear this - this is your captain speaking!! :)

Then it was off to runway 9 - the South runway to get some landing shots. The first being the Lufthansa A340-300 from Munich.

Then a Miami Air International Boeing 737-800 coming in on a charter.

Air France with their Boeing 747-400 from Paris.

And British Airways with their first of two Boeing 747-400's from London Heathrow.

This Kalitta Air Boeing 747-400F was amazing. It taxied out from the cargo area, and so I assumed it would be a long roll and off carrying it's cargo. But, when it started it's roll, we could see it was empty of cargo - not sure where it went, but in just over 2,000' of runway, it was in the air and climbing like a rocket.

Another cargo plane - this time a very loaded Korean cargo Boeing 747-400ERF that took a lot more to roll than the Kalitta - unfortunately, it's roll took place when the sun was covered by this big dark cloud!

We also managed to get some unique shots as well, as we did at Fort Lauderdale. This Hewa Bora Boeing 767-200 was painted and destined for it's owners in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but never left Miami - it's now stuck here.

There are so many more that I haven't had a chance to edit or get on here yet. But, for any aviation photographers that are wanting to explore Miami and Fort Lauderdale, this event is one of the best to by able to see everything. Keep an eye on Joe Fernandez' web site - and sign up when you can!

A lot of time spent behind the camera lens this week!!!!!